[ C O V E R
S T O R Y
|
C AT H Y
n February 2018,
Cathy Gibson
joined Royal Lon-
don Asset Man-
agement (RLAM)
in London to
establish and
lead its new centralised dealing
desk, covering all asset classes, but
primarily focused on equities and
fixed income. The move marked a
significant shift in scale for Gibson,
having previously headed up the
fixed income UK business for DWS
(Deutsche Asset Management),
While the two firms have dif-
ferent resource pools available
to them, the similarities between
the two roles are that Gibson was
handed the responsibility to build
the desk up from the ground on
both occasions and it was the
strength of diversity and spirit of
collaboration within the trading
team that Gibson most wanted to
bring to the RLAM operation.
RLAM already possessed a depth
of experience and skill on the
equities front, so the first challenge
42 // TheTrade // Summer 2019
G I B S O N ]
required to bring the fixed income capabilities up
to the same level, and Gibson says that she was very
conscious to bring as varied a range of skills sets on
board as possible.
“We were able to hire on both the equity and fixed
income sides, which gave me the opportunity to
diversify my desk in terms of both a gender and skill
set perspective,” she says. “We were able to bring in
people with skills that we didn’t have here before.
Being able to watch that merge and integrate over the
last 15 months has been fantastic.”
Gibson believes that the blend of experience the firm
already possessed in conjunction with fresh blood
and skills means the desk is “much stronger now as a
result” and was helped by physically locating both the
equities and fixed income teams in one place. While
the desk is very much a cross-asset dealing operation,
Gibson wants to preserve the individual experiences
and talents that each member of the team brings to the
table.
“We have subject matter expertise and they diversify
across that, so I don’t expect fixed income traders to
be trading equities and vice versa, but a fixed income
trader can trade an equity future as easily as they can a
fixed income future, for example,” she explains.
“There is definitely crossover in terms of what they
can do, but I believe in having that expertise and spe-
cialisation within the trading desk. The challenge is
bringing those together and making sure it works.”