Lucy Walker is a founder and chair in investment management and technology. She founded the award-winning AM Insights fund data platform in 2020 to transform how fund data informs decisions in asset and wealth management. She serves as chair of the Aurora UK Alpha investment trust and is a former head of fund research and fund manager at Sarasin & Partners, where she advised on over £1.2 billion for clients. Named Marketing Influencer of the Year at the 2024 Women in Investment Awards, Lucy has been regularly featured in publications including the FT, and she engages a wide audience through her LinkedIn platform and Fund Selectors podcast.

Q1. Why is corporate culture becoming more important to you when deciding who you allocate assets to?

Culture is a crucial part of the research process because fund managers do not operate in a vacuum. The two most important factors are knowing the manager is: 1) genuinely supported to stick to their knitting in good times & bad, and 2) being appropriately challenged by their colleagues.

Q2. In your view, why is it important to set a higher standard of stewardship and behaviour within the investment industry?

Our industry has a bad rep and in part that is for good reason. Horror stories such as Woodford show what happens when an individual has so much power and authority that people are afraid to speak up. It is imperative not only for the industry, but for wider society, for asset managers to place high value on the behaviours of their managers and teams.

Q3. Why did you decide to sit on the ACT Stewardship Council and what does it mean to you personally?

It has been fantastic to see the impact Bev & Mandy have already had on our industry. I am a huge supporter of anything which helps protect the interests of clients, and ACT undoubtedly does. I am proud AM Insights was the first fund data platform to include ACT as a datapoint - the first of many!