David Dudding will remain deputy manager on the mandate
Benjamin Moore will become lead manager on the Threadneedle European Select fund on 1 January, as David Dudding steps back from co-management duties to focus on the Threadneedle Global Focus fund.
Moore will head up the fund from next year, with Roberta Zeno, who joined the firm in February as European equity analyst, becoming deputy manager.
Dudding will remain deputy manager on the mandate he has run since 2008, but concentrate on his lead management of the global equity fund.
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A Columbia Threadneedle spokesperson told Investment Week the change reflected Moore’s successful management of the fund’s strategy and approach since being appointed as co-manager in April 2019.
“This will also allow David more time to focus on his growing Global Focus strategy, which he has been managing for the past seven years, alongside his involvement in European Select,” the spokesperson said.
“The Global Focus strategy mirrors European Select but with a global remit, as a result there is a large overlap between the holdings and research of both strategies.”
Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Kate Marshall said she was “disappointed to see Dudding take a slight back seat” on the European Select fund, which is on the firm’s Wealth Shortlist, but “encouraged he will remain a deputy manager, a position he has confirmed he will maintain throughout the remainder of his career at Threadneedle”.
“It means he will still have input in this fund and carry out research in European companies, working closely with Moore, Zeno and the rest of the team,” Marshall added.
“We have met Moore a number of times and view him as a diligent and thoughtful investor.
“We believe he is well-familiarised with the fund’s existing philosophy and process and, while he has no fund management track record prior to joining Threadneedle, he does have the experience of having learnt from a highly experienced and successful manager in Dudding. We are pleased the two will continue to work together.
“The managers are also supported by a well-resourced European equities team at Threadneedle. This group of analysts act as an important source of ideas for the managers, and helps to encourage challenge and debate in the team.”
Moore joined the European equities teamat Columbia Threadneedle in 2015 as an equity analyst. He initially joined to research small-cap European companies. Moore previously worked for Goldman Sachs for six years as equity research analyst within the European mid-cap team.
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Zena joined Threadneedle in February after taking a year-long sabbatical, having left Close Brothers Asset Management in December 2018 where she had worked as global equity analyst for four years.
Prior to joining CBAM, Zena worked as a modelling specialist at S&P Global Ratings having started her career as European equity analyst at Schroders.
Dudding joined Threadneedle as research analyst in 1999, before taking over the running of the Threadneedle European Smaller Companies fund in 2002, which he managed for over a decade. He has run the Global Focus fund since 2013.
Earlier this year, Dudding and Threadneedle were replaced on the Quilter Investors Europe (ex-UK) Equity Growth fund with Allianz Global Investors’ Thorsten Winkelmann and Marcus Morris-Eyton.
