Investment Trust

Tom Black (Chairman)

Tom Black was appointed to the board on 1 May 2013. He is chairman of Thruvision Group plc (formerly Digital Barriers plc), and has advisory roles with a number of smaller unlisted businesses. He is chairman and trustee of the Black Family Charitable Trust, which is focused on supporting disadvantaged young people with their educational needs. He was previously chief executive of Detica Group Plc, a leading company in the field of large-scale information collection and analysis for intelligence and counter fraud applications. As a successful entrepreneur he recognises the challenges of starting and growing an early-stage technology company and listing it on the London Stock Exchange. He understands the smaller companies remit of the fund.

Stephanie Eastment

Stephanie Eastment was appointed to the board on 1 December 2018 and is chair of the audit committee. After leaving KPMG in 1990 she held various accounting and compliance roles at Wardley and UBS before joining Invesco Asset Management in 1996. There she held a variety of increasingly senior roles, specialising in investment trusts. She left Invesco in July 2018 to pursue a non-executive career. Stephanie is currently a non-executive director and audit chair of Murray Income Trust plc and Impax Environmental Markets plc and a non-executive director of RBS Collective Investment Funds Limited. She has extensive accounting, corporate governance and investment trust sector experience. As a chartered accountant and company secretary she has honed her technical expertise, knowledge and contacts within the industry and provides constructive oversight and challenge not only as a director, but as the audit committee chair.

Henrietta Marsh

Henrietta Marsh was appointed to the board on 1 September 2019. She has a background in fund management, having worked in UK small cap and private equity investment over several decades, recently pursuing a plural career. From 2005 until 2011, she was AIM fund manager at Living Bridge Equity Partners. Prior to that, Henrietta spent 14 years at 3i in several roles, including as fund manager of 3i Smaller Quoted Companies Trust plc (1997–2002). Her earlier career was with Morgan Stanley and Shell. She is currently a non-executive director of Gamma Communications plc (AIM-listed), and a member of London Stock Exchange’s AIM Advisory Group. She has direct experience and understanding of the investment process required in the Company.

Karl Sternberg

Karl Sternberg was appointed to the board on 21 April 2015. He was a founding partner of Oxford Investment Partners Limited from 2006 until 2013, when it was acquired by Towers Watson. Much of his earlier career was spent at Morgan Grenfell (which became Deutsche Asset Management), where he rose to become chief investment officer, Europe & Asia Pacific. Karl is a non-executive director of Clipstone Industrial REIT plc, Monks Investment Trust plc, Lowland Investment Company plc, Alliance Trust plc, JP Morgan Elect plc and Jupiter Fund Management plc. Mr Sternberg has announced his intention to step down from Lowland Investment Company plc as soon as its board has appointed a replacement non-executive director. He has significant investment trust experience and has good insight in the investment industry and the macroeconomic risks and influences.

James Will

James Will was appointed to the board on 21 April 2015. He was until 2014 chairman and a senior corporate finance partner of law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP. He also headed the law firm’s financial sector practice. James is the senior independent director. As a lawyer, he was for over 20 years involved in advising smaller quoted technology companies on a range of corporate transactions, including flotations, secondary fundraisings and mergers and acquisitions. James is chairman of both The Scottish Investment Trust PLC and Asia Dragon Trust plc. In an environment of increasingly complex legal and regulatory framework his legal counsel has a valued contribution.

Herald Investment Trust Responsible Investing

Herald Investment Trust’s objective can be summarised as being to achieve capital appreciation through investments in smaller quoted companies in the areas of technology, media and telecoms. This founding purpose – to invest in smaller companies – arose from Herald’s belief that they offer greater potential for growth than larger companies because they often provide greater entrepreneurialism when addressing new markets created by technological developments. This conviction led Herald to focus on investing in smaller quoted companies in the areas of telecommunications, multimedia and technology (‘TMT’). These companies create added value employment and have the potential to become the next generation of large companies, thereby generating attractive returns for shareholders.

As an externally managed investment company, Herald Investment Trust’s activities are all outsourced and therefore it does not have any employees. The Company also has a very limited direct impact on the environment as it has no greenhouse gas emissions and has given shareholders the option to receive soft copy financial reports and other information rather than printed hard copy. Notwithstanding that the Company has no direct social or community impact, the board encourages the manager to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when selecting and retaining investments. The Company has given discretionary voting powers to the investment manager, HIML. The manager votes against resolutions it considers may damage shareholders’ rights or economic interests.

The Company believes that it is in the shareholders’ interests to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when selecting and retaining investments and has asked the manager to take these issues into account as long as the investment objectives are not compromised. The manager does not exclude companies from its investment universe purely on the grounds of ESG issues but adopts a positive engagement approach whereby matters are discussed with management with the aim of improving the relevant policies and management systems and enabling the manager to consider how ESG factors could impact long term investment returns.

The manager’s statement of compliance with the UK Stewardship Code can be found under the Responsible Investing page of Herald Investment Management Limited’s web site. The manager’s policy has been reviewed and endorsed by the board of Herald Investment Trust plc.

Archived Annual and Interim Reports

Audit Committee – Terms of Reference

Nominations Committee – Terms of Reference

AGM and Proxy Results

The Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”)

The Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products Regulation (PRIIPS/KID)

Top 20 Holdings 31st December 2020

Top 20 Holdings 31st December 2019

REGISTRARS

Link Market Services Limited
Northern House
Woodsome Park
Fenay Bridge
Huddersfield
HD8 0LA
Tel: 01484 600900
Fax:01484 600911

Shareholder Information – COVID-19