About Culross
Multi-award winning Culross Global is one of the longest established alternative investment businesses in Europe with offices in Switzerland, Malta and the UK.
Culross is an independent European alternative investment management business which has remained 100% employee owned since inception in 1992.
We were one of the first alternative managers to use macro themes as portfolio building blocks through which we continue to access investment opportunities not widely available through traditional investment management channels.
Culross Founder
Nigel Blanshard
Founder & Chief Investment OfficerNigel founded Culross in 1992 and is the Chief Investment Officer. As CIO he is head of the Investment Committee and has final responsibility for investment selections and portfolio management.
Nigel began his career in 1980 as a fixed income portfolio manager in the London investment office of the Insurance Company of North America. INA was one of the largest US P&C insurers with a large and far reaching international business. In 1982 INA merged with Connecticut General forming CIGNA and making it one of the world’s largest multi-line insurance companies. The London office managed over 20 large investment portfolios for CIGNA companies outside the US and invested primarily in government bonds and corporate credit including a substantial FX risk management operation. In 1986 Nigel was appointed Director and Head of Fixed Income management in the London office where he and his team of 14 employees actively managed the fixed income portfolios to newly defined absolute return mandates. With assets totalling some $3.5bn this office was one of the largest fixed income investors in London at the time. In 1989 Nigel and eleven colleagues founded Century Asset Management where, as CIO, he led the management of global fixed income portfolios with active derivatives overlays pursuing an absolute return objective.
Nigel studied Engineering and Geography at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge graduating with an M.A.
Culross Team
The Culross team, located in the London, Malta and Zug offices, comprises experienced professionals many of whom have been with the firm for over ten years and who form the investment committee, the risk management committee, run investment operations and provide investor relations and all client reporting.
Over the past fifteen years the Culross Group has been built on a substantial investment in technology and proprietary investment software creating a seamless integration of the business for staff working from multiple locations. This software underpins the firm’s investment process and operational controls to meet the regulatory requirements of being a fully authorized AIFM in Europe.
To deliver pooled fund investment solutions to clients the firm built their own funds platform in Luxembourg, the Culross Funds S.A. SICAV-RAIF. The Malta company is the AIFM to this platform. In the UK Culross has been authorized and regulated by the FCA since 1992 to provide a full suite of investment services to professional clients. Switzerland is arguably the leading investment centre in Europe and through the office in Zug the firm has built a strong presence in that country. In addition to the Luxembourg structure for pooled solutions the firm also manages a range of separate managed accounts (SMAs) each of which has been tailored to meet the specific objectives of the client.