Stability reigns for Baillie Gifford

CHIEF EXECUTIVE INTERVIW

Some things never change, or, the more they change, the more they stay the same. It is not Baillie Gifford's motto, but that is how the Edinburgh-based private partnership works

Baillie Gifford is one of the most widely admired investment houses in the business, but it retains an air of inaccessibility, even mystique. Senior partners are seldom seen or heard in public. Alex Callander, one of the two heading the firm at the moment, defends that style: “We are not unavailable, or secretive. It is just things carry on as before.” Many in the industry applaud and envy that ethos, while others suggest in a highly interactive world, aloofness can damage growth and business prospects. A surely exasperated headline in 1993 proclaimed: “Baillie Gifford celebrates caution...