Steve Holt
Founder & Managing Partner

Steve began his investment career at Scottish Amicable Investment Managers in Glasgow in the 1980s before working as a pensions actuary at Hymans Robertson, Actuaries & Consultants.  There he discovered that selling the firm’s services was a lot more enjoyable than producing actuarial valuations, and he joined Barclays Global Investors as Institutional Sales Director in 1998.

He then spent five years leading a successful team as Head of Institutional Sales at Threadneedle Asset Management, before a stint as Head of Distribution at Santander Asset Management covering the institutional, IFA and bank channels.  Steve’s final in-house sales role was as Head of Institutional Business, UK & Ireland for Principal Global Investors, a global multi-boutique asset manager with AUM of more than $500 billion.

Scottish actuaries are not known for being impetuous, so it took him 23 years to conclude that it was time to show his previous bosses that he did indeed know a lot more about institutional sales than them.  He founded Black Isle Capital Partners in 2021 and now wishes he’d done it a lot earlier!

Steve has extensive experience of client relationship management and consultant relations, but his primary career focus has been as a hands-on institutional salesman and sales leader.  He has covered the entire institutional market for more than two decades representing a wide range of products and strategies across multiple asset classes.

Steve graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Mathematics and Statistics and is a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries.

Robbie Bowker
Managing Partner

Robbie has more than 25 years of investment industry experience working with pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies, family offices, wealth managers and professional trustee firms.  He began his investment career in the mid 1990’s as an investment consultant with Towers Perrin (now Willis Towers Watson).

Robbie is one of the founders and Managing Directors of P-Solve (later River & Mercantile Solutions).  At P-Solve/R&M he was renowned for his pioneering role in the use of derivatives by UK pension funds.  He was also instrumental in developing the first Fiduciary Management service in the UK, paving the way for the huge success enjoyed by Fiduciary Management over the last two decades.

As a consultant, Robbie has provided strategic advice to many UK pension funds and other institutional investors.  In addition, his entrepreneurial and sales expertise played a major part in developing P-Solve into the highly successful business it became.

Robbie graduated from Kingston University with a BSc (Hons) in Geology.

Peter Brackett
Partner

As an exceptionally experienced consultant relations specialist (and ex investment consultant) Peter heads Black isle’s efforts in this important market segment.  He has over 29 years of experience in the financial industry, most recently as Managing Director and UK Head of Consultant Relations for State Street Global Advisors.  Before SSGA Peter was Global Head of Consultant Relations at Amundi.

Prior to Amundi he held positions at American Century and Morgan Stanley Investment Management where he was Co-Head of Global Consultant Relations.  Earlier in his career Peter was a senior investment consultant at Watson Wyatt (where he headed the property research team and was a member of the Thinking Ahead Group) and Aon, advising pension and charity clients in the creation and implementation of their investment strategy.  He has also worked as an adviser to financial institutions whilst at InterSec Research and Euromoney Publications.

Peter holds an LLB (Hons) in Law from Warwick University, is a Barrister at Law, Lincolns Inn and an Associate of the Society of Investment Professionals (UK CFA) and holds the Certificate in ESG Investing.  He is treasurer of two charities and is chair of a national not for profit organisation. He is a Senior Adviser to The IC Research Institute and a Member of the Global Advisory Board.

Kenneth Tomlin
Partner

Kenneth is a highly experienced institutional sales professional with more than 25 years’ experience in institutional investment and capital markets.  His sales experience spans multiple institutional market segments and a wide variety of private and public markets asset classes and strategies.

Prior to joining Black Isle, Kenneth was Managing Director for UK Institutional Business at BNY Mellon IM EMEA. His primary focus over his 10+ years at BNY Mellon was to establish successful partnerships with large UK Institutional Investors and he was responsible for introducing, developing and managing some of BNY Mellon IM’s largest institutional client relationships in Europe.

Kenneth previously held senior sales positions at Dimensional Fund Advisors as Head of UK Institutional Business and Consultant Relations and Societe Generale AM as Head of UK Institutional Business and Consultant Relations.

Kenneth graduated with a degree in Computing Science from Imperial College London and spent the first decade of his career as a capital markets trader where he led trading and brokerage teams in fixed income, bank loans, distressed debt and alternative investments. He has broad and deep experience in all of these asset classes.

James Cahill
Partner

James began his career at Aviva in the late 1980’s, before moving to HSBC Asset Management in 1995 becoming country Head Switzerland.  In 2003, he was part of a move of that saw some senior management and portfolio managers transfer to Cazenove Capital Management, and this led to the expansion of his sales responsibilities throughout Europe and the US.

He then moved to Qatar with AXA IM as Head of Middle East FIG and Intermediary distribution before returning to London to join Principal Global Investors working alongside Steve Holt.  At Principal James was responsible for growing the wealth management business and expanding UCITS distribution across Europe.  His final in-house role was with Cohen and Steers as Head of Funds and Sub Advisory EMEA.

James is an Associate of the Society of Investment Professionals (UK CFA) and a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.  He is also a member of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss Risk Association.