People Moves
UK's Woodford Hires New Compliance, Risk Heads

Woodford Investment Management, named after its star manager Neil Woodford, has made a raft of new appointments in its compliance and operations teams.
Woodford
Investment Management, the UK firm named after its
high-profile manager Neil Woodford, has made new roles in
compliance and operations.
Simon Osborne has been made head of compliance, while Gavin St
John-Heath has snapped up the chief risk and operations officer
role.
The new hires and roles are part of the UK asset manager's plans
to build a sustainable asset management company.
Osborne joins from Los Angeles-based Nuveen Investments where he
has worked since 2010, as senior vice president.
Meanwhile St. John-Heath has more than eight years’ experience
having held several senior risk management and compliance roles,
including Petronas Energy Trading.
And last but not least, Woodford has hired David Brailsford, who
joins as data architecture delivery manager from IBM, and Vimal
Patel, business analyst, who has joined from Abu Dhabi-based
sovereign wealth manager Mubadala Development Company.
"As our business continues to grow, the demands placed on our
legal and compliance operation will intensify. We have brought in
experienced specialists to help implement procedures, which will
cement our goal of building a fund management company that has
the cutting-edge operational platform needed in a
regulation-heavy, post-financial crisis world," said Craig
Newman, chief executive at Woodford Investment Management.
Neil Woodfood, who started the investment advisory industry a year ago by leaving Invesco Perpetual, had established an enviable reputation as a high-performing fund manager. His departure and the commentary it provoked was a clear example of how the phenomenon of the "star" fund manager still exists.