Alex Barr is a Scottish financier and

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

representing Cordwainer Ward in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. Prior to this he served as a Common Councilman, also in Cordwainer Ward. Barr attended Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline,

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

and subsequently the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

. He started his career in

investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be instit ...

in Edinburgh, with

Franklin Templeton Franklin Resources, Inc. is an American multinational holding company that, together with its subsidiaries, is referred to as Franklin Templeton; it is a global investment firm founded in New York City in 1947 as Franklin Distributors, Inc. It is ...

. In 1995 he joined Henderson Investors, now

Janus Henderson Janus Henderson is a British-American global asset management group headquartered in the City of London, United Kingdom. It offers a range of financial products to individuals, intermediary advisors and institutional investors globally under th ...

, on their US Equities desk. He later joined

Morgan Grenfell Morgan, Grenfell & Co. was a leading London-based investment bank regarded as one of the oldest and once most influential British merchant banks. It had its origins in a merchant banking business commenced by George Peabody. Junius Spencer Morgan ...

, (which became Deutsche Asset Management and is now known as DWS), where he was a fund manager and led the oversight of their Multi Asset portfolios. The business was taken over in 2005 by

Aberdeen Asset Management Aberdeen Asset Management was an international investment management group, managing assets for both institutions and private investors from offices around the world. Its head office was in Aberdeen, Scotland. The company was listed on the Lon ...

(now

abrdn Abrdn plc (stylised as ‘abrdn’, disemvoweling of " Aberdeen"), formerly Standard Life Aberdeen plc, is a United Kingdom-based global investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and i ...

), for whom Barr was Head of

Private Equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

and co-head of their European Private Equity Portfolio Management Team. He subsequently formed the

business Bread Street Capital Partners, which became Sarasin Bread Street and is part of City of London based investment management firm Sarasin & Partners LLP, where Barr is a partner.

Bramdean Alternatives

Bramdean Alternatives was an investment company formerly run by Nicola Horlick which got caught up in the

Madoff investment scandal The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former NASDAQ chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities ...

. Following this in June 2009

Vincent Tchenguiz Vincent Tchenguiz (born 9 October 1956) is an Iranian-British entrepreneur born in Tehran. Robert Tchenguiz is his younger brother. Tchenguiz is known as a major donor to the Conservative Party (UK) and an investor in the controversial company ...

utilised his investment company Elsina to seize control at an Extraordinary General Meeting. Subsequently in November 2009 Horlick lost control of Bramdean Alternatives as the investment management contract with her Bramdean Asset Management business was acquired by

. Barr was then responsible for rebranding the company as Aberdeen Private Equity and taking over the running of it.

References

Councilmen of the City of London People from Fife Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Scottish investors {{Scotland-business-bio-stub