Resilience and liquidity | Insight Investment | Insight Investment

Robert Gall

Head of Market Strategy

Robert joined Insight in October 2003 as Co-Head of UK Fixed Income. In 2007, he moved to Insight’s Financial Solutions Group as Head of Market Strategy, responsible for the discretionary hedge management process. He began his career at Schroders managing UK and European fixed income and in 2001 he was appointed Head of UK Fixed Income. He was appointed Head of European Fixed Income at Schroders in 2003, prior to joining Insight. Robert graduated from Queens’ College Cambridge in 1992 where he read Economics and has been an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK since 1996. He is a member of the Bank of England Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates and the Bank of England SONIA Stakeholder Advisory Group.

Ren Lin

Head of Client Strategy, Client Solutions Group

Ren joined Insight in December 2010 and is Head of Client Strategy in the Client Solutions Group. Ren’s primary focus is on the development of outcome-focused investment solutions using both derivative and physical instruments to improve the certainty of attaining future funding outcomes for our clients.

Prior to Insight, Ren spent five years at Towers Watson as an investment consultant, providing advice to pension funds on investment strategy, with a particular focus on liability hedging. Ren graduated with a double degree in Applied Finance and Actuarial Science from Macquarie University, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Australia and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK. Ren holds his Series 3 license and is an Associated Person with the National Futures Association.

Claire Bews

Integrated Solutions Credit Portfolio Manager

Claire joined Insight in July 2021 as a senior Portfolio Manager in the Strategic Credit Team. Prior to joining Insight, Claire spent 20 years at M&G Limited as a Credit Portfolio Manager. Having joined M&G as a graduate, Claire managed active and buy and maintain credit strategies. Claire was a Trustee Director of the M&G Group Pension Scheme from September 2015 to May 2021. Claire holds a Master of Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge. She holds the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK and is also a CFA charterholder.

Shaheer Guirguis, CFA

Head of Secured Finance

Shaheer joined the Fixed Income Group at Insight in September 2007 and is the head of the Secured Finance Team which is responsible for lending in the secured finance market and investments in the global structured credit markets. Shaheer is lead portfolio manager for the Insight Libor Plus Fund, the Secured Finance Fund, as well as a number of segregated accounts.

In July 2016, Shaheer relocated to New York to oversee the growth in capability within the US structured credit and secured finance markets. He began his career at Gulf International Bank (formerly Saudi International Bank) in 2000 where he held various positions, initially as a market risk analyst, then an investment analyst before his appointment as a fixed income portfolio manager in 2007.

Shaheer holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Surrey, an MSc in Finance from the University of Durham as well as being a CFA charterholder.

Syed Zamil

Senior Product Specialist

Syed joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. Syed is a senior product specialist responsible for articulating Insight’s efficient beta strategies to clients and prospects, as well as participating in the refinement of current strategies and the development of new strategies. Syed’s background spans across asset classes including equities, multi-asset strategies and fixed income. He works closely with sales and client service staff worldwide with an eye toward bringing innovative product solutions to client portfolios.

Prior to joining Mellon Investments in 2015, he was a client portfolio manager at American Century Investments, focused on active equity and multi-asset strategies. Previously, he worked as an investment strategist at BlackRock, primarily focused on active equity. Past roles include director of client service and portfolio management at AXA Rosenberg, portfolio manager at Innovest Capital Management, consultant at Barra and programmer/analyst at Vestek Systems. Syed has been in the investment industry since 1987.

Syed is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute. He earned an MBA in finance from San Francisco State University and a BA in applied math from the University of California at Berkeley.

Matthew Merritt

Head of Multi-Asset Strategy Group

Matthew joined Insight in September 2004 and is Head of the Multi-Asset Strategy Group. He joined from Citigroup where, as Head of Global Equity Strategy for Smith Barney, he ran a top-rated equity strategy unit. 

Prior to joining Citigroup in 2000, he was Managing Director, Chief Investment Strategist at ING Barings which he joined in 1996. This followed four years at NatWest Securities as a global investment strategist.

He started his career at the Bank of England in 1989. Matthew holds an MSocSc from the University of Birmingham in Money, Banking and Finance and a BA (Hon) in Economics from Nottingham (Trent) University.

Francesca Fornasari

Head of Currency Solutions

Francesca joined Insight in June 2019. She is responsible for the oversight of Insight’s dedicated team of currency investment professionals which provides currency solutions ranging from foreign exchange hedging to currency alpha.

Prior to Insight, Francesca was a Senior FX and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). She started her career at The World Bank in Washington then spent time as an FX strategist at both Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, before joining GSAM in 2006.

She graduated from the Universite’ de Geneve in Switzerland with a degree in Monetary and Financial Economics. She also holds a Masters and PhD in Economics from Georgetown University in the US.

Jeffrey Burger, CFA

Senior Portfolio Manager, Municipal Bonds

Jeffrey joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has been in the investment industry since 1998 and joined Mellon Investments in 2009 as a senior analyst specializing in land-secured and special tax bonds. He is now a senior portfolio manager for US municipal bond strategies. He is responsible for managing US municipal bond strategies for institutional, high net worth and mutual fund clients.

Previously, Jeffrey worked at Columbia Management as a portfolio manager and senior research analyst and at Fitch Ratings as a senior-level analyst. Jeff was elected to the Society of Municipal Analysts in 2019 and is a former chairman and member of the executive committee and board of governors for the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. He is also a former president of the Boston Municipal Analysts Forum.

Jeffrey earned an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA degree, cum laude, in policy studies and public relations from Syracuse University. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of the CFA Institute.

Harvey Bradley

Portfolio Manager

Harvey joined Insight in September 2012 as an investment analyst within the Global Rates Team in the Fixed Income Group and became a portfolio manager in February 2016. The markets he primarily covers are China, Japan and Australia. Harvey holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from Girton College, Cambridge and the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Peter Bentley

Co-Head of Fixed Income and Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income

Peter joined Insight in January 2008 and was promoted to Co-Head of Fixed Income in 2021, having been Deputy Head of Fixed Income and Head of Global Credit since 2018. Prior to joining Insight, Peter spent four years at Pimco Europe where he was a Senior Vice President Portfolio Manager responsible for the management and strategy of both long only and long-short credit funds. He began his investment career with four years at the Bank of England as a graduate analyst. This was followed by three years at Schroders as a Portfolio Manager and then four years at Morley Investment Management as a Portfolio Manager responsible for the management and strategy of credit funds. Peter holds a BA honours in Economics and Econometrics from Nottingham University and is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.

Adam Whiteley, CFA

Head of Global Credit

Adam joined Insight in September 2007 as a Credit Analyst in the Fixed Income Group before becoming a Credit Portfolio Manager at the end of 2008 and in 2022 was promoted to Head of Global Credit. He is lead manager for global and multi-sector credit strategies as well as being a core part of the team, managing global aggregate strategies. Adam graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Economics from Nottingham University. He holds the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK and is also a CFA charterholder.

Fabien Collado, CFA

ESG Portfolio Manager

Fabien joined Insight’s Fixed Income Group in August 2021, as an ESG Portfolio Manager. Prior to joining Insight, he spent almost 12 years at AXA Investment Managers, initially as a portfolio engineer. He was then an active fixed income fund manager focussing on euro credit strategies. Latterly, he was a global buy and maintain fund manager, with an ESG focus. Fabien graduated with a Masters degree in Finance from IÉSEG School of Management. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Paul Benson, CFA, CAIA

Head of Efficient Beta

Paul joined Insight in September 2021 following the transition of Mellon Investments’ fixed income strategies to Insight. He has been in the investment industry since 1994. Paul is the head of fixed income efficient beta, responsible for managing Insight’s quantitative, factor-based fixed income strategies, including the high yield beta strategy. Previously at Mellon Investments, Paul was a senior portfolio manager responsible for the yield curve arbitrage strategy within global asset allocation portfolios. Additionally, he engineered and built the process to automate fixed income portfolio rebalancing and improve operational risk control.

Prior to joining Mellon Investments, Paul was a senior fixed income portfolio associate at PIMCO, where he analyzed portfolios, and implemented and managed active US and global fixed income portfolios. Previously, he was a trader at Westdeutsche Landesbank Tokyo, where he built the interest rate swaps trading desk, and a trader at Bankers Trust Tokyo, where he ran the Japanese government bond book. Both positions included market making and proprietary trading. Paul received a BA from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He is a CFA charterholder and is a member of CFA Institute.