Ahead of the Annual General Meeting of the Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust, Fund Managers James Douglas and Gareth Powell update us on the Trust’s performance and positioning over the past year.
They also explain why they are so excited about the opportunities for healthcare in 2025, and why they are particularly focussed on new product cycles, emerging markets and artificial intelligence as themes that could drive the next stage of growth for many healthcare companies.
James joined Polar Capital in September 2015 and is a Fund Manager for the Healthcare team. He was appointed co-manager for the Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust in August 2019.
Prior to joining Polar Capital, James worked in equity sales specialising in global healthcare at Morgan Stanley, RBS and HSBC. James also has equity research experience garnered from his time at UBS, where he worked as an analyst in the European pharmaceutical and biotechnology team. Before moving across to the financial sector, he worked as a consultant for EvaluatePharma.
Gareth Powell, CFA
Gareth joined Polar Capital in 2007 to set up the Healthcare team. Prior to Polar Capital, Gareth worked at Framlington, where he began his career in investment management in 1999. Soon afterwards, he joined the Healthcare Team in 2001 and helped launch the Framlington Biotech Fund, which he managed from 2004 until his departure.
Gareth studied biochemistry at Oxford, during which time he worked at Yamanouchi, a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company (later to become Astellas). As well as this, Gareth worked for the Oxford Business School and various academic laboratories including the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology and the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research.
