CFA UK Edinburgh Summit 2026: Asset management at an inflection point
Wednesday 30 September 2026 | 15:00 - 20:00
AI is reshaping the investment process, the skills needed to succeed are evolving and changing market structures are creating new opportunities and challenges for investors. Join CFA UK in Edinburgh for an afternoon bringing together investment professionals and industry leaders to explore what these changes mean in practice.
Through expert discussions we’ll examine where the investment edge will come from in an AI-enabled world, the skills future investment professionals will need, and how the investment landscape is evolving.
What you’ll learn
- How AI is changing investment research, portfolio construction and risk management.
- Where investment edge and human judgement matter as AI becomes more widely adopted.
- Which skills will be most valuable for the next generation of investment professionals.
Why attend?
Hear practical perspectives from investment professionals, challenge your thinking on the future of the industry and connect with Scotland’s investment community. The summit will conclude with networking drinks, offering the opportunity to continue the conversation with peers, emerging talent and industry leaders.
Who Should attend?
Portfolio managers and investment analysts; investment and research professionals; quantitative, data and technology professionals; wealth and private markets professionals; academics and educators
Speakers
Alistair Way, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford
Alistair is an Investment Manager in the Durable Growth Team. He re-joined Baillie Gifford in 2025 and previously he spent a year at Wesleyan overseeing various funds including its Income fund. Prior to that, Alistair was Head of Equities at Aviva Investors and Head of Global Emerging Markets at Standard Life Investments. Alistair started his career at Baillie Gifford, serving 13 years in their European and Japanese Equities teams.
He holds an honours degree in economics from Cambridge University.
Anna Macdonald, CFA, Investment Strategy Director, Hargreaves Lansdown
As Investment Strategy Director at Hargreaves Lansdown, Anna Macdonald, CFA, leads research into company shares, funds and wider investment trends. A well-known media commentator, she regularly appears on television and radio to discuss markets and investing.
She has over twenty years' experience in institutional and private client investment management, with roles at Henderson Global Investors, Adam and Company, Amati Global Investors and Aubrey Capital Management.
Anna holds a degree in economics and philosophy from the London School of Economics and is a CFA Charterholder. She is also a trustee of the independent think tank Enlighten and a non-executive director for Landbay Partners.
Joanna McIntyre, CFA Investment director, Aberdeen
Joanna is an Investment Director responsible for the co-management of US, US sustainable and global equity funds. Joanna joined the company in June 2010 from Ernst & Young where she qualified as a chartered certified accountant in 2009. Joanna has worked across several areas of the business including marketing, product development and the real estate investment specialists before joining the Multi-Asset Investment Specialists in early 2013.In January 2015, Joanna joined the Asia & GEM equity team before transferring to global equities in 2018. Joanna graduated with a MA in econometrics and information technology from University of Szczecin. Additionally, she is a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Certified Accountant, ACCA.
Lillian Li, Portfolio Manager, Baillie Gifford
Lillian Li is a Portfolio Manager in the US Equity Growth Team. She joined Baillie Gifford in 2022. Before joining the firm, she worked at Eight Roads Ventures (Fidelity's VC arm) and Salesforce Ventures, where she led investments in growth-stage private companies across the US and Europe.
Lillian also founded Chinese Characteristics, an acclaimed publication analysing US and Chinese innovation ecosystems. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in international development from London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tom Miedema, CFA, Investment Manager at Walter Scott
Tom Miedema is an Investment Manager at Walter Scott and has been with the firm since 2007, spending time across all regional research teams while also coordinating emerging market research. He currently champions stocks across energy, industrial and healthcare sectors, alongside technology businesses spanning equipment, software, e-commerce and semiconductor manufacturing. He holds an MA in business and economics from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, an MFin in international finance from the University of Glasgow, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Sean Phayre, Head of Quantitative Investment Solutions, (QIS) Aberdeen Sean Phayre is the Head of Quantitative Investment Solutions (QIS) at Aberdeen. He is tasked with the development and management of quantitative and systematic strategies in both equities and Fixed interest. Sean joined the company in 2005, after beginning his investment career at Edinburgh Fund Managers where he established a quantitative equity team and went on to become Head of Quantitative Equities and Derivative Strategies.
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Dr Sandy Nairn, CFA
Investment Management Professional and Author
Dr Sandy Nairn, CFA is an investment management professional and author. He has over 40 years of experience working in both public and private equity. He currently works with Goodhart Partners on the management of the Global Opportunities Trust, a UK listed investment trust which he founded in 2003. He is the author of Engines That Move Markets, an acclaimed historical analysis of past technological advances, from the railways to the Internet, as well as two other published books on investment themes.
In a personal capacity he is an early-stage investor personally in number of private companies in the technology and finance space. He is currently the Chairman of Malted AI. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Before founding Edinburgh Partners, he was Chief Investment Officer of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, from 2000 to 2003, and Executive Vice President and Director of Global Equity Research at Templeton Investment Management, from 1990 to 2000. Sandy Nairn graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 1982 and in 1985 was awarded a PhD in economics from the University of Strathclyde/Scottish Business School and has been a CFA charterholder since 1992. He has won multiple performance awards for the management of global equity portfolios.
