Meet our people: John Rae

I must admit that I haven’t always been passionate about investing. I grew up in Edinburgh, and for most of my school and university career, sport was what I was most passionate about. I studied Physics at university, so I felt like my ability to interpret complex problems was well-suited to finance, and I went on to work for a large global investment bank. This experience was hugely valuable, but I quickly realised that working for a bank with hundreds of thousands of employees, most of whom weren’t in Edinburgh or the UK, wasn’t where I wanted to spend my career. So, I did my research, and it wasn’t long before I joined Baillie Gifford, initially in operational teams like Regional Accounting and Portfolio Implementation.

Baillie Gifford is an investment-driven firm, and that rubbed off on me. Before I knew it, I’d replaced rugby highlight reels with investment podcasts. From day one, I was impressed by the support for continuous progression and learning. In my first few years, I gained several qualifications that all advanced my understanding of the investment industry.

After a few years at the firm, I was eager to learn more, so I applied for the Client Manager’s scheme as an internal applicant. If I were to give myself advice on my first day as a Client Manager, it would be that there’s so much to learn, so don’t be daunted and be patient! During the program's first two years, there are many structured training sessions. Still, lots of your time will be unstructured, so being genuinely passionate about investing and being a self-starter is important.

After rotating around client-facing teams for a couple of years, I joined the Emerging Markets client team as an investment specialist. Every client manager role is different at Baillie Gifford, but the commonality is that we want to provide clients with interesting and helpful information. Each day varies, but most involve reading up on portfolio companies or investment trends, writing commentary, and speaking to clients virtually or in person. My favourite part of the job is travelling to meet clients or prospects, usually in North America or Europe, but sometimes further afield.

I joined the client manager scheme in 2020, and I feel fortunate that several years on, I still love the role as much as I did when I started, if not more.