David has had several senior roles in investment and fund managements in firms such as NatWest, J Rothschild Investment Management and Morgan Grenfell.

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David is a founder of Windsor Investment Management.

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He joined Norwich Union Investment Management in 1997 (later merging to form Aviva), before becoming Head of Equities in 2012 and then CIO, until his retirement in March 2016.

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David currently holds two other significant non-executive board positions at Melrose Industries plc and Electra Private Equity plc.

Ed joined Dowgate in 2021 after 15-years as CFO at Hunters Property Plc, a business that listed on AIM under David Poutney and his team then at Numis. Prior to joining Hunters he was an Executive on the Corporate Finance team at Williams de Broë plc having previously worked in Corporate Finance at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Ed has over 25 years of experience in the corporate world advising on or directly partaking in a range of mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, listings on both AIM and Main Markets and the associated fund raisings. He guided Hunters through the 2008 and 2020 crashes as well as their 2015 flotation.  He has been a member of the Securities Institute since 2000 having qualified as an ACA Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1995.   Ed enjoys the daily hustle of looking to deliver business and is a keen supporter of first-rate customer service as well as adapting so that strategies continue to deliver. Ed has spent over 20 years setting up directly (as well as mentoring others’) businesses.  Aside from work Ed is a keen sports fan and golfer, he retains an interest in current affairs and enjoys spending time with his family.

Simon joined Dowgate Capital as Head of Compliance in 2017 and joined the Board as Chief Operating Officer at the beginning of 2020. He is now also Chief Operating Officer of Dowgate Group. His responsibilities include managing operational policies, systems and processes while continuing to manage and oversee the compliance department and being the main point of contact with the FCA. His area of responsibility covers all Group companies, sitting on the Boards of both Dowgate Capital and Dowgate Wealth.

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Simon has over 20 years of experience in the industry, having held various compliance officer roles at Jupiter Unit Trust Managers, JP Morgan Asset Management and Daiwa Asset Management. He is an associate of the CISI. In principle, he says there is no difference from working at a smaller dynamic business or a start up like Dowgate Wealth: the best interests of the clients are always paramount, supported by robust systems and controls. What he finds refreshing about Dowgate Wealth is that a culture of strong governance is supported by a speed of decision-making lacking in larger organisations which makes bespoke wealth management easier to manage and control. To this end, his people management skills mean that any issues that do arise can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

James Serjeant started his city career in 2000 working with Lorna Tilbian, David Poutney and Paul Richards at WestLB Panmure in Corporate Broking and Equity Syndication before joining Investec Bank in 2002 as part of a team of 5 to develop and grow their Corporate Broking department.  In 2006, he joined Numis Securities where he was Managing Director of Corporate Broking, advising publicly quoted companies including Autotrader, Domino’s Pizza, Rightmove and RWS Holdings.  In 2016, James and David left Numis to stake a controlling stake in Dowgate Capital.  He is CEO and Head of Corporate Broking & Advisory, and sits on the boards of both Dowgate Capital and the parent company, Dowgate Group.  He is heavily involved in strategic direction of these businesses and their respective operations.  James was formerly a Non-Executive Director of TMT Acquisition Plc.

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James has a passion for identifying early-stage growth businesses, advising their respective boards and raising the required capital to facilitate their growth ambitions.  He has been involved in the flotation of several micro-cap companies that have grown into multi-billion pound businesses, including Learning Technologies Group, Keywords Studios and S4 Capital.  At Dowgate, he acts for a numbers of private and public entrepreneur-led companies, including S4 Capital, TPX Impact (formerly The Panoply) and Franchise Brands.

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James lives in Sussex with his wife and two sons. He enjoys running and cycling on the South Downs and spends time on the water sailing, swimming and paddle boarding near West Wittering.  James also represents Hurstpierpoint Tennis Club.

Stuart joined Dowgate in 2019, and is now CEO of Dowgate Wealth and Board Member of Dowgate Group. Stuart has over 20 years experience in Investment Management. Following a career in the Armed Forces, he started his stockbroking life at SP Angel & Co where he was made a partner in 2005. He then moved to Walker Crips to expand the Discretionary Management mandate there. He joined Dowgate Capital with his team in 2019 to help build the Wealth Management division.

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He has regularly outperformed the benchmarks through many market cycles and has a loyal client following. His mantra of reinforcing success has created a competitive edge. Stuart is also a Director of the 181 Fund (Jersey) Ltd and a Trustee of the military charity, Give Us Time.

Lorna Tilbian was appointed Co-Chairman of Dowgate Group in July 2025, having previously served as Executive Chairman of Dowgate Capital (2019-2025) and a Board member of Dowgate Wealth (2021-2024). Lorna was formerly an Executive PLC Director (2005-2018) and Head of Media (2001-2018) at Numis Corporation PLC (now Deutsche Numis).

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After a distinguished career as a No. 1 ranked Media analyst by Institutional Investor and Extel from 1987-2012, Lorna headed the Numis Media Investment Banking franchise from 2012 until her retirement from Numis in 2018. Lorna co-founded Numis after acquiring a stake in the newly launched broker in 2001 following a career at Sheppards (1984-1988), SG Warburg (Director, 1988-1995) and WestLB Panmure (Executive Director, 1995-2001).

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Lorna sits on the boards of Rightmove Plc (Chairman Remuneration Committee), Premier Foods Plc (Senior Independent Director), Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc and ProVen VCT Plc (Senior Independent Director). She was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, M&C Saatchi Plc and Jupiter UK Growth Trust Plc.

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Lorna has served on the Advisory Board of TechNation’s Future Fifty programme, acted as a C&binet (Creative & Business International Network) Ambassador for the Department of Culture, Media & Sport and sat on the Expert Panel for the BBC Funding Review.

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Media

• Featured in the Campaign "A" List 2024
• Featured in the Campaign Global Power List
• City AM Analyst of the Year (finalist)
• Evening Standard 1000 Influentials
• Daily Telegraph Media Industry’s Top 20
• The Business Britain’s Top 50 Equity Analysts (2nd)
• Media Week’s Power 50 List

David is Chairman of Dowgate Group, having formerly been CEO of Dowgate Capital and Chairman of Dowgate Wealth. His early career was in commercial banking and asset finance, which he admits to drifting into with a history degree from Cardiff University in 1974. He made the transition into stockbroking a few years ahead of the Big Bang, becoming a number one rated financials analyst for 15 years at a number of well known firms including BZW, James Capel and UBS. He moved into a broader role in corporate broking during the DotCom boom of the 1990s and was involved in the flotation of a number of exciting companies which survived the inevitable crash, notably Sports Internet Group which was taken over by Sky and made investors over 20 times their money in little over a year. After joining Numis in 2001 he was responsible for a number of exciting growth companies such as Dominos Pizza, Alliance Pharma and LTG, all of which increased in value many fold.

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As Numis became focussed on larger capitalised companies, David “retired” at the age of 63, but his passion for growth companies led him to perhaps the final chapter of his long career and, with some former Numis colleagues, a controlling stake in Dowgate through its parent company, 3B Capital. In a short space of time, the ability of David and his colleagues to identify exciting growth companies has already chalked up excellent returns for investors in the likes of S4 Capital and Franchise Brands.

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He sees wealth managers as a key element in helping these emerging companies to grow as many private investors are excluded by the bigger investment houses from participating in the early stages of financing the stars of the future and the funding gap is not filled by the dwindling interest in small companies by institutional investors. Through carefully managed conflicts of interest and a relationship that is both simultaneously close but arms length at the same time, Dowgate Wealth is able to have access to these companies, provided always that they meet the investment criteria of the underlying clients.

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Dowgate Capital has a number of core principles when looking for companies to back, and chief amongst them is quality management with a proven track record and, above all, skin in the game. With their own money at stake, the chances of success are greater and the likelihood of overcoming inevitable setbacks is further intensified. With significant equity stakes, the Dowgate team practices what it preaches. The time involved in building Dowgate leaves little time for hobbies, but there is just about time for the odd ski trip, a terrible round of golf and then a commiserating glass of fine wine. As he says, life is too short to drink cheap wine, just as it is to invest in bad companies.