Head of UK retail at Goldman Sachs Asset Management Kristina Teahan speaks to Mike Sheen about surpassing expectations and the importance of being a 'good company'.
For Teahan, being a "good company" includes having the right approach to diversity; something GSAM impressed her with when she joined from JP Morgan in 2010.
She says: "Diversity is viewed as of commercial relevance here - it is definitely not a box-ticking exercise.
"From the start, I had it said to me over and over - ‘we need to hire the best people, we need to be able to attract and retain the best people' - and if we only limit ourselves to a certain type of person - a certain profile, if you like - then we are not going to get the best people."
Today, Teahan explains, half of her team are women and half are non-British-born, something that is "unusual for a UK sales team".
"It is pretty unusual for a head of UK to be non-British as well," adds Sweden-born Teahan.
In the wider industry, Teahan also sees progress on the diversity front.
She says: "In the past, I have felt the industry has seen diversity as a box-ticking exercise. That is changing, which is great.
"I am a woman myself, I have three children - I think a lot of people would have told me ten years ago that this role is not something I can do."
Getting comfortable with AI
As with GSAM's 2018 fund launches, 2019 could also see the firm introduce new products in response to client demand, with Teahan citing the firm's multi-asset range as an area that could be expanded.
But, Teahan says, client interest this year has been most notable within the firm's QIS unit on the back of "tremendous success in the last few years", with performance "consistent and strong".
"This year we have seen some quant managers struggling a bit, while ours have held up well," she says, adding the firm has been adjusting its approach to address "the sorts of problems quant funds often have - such as reversals, for example".
"The work we have done to counter that seems to be working," she says.
However, while GSAM's QIS unit is performing well, Teahan attributes the interest to a wider industry trend, with investors of all kinds now more comfortable with buying quantitative investment solutions than they might have been in years past.
She explains the client base for quant products has widened to just about every client type, having traditionally been primarily the reserve of large institutional investors like funds of funds. As a result, Teahan expects quant products to become a much larger part of the UK market in years to come.
Teahan says: "From IFAs to private banks to multi-asset to wealth managers - we are all becoming more familiar with big data and AI in our day-to-day lives.
"Smart homes, smart cars - it is in everything we do.
"Using AI in investment does not feel so strange or unfamiliar to investors anymore.
"Investors at least start from a neutral attitude to quant products rather than negative."
