Fulcrum Asset Management

Suhail Shaikh serves as Chief Investment Officer, a role he assumed in September 2023. He oversees the investment team alongside Chairman Gavyn Davies, who remains involved in macro strategy and research direction. The investment committee includes senior portfolio managers covering rates, FX, equities, and credit.

Fulcrum uses proprietary nowcasting models — high-frequency economic indicators built from public data — to gauge growth and inflation momentum in real time. These signals drive dynamic asset allocation across equities, bonds, currencies, commodities, and credit. The approach aims to maintain positive returns during both risk-on and risk-off regimes by rotating exposures based on the macro outlook rather than relying on static risk premia.

Fulcrum's core strategies are liquid, spanning absolute return and multi-asset mandates. The firm also operates Fulcrum Credit Partners, a vehicle focused on direct lending, special situations, and private credit investments. This allows institutional clients to access illiquid credit opportunities alongside the liquid macro portfolios.

Fulcrum manages assets for UK local government pension schemes, European insurance companies, Japanese pension funds, and sovereign wealth institutions. The firm's strategies are delivered through pooled funds, segregated mandates, and sub-advisory relationships across the UK, Europe, and Asia.

Gavyn Davies was the head of global economics at Goldman Sachs before leaving in 2001. He later served as Chairman of the BBC from 2001 to 2004. He co-founded Fulcrum in 2004 with Andrew Stevens, bringing his macro research expertise and institutional relationships to the firm's investment process.

Fulcrum combines both. A quantitative research team builds systematic nowcasting indicators and risk models, while experienced portfolio managers apply discretionary judgment to position sizing and tail-risk management. The firm describes this as a hybrid approach that captures the speed of systematic signals with the nuance of human macro experience.

Nowcasting estimates current economic conditions using high-frequency data — such as PMIs, labor market releases, and financial market signals — rather than predicting quarters ahead. Fulcrum's models process these inputs daily to produce real-time growth and inflation indicators, which then guide tactical asset allocation shifts across the firm's multi-asset portfolios.