David Donora joined the company in 2008 as a portfolio manager specialising in Commodities. In addition to managing the commodity portfolios, his responsibilities include establishing and managing Columbia Threadneedle’s capabilities in this asset class and developing a suitable product range to complement the company’s equity, bond and property offerings. David has over 30 years’ trading and investing experience encompassing commodity, macro and derivative-based portfolios. He began his career at Marine Midland Bank in New York in 1982 where he held positions of VP – Commodity Finance, focusing on base and precious metals before transitioning to trading where he was latterly trading FX options, and finally Head of FX Options for London and New York. David then moved to UBS NY in 1988 to head its FX and Precious Metals OTC derivatives desk, before transferring to London to take a lead role in trading and developing UBS London’s OTC derivative businesses in precious metals and FX. In 1994 David joined CIBC to establish the London leg of a global volatility proprietary trading business, and after a successful period of discretionary trading was made Managing Director and Global Head of FX Derivatives in 1998. In 1999 he created and managed a successful commodity-based proprietary trading and derivative structuring business while Head of OTC Derivatives at Refco Overseas. The business created bespoke commodity OTCs, incorporating first and second generation exotics as the building blocks, and managed its risk on a proprietary trading basis. The primary focus was agriculture and soft commodities working with producers and consumers of commodities. David graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BA in Finance.

Nicolas Robin joined the Threadneedle in 2010 and is the Co-Lead Manager. Nicolas brings both hedge fund and commodity index trading experience to the team. He started his career at Barep Asset Management (SG Group) in 2002, helping to set up a Commodity Arbitrage hedge fund desk. The strategy was focused on relative value strategies in commodities and aimed to take advantage of short-term dislocations in commodity forward curves. In 2006, Nicolas joined JPMorgan Chase to run the bank’s commodity index trading book. During his tenure, index assets under management trebled making JPMorgan Chase a leading index dealer. In his time at JPMorgan Chase, Nicolas was responsible overhauling the bank’s commodity index trading platform and driving the bank’s effort into fully customisable commodity index solutions. He participated in the creation of the JPMorgan Commodity Curve Index (JPMCCI), the bank’s foray into second generation commodity indices launched in 2007. He also contributed to the development of the bank’s commodity customised indices and algorithmic strategies, looking at both momentum and curve based strategies. Alongside his commodity index trading responsibilities, Nicolas also ran a proprietary trading book across commodities, using both relative value and directional strategies with an emphasis on the energy complex. Nicolas holds a BSc in Government and Economics and a MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics.