Puma Capital Group

📢 We are hiring! In recent years our business has grown significantly and now comprises four businesses focused on delivering long-term sustainable growth for our investors and partners. 📈 Together, they manage more than £1 billion in assets, have funded over £2 billion of property developments, and assisted dozens of businesses across the UK elevate and expand to deliver on their brilliant ideas. 🏢 We are passionate about building a strong and supportive culture throughout our business and were recently ranked 70th in the UK’s Best Workplaces 2024 (medium sized) by Great Places to Work UK – one of just seven firms in our sector on the list! 🧑🎓We also focus on supporting our team from a learning & development perspective and were ranked in 28th place for Best Workplaces for Development 2024 (Medium) by Great Places to Work UK. 🚀 As we continue to grow, we are currently recruiting for a variety of roles across our business areas. Take a look at our open positions here - https://lnkd.in/eh63EpZJ Please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you! Tarinee Wong Sasha Ogg Cara Baxter

We were delighted to welcome Emmanuel Owusu for a six-week internship as part of the 10,000 Black Interns scheme this summer. Emmanuel spent valuable time with our Client Onboarding, Fund Operations and Client Relations teams. This gave him the opportunity to understand the investment process from the first point of contact with a client through to the application process and supporting our clients day to day. In this article, Emmanuel reflects on his time with us, the insight and experience he gained from the business and the support he received from the whole team. A particular thanks to his mentor Gavin Cross and the whole team for supporting Emmanuel! Link to Emmanuel's article in the comments. Tarinee Wong Sasha Ogg Cara Baxter

Last week we were delighted to welcome students from Stoke Newington School for the 3rd year running for work experience with our team. The five outstanding students that joined us were given direct access to our business and the chance to explore their career options. Having been matched with the individuals and teams that matched their interests they spent time with our property finance, people and compliance teams. While also shadowing our senior team and experiencing everything our business has to offer. We rounded off the week by enjoying pizza on the rooftop with them so they could reflect on everything they have learnt throughout our time with us.       Social mobility is a key part of our wider DE&I strategy and we work hard to ensure that we are increasing access to financial services for those who may not otherwise have the opportunity. Our ongoing partnership with Stoke Newington School is part of our commitment to making steps towards achieving meaningful change in our sector. We’d like to say a big thank you to all of the students for their hard work, and we look forward to continuing this partnership by welcoming more students in the future!

Another moment to celebrate! 🏆 We thrilled to share that we’ve been ranked 49th out of 100 (medium category – all sectors) among the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women™ by Great Place To Work UK! In addition, we’re proud to say we’re the 2nd company ranked out of 7 within the FS and Insurance sector (medium sized). The companies recognised on the list have shown a commitment to: ⚖️ Ensuring a reasonable balance of women and men across the organisation. ☑️ Removing barriers to women’s career advancement. 💻 Creating workplaces where all employees, regardless of gender, can flourish. DE&I has long been at the heart of our business and we’re committed to building an inclusive environment so all our staff can thrive, irrespective of gender.  This is supported through events, partnerships, initiatives and extends to every part of the staff lifecycle. From blind recruitment, a healthy approach to learning and development (including inclusivity training run by qualified psychologists) to our flexible working policies. Our policies aim to support staff through all their lifestages including paid miscarriage leave, menopause support (education and financial support to get diagnosis and healthcare), plus a generous enhanced maternity and paternity leave. We have proudly maintained a balanced gender representation with a 50:50 ratio and within our 17 functions, 11 are led by women. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful employees for helping to shape our company culture and for their anonymous feedback that helped us achieve this recognition. Over the past year we’re so proud to have been recognised as one of the Top 100 UK’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance 2023 and one of the UK’s Best Workplaces 2024 (medium sized, ranked 70th).  Tarinee Wong Ivy Quan Sasha Ogg Cara Baxter

As a team we recently celebrated one of our favourite days in the Puma Capital Group calendar – our annual summer party! We kicked off the day by celebrating all the brilliant work that we have achieved across the business in our quarterly town hall meeting. Each quarter we choose one of our key values to focus on and this session’s theme was Value Creation. With updates from CEO, David Kaye and the heads of each business area we also celebrated our Values Champions, those members of the team who have been nominated by their peers for their continued commitment to demonstrating our core values. Congratulations to Rachel Turner, Niccie Riviere, Tom Preston and Joseph Cornwall, CFA, Chtd FCSI! We then enjoyed a wonderful BBQ lunch before heading to Regent’s Park for our annual Puma rounders tournament….which only got a bit competitive! Followed by delicious food, drinks and a spot of dancing at an amazing venue with views over London…a perfect way to round off the day! Thanks to Rachel Turner, Natalie H and Tarinee Wong for all the work that went into making the day so enjoyable and memorable for the whole team!  

Yesterday evening, over 25 of us from across the business were delighted to take part in the annual J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge (the world’s largest corporate running event) alongside thousands of runners in Battersea Park. The event which we’ve supported for a number of years raises vital funds for Centrepoint, the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity. We’re incredibly proud of our team of runners and walkers who completed the 5.6k distance around the park in their Puma t-shirts and it was great to celebrate together afterwards with a delicious BBQ. A huge thank you to Sasha Ogg for organising and corralling us all to take part in this wonderful event! We’re already looking forward to next year’s event! David Kaye Eleanor W. Katie Priddis Lucy Erikson Cora Thomas Rachel Brooker ACSI Maicy Winward Joe Millman Eliot Kaye Harriet Rosethorn Henri Songeur Sarah Milne Ryan Goodbrand Samuel Panagrosso Gavin Cross Joseph Cornwall, CFA, Chtd FCSI Rocco Versace Caragh O'Shaughnessy Karen Sullivan Tamrynne Willers Shane Ryan Emily Bourne

Last week we continued our Pride celebrations with our annual Pride party, this year on our new roof garden terrace! 🌈 🎉 We kicked off by watching the football with a stack of pizzas, then moved to the rooftop where we enjoyed rainbow drinks, glitter, a competitive game of bingo – expertly hosted by James Hempston – and raised funds for ELOP~LGBT Mental Health & Wellbeing Charity through our colourful raffle. ELOP is a charity that supports the mental health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities. We also heard first-hand about the important work they do from Puma’s Sarah Milne, a long-standing supporter and trustee of the charity. Pride month is a time to celebrate but also reflect on our progress and the work that still lies ahead to ensure equality for the LGBTQ community. As the month comes to an end, we will continue to celebrate diversity and inclusion every day and promote a welcoming environment for all of our employees and the wider community. 

🌈 As one of the initiatives we are running during Pride month, we were pleased to welcome back Jude Guaitamacchi to host a session on ‘LGBTQ Allies Into Action‘’.   Jude is a passionate advocate and campaigner for the trans community. During the session, we learned about the challenges that the trans community are facing, what the community (and Jude) are doing to combat the misinformation and prejudice they are facing, and how wider support and allyship for this community is critical.    Some of our key takeaways were:   ☑ The trans community make up less than 1% of the UK population, however, are subject to disproportionate levels of scrutiny both in the media and in politics. ☑ Changing the conversation to be more focused on positivity for the community, Jude helped to create the viral ‘WithTheT’ campaign to galvanise allyship, bringing together the LGBTQ community in solidarity with the trans community, and made history by chairing the first all-trans panel in UK parliament. They also were instrumental in the ‘Trans People are loved’ campaign. ☑ Hate crimes against trans people sadly were at a record high last year, with some heartbreaking statistics like 78% of trans youth are bullied at school. Jude talked to us about many of the myths that surround the trans community and how they impact public opinion. ☑ We learned about the importance of allyship; how leaning into the difficult conversations and actions like sharing your pronouns, visibly showing the pride rainbow etc. make a real difference to people more widely in the LGBTQIA community, to let them know that you are a safe place and advocate for them.    We’d like to thank Jude for sharing their in-depth knowledge both from a lived and data-led perspective. The session was also useful for us all to be able to share our own views, ask questions and broaden our understanding in a safe and supportive space.

To kick off Pride month celebrations, we were excited to come together for a Pride afternoon tea, where we enjoyed a rainbow cake complete with a waterfall of rainbow chocolate on the inside! 🌈 This is just one of many events and initiatives we will be putting on throughout the month to celebrate the LGBTQIA community and take time to reflect on the progress that has been made, as well as the change that still needs to happen. Although June is officially Pride month, we continue to celebrate diversity and inclusion every day as we truly believe that meaningful change cannot be made from one-offs, but instead an ongoing commitment to promoting a welcoming environment for all. #Pride2024 #Inclusion 

Celebrating another moment of pride! 🏆 We’re incredibly excited to share that we’ve ranked 28th out of 100 among the UK's Best Workplaces for Development™ 2024 (medium sized) by Great Place To Work UK! Supporting employee development is a key part of our company culture so it’s an honour to be featured on this list. We take a holistic approach to development that focuses on individual growth, investing heavily in each member of our team as individuals rather than as a collective. This can range from technical qualifications to tailor-made workshops to enhance personal and professional effectiveness. We are also proud to invite external speakers to talk to us about a wide range of topics such as social mobility and neurodiversity, while sharing their lived experiences. We also believe personal growth can be just as valuable outside of the workplace, so we offer all of our staff an annual Personal Development Grant to pursue a hobby or skill which can be anything from horse riding to life drawing! We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful employees for helping to shape our company culture and for their anonymous feedback that helped us achieve this recognition. And a big shout out to our incredible leadership team for always upholding our values and encouraging their teams to thrive. David Kaye Tarinee Wong Paul Frost Rupert West Eliot Kaye Stuart Rollason Andrew Burt Erica Drepaul Katie Priddis Rachel Stansfield, CFA Tej Shah Amy Coburn Nick Brillus Ellie Kakoulli There has been a huge amount to celebrate over the last year as we’ve also been recognised as one of the Top 100 UK’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance 2023 and one of the UK’s Best Workplaces 2024 (medium sized, ranked 70th).