Reinventing Equity Investing: James Anderson's Journey, From Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust to Managing Partner & CIO of Lingotto's Innovation Strategy

His early investments in Google through to Tesla paid handsome returns to investors, and have made him both highly respected and widely admired.

Now James is at Lingotto, the independent investment management company wholly owned by Exor N.V.. My co-pilot in this interview is Mark Wallace, Managing Director and a Co-Head of Portfolio Management at Rothschild and Co.

James discusses how his approach to evaluating companies has evolved and what he means by “the normal ways of looking at companies is no longer valid”. He discusses company life cycles and why such a small percentage of listed companies actually deliver the big returns.

He then reflects on the importance of the academic community in sourcing, and validating investment ideas and moves on to the vision exhibited by founders and vested principals in newer businesses, from Amazon to Tesla. 

He describes his investing priorities thematically, risk, mistakes, accessing capital and why Europe seems to lack ambition in both seizing and scaling the opportunity. Finally he reflects on the public versus private debate, asking and answering the question as which of those may be the better stewards.