Magnus Spence

Magnus is a Director of Spence Johnson. He has been a research consultant in the investment industry in Europe for over 15 years, specialising in marketing and distribution issues.

Sector Analysis, the research firm he ran from 1994 until 2003, was the first to measure the growth of third party fund distribution across Europe, and the first to measure the drivers of fund selection. In 2004 Magnus became European Research Director of Boston-based FRC where he was the first to measure the costs of fund distribution across Europe. At Spence Marketing Intelligence from 2006, he was the first to describe in depth the development of brand building activity in European asset management.

Since 2008 with the formation of Spence Johnson, a privately-owned specialist provider of marketing intelligence to over 80 firms, Magnus has broadened his focus beyond asset management to provide analysis of other areas of the investment industry, notably Wealth Management and DC Pensions.

Magnus graduated with a first class honours degree from London School of Economics in 1982, and subsequently worked in Investment Banking and Venture Capital before becoming a management consultant in 1990. Magnus is also Chairman of the Asset Management Group of The Financial Services Forum. He has seen a wide range of his research published.

In his spare time he is also a cartoonist and illustrator - he was for many years a weekly contributor to The Express on Sunday. He lives in Suffolk with his family and several bicycles.