Harrison shuns mega caps to outshine competition

Manager believes quality over defensives has been fundamental to surviving crises in markets during first six years at Threadneedle.

Leigh Harrison is head of equities at Threadneedle and co-manager of the £982m UK Equity Income and £240m UK Equity Alpha Income funds. Here he explains how he navigated the funds through the credit crisis, his outlook for dividends, and how he incorporates macro themes into his investment approach. What have been the key contributors to the performance of the fund since you took over? I took on the income fund in January 2006 and for most of 2006 we did well and were comfortably top half of the table. The end of 2006 saw an inflection point. We became increasingly concerned about...