Directors
The Directors have overall responsibility for determining the Company’s investment objective and strategy and for implementing the Company’s investment policies. The Board is also responsible for supervising and reviewing the activities of the Investment Manager. The Board intends to meet at least four times a year. Details of the Directors, all of whom are non-executive, are set out below.
Helen Foster Green, Non-executive Director
Helen Green is a chartered accountant. She has been employed by Saffery Champness, a UK top 20 firm of chartered accountants since 1984. She qualified as a chartered accountant in 1988 and became a partner in the London office in 1997. Since 2000 she has been based in the Guernsey office where she is client liaison director responsible for trust and company administration. Helen serves on the boards of a number of companies in various jurisdictions and she is currently a non-executive director of Landore Resources Limited, Advance AIM Value Realisation Company Limited, Puma Brandenburg Limited (all of which are traded on AIM) and Trio Finance Limited, Kenmore European Industrial Fund Limited and Acorn Income Fund Limited (which are listed on the Official List of the London Stock Exchange).
(James) Grant Wilson, Non-executive Chairman
Grant Wilson is the co-founder of Prudent Wealth Management Ltd, an FSA registered fund management company. He is also the founder and a partner of Eland Mar LLP, a director of China Development Capital (GP) Limited and GMS (Recordings) Limited. He is a trustee of several charities including The Church of Scotland Investors Trust. From 1992 to 2003 he was a director of Martin Currie Investment Management Limited. Formerly he was a director of Gartmore Investment Trust Management Limited and worked as a fund manager at Ivory & Sime plc. He is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the UK Society of Investment Professionals. He was awarded a degree in Business Studies & Administration while studying under a bursary scholarship from the Royal Navy.
Richard Hotchkis, Non-executive Director
Mr Hotchkis has over 30 years' investment experience. Until October 2006, he was an investment manager at the Co-operative insurance Society, where he started his career in 1976. Richard has wide experience of equity investment in both the UK and overseas and also of the externally managed funds industry, including investment trusts and other closed ended funds, offshore funds, and hedge funds.
The Board has established three committees.
Management Engagement Committee
The Management Engagement Committee meets formally at least on an annual basis to consider the appointment and remuneration of the Investment Manager. The management engagement committee will also consider the appointment and remuneration of other suppliers of services to the Company. The management engagement committee will be composed of all the members of the Board. Grant Wilson has been appointed the Chairman of this committee.
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee comprises all the members of the Board other than the Chairman. The audit committee’s main functions include, inter alia, reviewing and monitoring internal financial control systems and risk management systems on which the Company is reliant, considering annual and interim accounts and audit reports, making recommendations to the Board in relation to the appointment and remuneration of the Company’s auditors and monitoring and reviewing annually their independence, objectivity, effectiveness and qualifications. Helen Green has been appointed the Chairman of this committee.
Nominations Committee
The Nominations Committee comprises all the members of the Board. The nominations committee’s main function is to identify and put forward candidates for the office of director of the Company. Grant Wilson has been appointed the Chairman of this committee.