Puma Investments has appointed Jeremy Roberts as Managing Director to build on its growth in recent years.
Roberts brings over 25 years of experience in fund management, working most recently in global distribution roles at GAM Investments and Liontrust Asset Management PLC. Prior to that, he worked at BlackRock for 20 years, as Head of the UK retail business and Co-head of EMEA retail sales, serving private banks, wealth managers, IFAs and charities. His responsibilities also included the Investment Trust and third party intermediated DC Pension businesses. He began his career at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
In recent years the firm has invested in people, systems and marketing in addition to opening offices in Manchester and Edinburgh.
Roberts will report to David Kaye, CEO of Puma Investments. His focus focus will be on unifying the firm’s retail investor capital strategy and unlocking new investment opportunities for Puma’s universe of financial advisers, wealth managers, private banks and their underlying investor clients.
David Kaye, CEO of Puma Investments, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jeremy to Puma Investments. His track record of leadership and deep industry expertise will be instrumental as we continue to scale our retail investment business. Jeremy’s appointment ensures we can bring together the exceptional talent we already have across our teams to deliver a seamless and enhanced experience for our clients and their financial advisers, wealth managers and private banks.”
Roberts said: “I am thrilled to be joining Puma Investments during such an exciting phase of growth for the business. Puma has an extremely talented team who are dedicated to providing clients with the best investment solutions and I am delighted to be leading the business into further expansion and growth.”
Over the past year, Puma raised £250 million. Puma VCT 13 recently successfully raised £55 million marking the firm’s largest ever VCT fundraise. The capital supports investments in high-growth, scale-up UK SMEs. Recent investments include Love Corn, a popular crunchy corn snack brand available in UK and US supermarkets; Semeris, a legal tech company combining AI and human expertise for document analysis and NRG Gyms, a fast-growing gym and wellness business offering premium services at competitive prices.
Puma also launched the Puma AIM VCT, the first AIM-focused VCT to enter the market in 18 years, positioning the firm to capitalise on emerging opportunities on AIM. In addition, Puma’s Heritage Estate Planning Service, an investment solution that aims to provide individual investors with 100% inheritance tax relief after 2 years by investing in private trading companies, recently surpassed £2.8 billion in property developments funded.
