Tim Guinness is the founder and Chairman of Guinness GlobalInvestors. He has been in business 5 decades and has been managing money for 44 years. He has built up two firms, the first he sold and the second now runs $11bn. Age 77, he is still thinking about how to grow the business and secure its future. Perhaps controversially, Tim thinks it’s not difficult for activemanagers to beat the index, even today. This was a fascinating discussion with an incredibly experienced and normally under the radar fund manager who is unafraid to challenge consensus thinking.

Nick Train is a seriously thoughtful growth investor with a highly impressive 40 year track record. He invests in eternal franchises and takes a 20 year view. He says his ideal holding period is forever. He was early to recognise that high quality consumer brands were great investments and accordingly his funds significantly outperformed their benchmarks. More recently, the last five years have been less kind and performance has lagged somewhat with weak performance from some of his biggest holdings, notably Diageo, which is down almost 50% from its peak, in a market which has gone up.

Nick has taken this performance to heart and he explains why he has stuck with Diageo and continues to believe it’s as “forever” stock. He also explains his change in strategy to favouring 21st century asset light digital data plays which he sees as even more valuable than his old favourite consumer brands. He is particularly impressed with Rightmove, which I have described in the past as akin to a UK Zillow, and explains his rationale, as well as his enthusiasm for LSEG, RELX and Unilever.

Christopher Tsai is a deeply thoughtful growth investor. He became one of the foremost collectors of the works of Ai Weiwei, recognising their implicit value and deeply studying the artist. His concentrated portfolio reflects his attraction to growth stocks with Tesla his largest position. In our conversation, he explains why he believes Tesla has deep moats across multiple verticals; why he thinks many of the growth stocks in his portfolio have optically inflated valuations as they invest now to create future value; why the second largest position in his portfolio is QXO, with his father, also a famous investor, being one of Brad Jacobs’ original backers; and what he looks for in managers. I am trying to meet more growth investors to understand their strategy better. Christopher’s portfolio is too racy for me, at over a 60x P/E multiple on my estimates when we recorded and probably higher today, but he makes an interesting case for holding long-term compounders.