Separately, one of our investment professionals is the vice chair of the Business at OECD Innovation and Technology Committee. During the year, we had the opportunity to regularly attend closed-door meetings of the OECD Committee on Science and Technology Policy, where we gained insights and shared perspectives on emerging areas of its policy advice. For instance, we have discussed plans for a forthcoming OECD recommendation to governments on the responsible development of quantum technologies. Alongside OECD policymakers and other key stakeholders, we have also discussed some of the conditions required for long-term investment in innovation.
Baillie Gifford is a member of the TAI, which focuses on research and innovation on best practices for asset owners and asset managers. It covers everything from culture to individual asset classes as components of making the investment system work better for both investors and society. During 2025, we participated in several roundtable discussions on Systems Thinking, and we have been closely following and participating in conversations about the ‘Total Portfolio Approach’ that some large institutions are now adopting in place of traditional Strategic Asset Allocation.
We participated in two working groups during 2024 and 2025, centred around the creation of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) Private Securities Exchange. One group focused on the legal aspects and the other on the technical details of the exchange itself. The Private Securities Exchange is a new venue that offers private companies access to periodic secondary-market trading, while also managing exchange participants and imposing much lower disclosure rules. We see this as a welcome new step in the ability of exciting private companies to grow, something that could, in time, be beneficial for our clients and for UK growth more generally.