Managers To Watch: Polar Capital's Davis on why nurture, not nature, is key in fund management

Polar Capital's Nick Davis was not overwhelmed by the additional responsibility of running client money when he became a fund manager in 2011, because he was already confident in the high-conviction, bottom-up style of stockpicking he had formed while working as an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein and Columbia Threadneedle.

"Even if the global marketplace becomes tough, the type of companies I pick will be safe and this conservative approach helps me sleep at night," he said. "If anything, when markets are volatile we are provided with a good opportunity to buy new stocks." After a spell running European mandates at Columbia Threadneedle, Davis, 35, joined Polar Capital in September 2014 to set up the company's European income team.  He has run the group's €50.3m European (ex UK) Income fund and €11.2m European Income fund from their respective launches in June 2015 and October 2014. Moving to a bouti...