Who We Are
Our Team
Stuart Fowler
Stuart is the founder of No Monkey Business and one of the client advisers. He has worked in the investment industry for almost 40 years. As an institutional fund manager with Touche Remnant in the 1970s and Hill Samuel in the 1980s, he managed money for a wide range of clients, from overseas governments and pension funds to wealthy families and foundations.
In 1990 he set up Valu-Trac Investment Management to develop an innovative approach to investing, combining dynamic, computer-based asset allocation with the use of index-tracking funds. It was a very competitive international manager of US pension funds, thanks to good performance and large cost savings.
Six years later, he formed a business strategy consultancy in financial services. This led to the formation of a business in 1999, with Chris Drew (below), to develop a radically new concept in private client portfolio planning and management for delivery to investors directly through the Internet and indirectly through IFAs. Though this venture was never funded, it gave a new focus to their consulting, as innovators in applying quantitative techniques within retail services ranging from financial advice to portfolio management.
In 2004, Stuart started No Monkey Business as a wealth management advisory firm embodying the thinking, principles and techniques drawn from his earlier career as an institutional money manager and business consultant.
As well as writing the book from which the business takes its name, he has contributed articles to the Financial Times, wealth management publications and journals of his own professional body, The CFA Institute. He is also one of very few ‘bloggers’ in this field. He is a graduate of Oxford University.
Joseph Clark
Joe is a director and senior client adviser. He has worked in the financial planning and wealth management business since 2002 after graduating with a BA in Business Studies from Bristol Business School. His particular expertise is in inheritance tax, trusts and retirement planning.
Prior to joining No Monkey Business, Joe was a director and shareholder of independent financial adviser Cavendish Medical where his clients were mainly medical and other professionals with high net worth. His role encompassed business development, financial planning and setting up and reviewing investment portfolios. At Cavendish he was an enthusiastic supporter of low-cost, passive and quantitative approaches to implementing clients’ asset allocation.
He has spoken regularly at conferences, professional bodies and run workshops for professionals to encourage better understanding of retirement planning.
Jo Gray
Jo is director of operations, responsible for financial control, systems and processes, including the compliance procedures of the firm. A key aspect of her role is to ensure that the service provided to our clients is maintained to the highest standards.
Jo joined No Monkey Business in 2006, bringing 18 years of arts and charity management experience as well as a spell at Edward Jones running one of the stockbroker’s UK offices.
Samuel Smith
Sam is investment manager with responsibility for the day-to-day operation of our model-driven ‘Defined Outcome’ investment portfolios and the dealing for all our portfolios. He leads the investment research and cost analysis for the funds, securities and tax-favoured wrappers used to implement our portfolio strategies.
Sam has a background in retail finance and was previously export manager at Colefax and Fowler whom he joined after graduating from University College London.
Amanda Cleaver
Amanda is the primary point of contact for new clients during the financial planning stage. She is responsible for personal data gathering, analysis and the initial preparation of financial planning reports.
She has recently emigrated to the UK. She has 10 years of experience of customer-focused investment advice and in-depth financial planning gained both in New Zealand, with NZ Funds Management, and the UK, with Mellon Newton Funds.
Amanda holds the Certified Financial Planner professional designation in New Zealand, which she is currently transferring to the UK. She has a Diploma in Personal Financial Planning from Massey University.
Chris Drew
Chris acts as a consultant to No Monkey Business and (through Lambda Investment Technology, a separate investment technology business co-owned with Stuart) provides many of the technical resources which are at the heart of the No Monkey Business process. These range from designing computer models solving investment problems (dynamic asset allocation, resource planning, sustainable income drawdown, fund selection) to helping devise optimal approaches to the typical planning and investment choices faced by our clients. He also leads our systems development, whether producing internal solutions or managing projects outsourced to other developers.
He met Stuart in 1998, as managing director of wealth manager James Baxter & Co (now known as Dart Capital) before going on to collaborate on business consulting projects, including advising Egg on a new mass-market advice format and developing a ground-breaking fund selection application.
He is a graduate of Lancaster University in Management Sciences and later studied investment management at the London Business School.
