Meet the co-head of investment specialists - Q&A with Bruno Bamberger
- 12 December 2024 (3 min read)
Please tell us about yourself. What are your education and career experiences to date?
I grew up in a small village in rural Berkshire and was an avid member of the primary school chess club – my Mum founded and ran the class, so I didn’t really have a choice.
I loved maths at school, taking Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Geography for A-level before choosing to study Economics and Industrial Organisation at the University of Warwick.
I did an internship at Hewitt Associations, now Aon, before university and I must have enjoyed it, because I returned each summer and even some Easter holidays, before starting as a Graduate. Each time I re-joined the number at the end of my email was higher so when I joined full-time in 2011 my email was Bruno.Bamberger.7 – cue the jokes about there being so many others with such a unique name.
It was a fantastic place to start my career – supporting me through CFA exams while being an investment consultant and then fiduciary portfolio manager to UK pension schemes, getting exposure to asset owners, manager selection, asset allocation, transitions – tasks which still help me today. I also had inspiring and dedicated line managers which again is something I’ll be ever grateful for.
I moved for a brief two year stint at another asset manager as an investment grade, Euro high yield bond and Euro Loan investment specialist before settling at AXA IM where I’ve been for four years now.
What is interesting about your role here at AXA IM and what motivates you to do well?
I wear a number of hats in my current role –co-head of the fixed income investment specialist team, solutions specialist for our Buy and Maintain offering, and also as an unofficial Responsible Investment champion within the fixed income department.
One thing I love is the pure variety of work I get to do. On any given day I could be writing a thought piece, doing some number-crunching, high-level strategy, client meetings, or presenting at a conference. This keeps the job interesting and helps me continually learn new skills. It’s reflective of the daily life of an investment specialist and one of the main benefits of the role.
It also allows me, and the wider team, to interact with a variety of internal and external teams, from portfolio managers, sales-people, clients, journalists, marketing, RFP. While we are technical specialists, we also have to be client-facing and adapt to the types of personalities and situations we are in.
I also love the commercial aspect of the role, knowing that what you are doing has an impact on the business and the clients we service.
How do you feel you complement the team’s skills and add value?
I feel my focus on Responsible Investment when I joined four years ago helped, not because the team and business wasn’t already advanced, but because it was moving at such a rapid pace it was helpful to have someone keep up to date on the latest client requirements, regulations, data sources, integration techniques, reporting and so on. I also joined during the COVID-19 lockdown so had a bit of an incubation period at home to get my knowledge up to speed as we couldn’t do a traditional knowledge share in the office.
I also like to think I still have my consultant hat on when thinking about client’s challenges, RI or otherwise, and use that to consider how we can best service them. It’s quite a different way of thinking from that of an asset manager and is especially the case when we are partnering with large institutional clients that have bespoke requirements.
And linked to this is that I love problem solving. I’m quite happy to dive into a challenge and figure out what the best steps are to move things forward. This could be how to deliver those bespoke client objectives or something more mundane, but equally important, such as improving efficiency and knowledge-sharing within the team.
Since joining the Fixed Income team, what has surprised you the most?
I was fortunate enough to join a successful and motivated team and it took me a little while to figure out why it was. After a while (perhaps when I met them in person after lockdown) I realised it was the level of client knowledge they had, and how much they cared about delivering for the client. This is easy to say but the positive feedback we get from clients is testament to the focus and attention each one gets.
Since my remit has been expanded, I’ve met many other Portfolio Management and supporting teams and I’ve been continuously impressed by the breadth of skillsets and capabilities we have at AXA IM, and the willingness to share. If I receive a tough client query I can pick up the phone to one of a hundred different people and know that I’ll get a friendly and detailed response.
I shouldn’t have been surprised as I did my homework and was aware of AXA IM’s fixed income success before I joined, but it’s great being on the inside and seeing it work in action.
What does progress mean to you?
Personal progress, to me, means constantly learning new skills and improving my technical knowledge. Part of that is about embracing a growth mindset, trying to step outside of my natural comfort zone as much as possible. I hadn’t presented at any conferences before I joined AXA IM but I now try to volunteer for them when I can to improve each time.
I also believe that progress is not just about personal development, but also about making a positive impact on the world around us. I think climate change is a large and a vastly underappreciated risk for both investors and current and future generations, and each step we take to mitigate this within the investment industry is some form of progress.
Looking ahead, I am excited about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to change the way we work, removing some of the ‘boring’ aspects so we can focus on client service, strategy and connections. However, I also believe that to fully benefit from this technology, we need to lean in and embrace it. This means continually learning about new AI tools and applications, and finding ways to safely integrate them into our work processes. As an example, I used AI to write this last paragraph!
And aside from work, tell us something interesting about yourself that most people won’t know?
I mentioned my chess career earlier but that was over relatively quickly when I realised that may not be seen as ‘cool’ going to secondary school. So I switched to swimming instead, moving up the classes to train ten times a week and getting to national level. I then transitioned to doing a few triathlons and building up to an Ironman. I now have two young children and I can genuinely say looking after them is far more tiring than Ironman training. But I do still have aspirations to get to that level again, but I’ll get through the sleepless nights first…
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Risk Warning
The value of investments, and the income from them, can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.
Risk Warning
The value of investments, and the income from them, can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.