The Aim-listed trust, which is co-managed by Giles Hargreave and Oliver Bedford, has a market value of £139m.
It has lagged peers in the IT VCT Aim Quoted sector in recent years, producing cumulative returns of 78% against its peers’ 85.4%.
Originally launched in 2004, the VCT was merged with the Hargreave Hale Aim VCT 2 in March this year.
Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management UK CEO David Esfandi said Bradbury’s (pictured) hire was designed to strengthen the governance of the VCT and bolster the growth of the firm’s fund management business, which it acquired after buying Hargreave Hale last year.
The fund management team currently looks after over £5bn of assets.
Esfandi said they are trying to increase the independence of the existing board.
He added they are planning further investment to grow its fund management business, as integration of the two firms continues.
Industry stalwart
Bradbury is an industry stalwart with a career that spans over 25 years. He is best known for building the small and mid-cap teams at OMGI, then called Old Mutual Asset Management UK, at the turn of the millennium.
Eight years later, he became the firm’s head of UK equities but was replaced by Richard Buxton in 2013, who OMGI poached from rival Schroders.
Bradbury retired from active fund management sixteen months later to “pursue a somewhat less hectic pace of life” outside the City.
While at OMGI, he was at the helm of the Cayman Islands-domiciled Old Mutual UK Specialist Equity fund.
He also steered the Old Mutual UK Mid Cap Fund during the early days of the global financial crisis, returning 81.53% for investors during the years he ran the fund from 2002 to 2008. The IA UK All Companies sector returned 1.75% over the comparative period.
Bradbury has also held roles at Lloyds’ subsidiary Hill Samuel Investment and HSBC Asset Management Europe.
Hargreave Hale was acquired by Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management for £80m last year.
The deal saw CGWM swallow up Hargreave Hale’s £8bn in assets under management and inherit its gender pay gap problem, which was one of the worst recorded in the wealth management space.
