About Synthesist
Synthesist was founded in 2022. Its aim is to help companies improve their investment offering, utilising Peter’s thirty years of experience in fund management.
To synthesise is to combine often diverse concepts into a coherent whole, a coherent system. It is the opposite of analysis, which is about understanding existing systems by breaking them down into their constituent parts. Synthesist aims to create better ways of doing things, better ways of understanding things. It does this by synthesising diverse concepts into new systems of doing and understanding.
About Peter
In offering various investment consulting and communication services, Synthesist draws on Peter’s decades of experience in fund management. Peter has acquired this experience both on the investment side, most recently as a chief investment officer, and in marketing communications.
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A notable example of his experience relates to helping one firm, an investment boutique, rapidly turnaround its business. This was achieved first by conceiving a new investment process, then implementing it within the investment team. Secondly, by communicating the new process to the Board and to other teams and departments, as well as to the media. And, most importantly, to the firm’s existing and prospective clients.
Peter has been a fund manager for over 30 years. He joined the industry in 1988 on the equities side with a major UK fund management company, later becoming a multi-asset and asset allocation specialist at another major house. Peter spent over two decades in Asia, before returning to the UK in 2014 to join a boutique multi-asset firm as its chief investment officer, overseeing a turnaround in the firm’s business during his 5-year tenure.
Peter is a Fellow of The Geological Society. His geological knowledge gives him an edge with respect to important aspects of investing such as statistics and climate change.
Chimp Investor Blog
Peter maintains a blog of his views and opinions on various topics, investment related as well as broader. The blog is called Chimp Investor and can be found here.
If you are interested in engaging Synthesist’s Thought Leadership and Communication expertise, the blog provides a taste of what you can expect. Peter has had hundreds of articles published over the last fifteen years in respected financial journals, and on a broad range of topics. On his blog, he also writes about topics outside of or on the periphery of the financial industry such as geology, climate change and statistics. His approach to both writing and presenting is to be punchy, contentious, statistics based and evidence supported, whether historical or theoretical.
“Since the introduction of a new investment process by Mr Elston, the fund has undergone a remarkable turnaround in performance and has produced alpha on a consistent basis”
The Financial Times
“The departure of Elston is a setback given his profile as a market commentator in the media and his well-regarded investment letters”
CityWire