THE MERCANTILE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC
APPOINTMENT OF DIRECTORS
The Board of The Mercantile Investment Trust plc is pleased to announce the appointments of Heather Hopkins and Graham Kitchen as Non-Executive Directors of the Company with effect from 1st July 2018.
Ms. Hopkins has over two decades of experience in data analytics, research, financial services and international business, with expertise in retail distribution. She is Founder and Managing Director of NextWealth Limited which provides research and consultancy to platforms, asset managers and financial advice firms on the future of retail investment distribution. She is also a Director and Vice Chairperson of UK Platform Awards and The Investment Network, Clive Waller Consulting Limited, which manages The UK Platform Awards and The Investment Network, a Director of The Open Strings Foundation, which is a US charity, and a columnist for The New Model Adviser.
From 2014 to 2017, Ms. Hopkins was Head of Platforum, a research and events business owned by Centaur Media, whom she joined as a senior research analyst in 2014. She was previously a columnist for Money Marketing and The Guardian Technology Section and an Honorary Fellow of The Global Center of Communications at the International University of Japan.
Ms. Hopkins does not own any shares in the Company.
Mr Kitchen has over twenty years experience managing UK equity funds, including OEICs, investment trusts and pension funds. He joined Janus Henderson Investors in 2005, where he was Global Head of Equities from 2011 to 2018. He was Head of UK Equities at Threadneedle Investments from 2004 to 2005 and held various positions at Invesco Asset Management between 1991 and 2004.
Mr Kitchen is a CFA Charterholder. He is a Non-Executive Director of Invesco Perpetual Select Trust plc and of Places for People, a provider of affordable housing, Chair of the independent investment committee of the Cancer Research UK Pension Scheme and a member of the investment committee of Independent Age, a charity that provides advice to older people. He also acts as mentor for The Prince's Trust and The Social Mobility Foundation.
Mr Kitchen has a beneficial interest in 8,560 shares in the Company.
No further information is to be disclosed in respect of paragraphs 9.6.13(2) - (6) of the UKLA Listing Rules for Ms. Hopkins or Mr Kitchen.
1st June 2018
For further information, please contact:
Jonathan Latter
JPMorgan Funds Limited - Company Secretary
Telephone 0207 742 4000