Will Tovey, Head of UK, sat down with us to discuss the growth and evolution of the London office, and his journey to Point72. Here are the highlights from the discussion.
Tell me about what you do at Point72?
As Head of UK, I oversee the firm’s operations in London and help determine our strategy here. I also manage the Long/Short Equity business in EMEA, where we have offices in Paris, Milan, and Dubai in addition to London, and spend a lot of time supervising the performance and professional development of our various investment teams and assisting our recruiting efforts in the region.
You’ve been at the firm since 2016 as Head of UK. How has your role evolved over the years?
When I joined to run the office, we only had a few employees and we were building up our presence in the region, and a big part of my role was to ensure that we were recruiting high-caliber talent who understood our values and culture, and that meant being very selective about the people we hired. Another effort was to build the infrastructure and tools needed for our investment professionals to be successful.
Now, eight years later, the London office is one of our largest international offices, and our focus is on ensuring this is the best firm to build your career, no matter what your role here is. We also want to continue the great work we have already done in developing the next generation of talent and ensuring our people are able to achieve their professional goals, whatever they may be.
Why is talent so important to Point72, and why do you think the firm has been so successful in cultivating it?
We have a strong culture of career longevity and development in London, which I think is unique in the hedge fund space. Many of our London employees have been with us since we opened the office, and seven of the analysts we hired in 2016 are now portfolio managers at the firm. This has played a crucial role in shaping our office culture.
We also have also seen a lot of internal mobility within our Investment Services team internationally, both between offices or transitioning to new teams within the firm. We have many people from other offices in London and a number of employees succeeding in other regions having worked here.
“We want the next generation of talent to come from within the firm, and for this to happen, we need to make sure we’re providing the best environment for our employees to succeed and develop. We really prioritize growing our existing teams – including by embracing the incoming Point72 Academy classes to join PM teams and progressing the analysts who are ready to advance to Point72 LaunchPoint, our emerging portfolio manager program.”
What do you think differentiates Point72?
We equip our investment professionals with the tools, mentorship, and resources they need to succeed while also giving them the freedom to pursue their unique investment style and build a business. That requires genuine investment in the development of our people and offering an environment in which individuals can learn, debate ideas, and accelerate their growth surrounded by ambitious people with unique perspectives. Essentially, we offer both commitment and autonomy.
What are some of the recent accomplishments and highlights?
It’s been an exciting year in London. We expanded our footprint by adding an additional floor at our main office on St. James’s Square and opening new offices across the square for Cubist, our growing systematic business, giving us much-needed room to accommodate our new hires. I joined the firm when there were only six employees, and it has been great to see the office grow to over 250 people.
We’ve also had a number of successes this year, with several portfolio managers launching across L/S, Macro, and Cubist; several L/S analysts launching carves this year and a number joining Point72 LaunchPoint. We made our first Quant Academy international hire in London and launched the inaugural Spring Insight Program, where we welcomed eight university students from across the U.K. for an in-person, one-week immersion program.
“It’s great to see the many ways in which individuals can build their investing career here at the firm.”
Talk to me about your career. How did you end up at Point72?
I grew up in South Wales and was not really exposed to the finance industry there, however I was interested in shares from an early age and my economics course at Warwick University developed that interest. I started my career as a graduate trainee at Mercury Asset Management (which was later acquired by BlackRock), where I was an analyst and went on to manage a small retail fund focusing primarily on mid & small cap UK companies. I did not necessarily realise at the time, but now know that I was surrounded by some of the best investors of that generation at Mercury, and it has had a big influence on me throughout my career.
I joined UBS in 2000 to lead the mid-cap equity team and eventually became the head of the firm’s European cash equity sales unit in London. After UBS, I spent several years at Barclays as co-head of equity distribution, helping build the European equities business from scratch.
In 2016, I joined Point72. I thought the opportunity to build a new business and expand the firm’s presence in the region was exciting. It was a rare opportunity to get involved with a firm that was going through a lot of growth and evolution. Conversations with senior leadership reinforced my belief that this would be a place where I would not only be able to apply some of my career experience, but also continue to grow and learn myself. That learning journey continues every day.