Investment sector specialist Mipham Samten (OE 2012–2019) may be among the 450 Club’s younger members, but he is clear-sighted about why he needed to buy into the club.
After taking full advantage of opportunities to get involved in debating and public-speaking while at the School, Mipham secured a place to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford.
“For me, joining the 450 Club is about supporting an institution that believes in meritocracy, as I do, recognising that without responsibility, merit is meaningless,” he says. “From those to whom much is given, much is required. In that respect, joining was an easy decision to make.”
While at university, Mipham spent a year running the Oxford Alpha Fund – a student investment society.
“The game is to find out what everyone is thinking, and identify their potential mistakes. The biggest opportunity and challenge was developing an environment where the society can stay calm when the market is panicking or exuberant. This meant choosing to work with independent thinkers, people who are comfortable being wrong publicly and who change their mind with the facts, not with the crowd. Interestingly, this is not always correlated with ‘intelligence’ per se: separating your ego from your ideas is hard, but ultimately rewarding.”
Mipham completed a summer internship with Man Group, a London Stock Exchange-listed active investment management business, in 2022, and then took up his present role with the firm in September 2023.
“I’m early in my career as an Investment Associate. Everyone wants to know, ‘What’s x fund’s ‘edge’?’ or its advantage over others. Generally, it’s pretty clear that an edge is the product of working hard now, or having worked hard before. It pays to stress assumptions others take for granted, to explore topics others ignore. Opportunities come and go, but those who are able to take advantage are those who prepared when something was unknown or unfashionable.
“I hope to continue investing professionally, learning a lot, and, hopefully, developing a little edge of my own.”
Mipham is pictured taking part in last year’s Elizabethan Union Dinner Debate alongside Saifullah Shah (OE 2013-2020).