Baillie Gifford has announced that Charles Plowden, a Joint Senior Partner at the firm and one of three portfolio managers of the Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Growth fund, will be retiring on 30 April 2021.

At the partnership level, Mr Plowden will continue as Joint Senior Partner with Andrew Telfer until 30 April 2021 and upon his retirement Malcolm MacColl will become Joint Senior Partner, working alongside Mr Telfer.

At the fund level, Mr Plowden will continue to co-manage the Global Alpha Growth fund with fellow managers, Mr MacColl and Spencer Adair over the next year. However, the firm has appointed Helen Xiong, who currently serves as co-manager on the group's American fund, to join the Global Alpha team on 1 June 2020, and to formally assume co-management responsibility alongside Messers MacColl and Adair, upon Mr Plowden's departure.

As Mr Plowden currently remains in situ at this juncture, we have decided to retain our AA rating on the Baillie Gifford Global Alpha Growth fund. We will be monitoring the progress of the transition of responsibilities over the next 12 months and will of course provide any further relevant updates as appropriate.