In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, we are putting the spotlight on six female managers who have impressed. These experts have consistently demonstrated skilled portfolio construction, serving their clients well over the long term.
Considering funds available for sale in Europe, we commend the following portfolio managers who contribute to the success of strategies earning a Morningstar People Pillar rating of Above Average or High as of Dec. 31, 2025: Alexandra Ivanova and Katy Thorneycroft for allocation funds, Joanna Kwok and Amelia Morris on the equity side, alongside Ella Hoxha and Saida Eggenstedt for fixed-income funds.
Allocation Funds — Top Performing Female Managers
Alexandra Ivanova, Invesco
Alexandra Ivanova has been comanager on Invesco Global Income alongside Paul Causer and Paul Read from August 2020 and has been the lead manager of the strategy since the start of 2022, after which she has been responsible for the fixed-income and allocation calls. The strategy earns an Above Average People Pillar rating.
Ivanova has 25 years of industry experience and joined Invesco in 2006. She joined the Henley-based fixed-interest team in July 2015 and has been part of the global asset-allocation committee for eight years.
The fund follows an income-oriented strategy without a formal distribution target, giving managers greater flexibility than many peers. Benchmarked against a 40% global equity/60% bond split, asset allocation is driven by relative value opportunities across markets. While equity exposure can theoretically range from 35% to 65%, it has historically remained between 35% and 48% to prevent equity risk from dominating the portfolio. The fund has generated strong risk-adjusted returns, comfortably outperforming both the average peer and the index.
Katy Thorneycroft, J.P. Morgan.
Katy Thorneycroft is the CIO of multi-asset solutions international at J.P. Morgan. She manages global tactical asset allocation, balanced, flexible, and total return portfolios. Having joined the firm in 1999, she has also held responsibilities as a convertible bond portfolio manager and member of the multi-asset solutions team in New York and as a European equity portfolio manager in London.
JPM Global Balanced employs three sets of strategies: top-down asset-allocation calls, security selection in equity and bonds, and currency bets. The team’s active asset-allocation calls are generally modest and tend to have a short- to medium-term horizon, resulting in tactical tilts of the stock/bond ratio relative to the 50/50 neutral level, as well as regional and sector over- and underweighting via futures within equities.
In November 2013, the fund changed its reference index to a composite benchmark: 50% JPMorgan Government Bond Index Global Hedged to EUR, 45% MSCI World Index Hedged to EUR, and 5% MSCI Emerging Markets Index. It has landed ahead of that benchmark since then and beats 80% of peers in the EUR moderate-allocation global Morningstar Category over the past decade.
Equity Funds — Top Performing Female Managers
Joanna Kwok, J.P. Morgan.
Joanna Kwok is a portfolio manager within the Asia-Pacific regional team based in Hong Kong. She manages the JPM Asia Growth Fund and JPM Asian Smaller Companies Fund. She joined the firm in 2002 as an analyst within the Hong Kong bond team and took up her current role in 2005.
JPM Asia Growth follows a well-codified quality-growth approach, making good use of the team’s research support. The comanagers focus on companies in attractive industries with structural growth potential, quality franchises, track records of solid execution, and reliable return on capital. IT and financial sectors together make up about half the portfolio, seen as a fertile ground for companies meeting these standards.
Over the past decade, the fund beats 80% of peers in the Asia ex-Japan equity Morningstar Category. The strategy displayed greater upside and downside capture than peers, thanks to the managers’ willingness to pay up for faster-growing but more expensive names. Despite the higher volatility, investors were well-compensated on a risk-adjusted basis.
Amelia Morris, Brandes
Amelia Morris oversees equity research in the consumer sector and covers the European retail and telecom services industries at Brandes. She has four decades of experience and joined the firm in 1998.
The quintet that oversees Brandes European Value has been stable since 2013. Morris has spent almost three decades with the firm and embodies the firm’s long-term, value-driven culture. These strengths underpin the strategy’s High People Pillar rating.
The portfolio invests across the entire market-cap spectrum, but a persistent overweighting in small-caps and mid-cap stocks reflects where the team continues to find compelling opportunities.
Short-term discomfort followed by strong long-term outcomes remains characteristic of this often contrarian strategy. Excellent relative returns in 2023 and 2024 came from strong stock selection, and 2025 remained solid in absolute terms despite headwinds from a reduced exposure to financials.
Fixed-Income Funds — Top Performing Female Managers
Ella Hoxha, Newton
Ella Hoxha is head of fixed income and co-head of Real Return at Newton. She boasts more than two decades of experience managing global fixed‑income, absolute return, and hedge fund portfolios.
Jonathan Day has led BNY Mellon Global Bond since October 2021 but brings even deeper continuity, having joined the team in 2002 and contributed as analyst and comanager for many years. He is joined by experienced comanagers Ella Hoxha, Newton’s fixed- income head, who joined in 2023 following an orderly handover, and Trevor Holder, an emerging-market rates and currency specialist, who has been part of the team since 2019. The strategy earns a People Pillar rating of Above Average.
The strategy combines top-down thematic views from Newton’s investment strategy group with fundamental and quantitative bottom-up analysis of sovereign issuers and currencies. It focuses primarily on G10 government bonds, and duration and yield-curve positioning are the main performance drivers.
The portfolio’s high-quality bias has supported resilience in stressed markets, notably in 2022 but more mixed in subsequent years, with country and duration positioning driving both periods of underperformance and renewed benchmark-relative gains through 2024 and into 2025.
Saida Eggerstedt, Schroders
Saida Eggerstedt brings close to two decades of industry experience and has led Schroder ISF Sustainable Euro Credit since its December 2019 launch and serves as head of sustainable credit.
The strategy applies Schroders’ theme-driven issuer selection framework, combining forward-looking credit themes with integrated sustainability analysis. It seeks to outperform its benchmark while maintaining a higher sustainability score. The portfolio reflects strict sector exclusions, a best-in-class sustainability bias, and meaningful exposure to green, social, and sustainability bonds.
Security selection remains the primary driver. Since 2023, credit carry and strong security selection have been the main drivers of outperformance, benefiting from conviction in European banking and selective sector bets.
