Stéphanie Bobtcheff, CFA, Small & Mid Cap Fund Manage

Tell us about your career path.

After studying at Science Po Paris and earning a master’s degree from Bocconi University in Milan, I started in financial analysis at Indosuez. It was initially a fallback choice, a financial choice to repay a student loan. My original calling for economic journalism didn’t last long, because I very quickly developed a taste for asset management. After seven years at Indosuez and then Crédit Agricole, following the merger, I joined Oddo’s small cap investment team, where I co-managed the Oddo Avenir range with Pascal Riégis. In 2007, I left Paris for Switzerland, and the investment company Pascal Investment Advisers. It was both a career move and a family move. I discovered the universe of hedge funds and shorts while managing a long-short fund of European mid-caps. Ultimately, there are similarities with long-only management, whether it’s the stock picking, case review, leadership meetings, or the search for stocks forgotten by the market. After seven fascinating years in Geneva, I returned to Paris and joined La Financière de l’Echiquier, with the aim of relaunching small & mid cap investing at this conviction-driven company and bringing together a team that now includes five people. In seven years, assets under management have increased tenfold to €4.5 billion now in the small & mid cap segment

Why did you choose asset management

Out of a taste for business, for the diversity of the profession. It combines the excitement of discovery with rigour and a passion for research.

What’s special about small & mid cap investing at La Financière de l’Echiquier ?

A solid track record over time, with controlled volatility, genuine collective management, and a very structured process. That process frames our decision-making and steers us clear of emotional bias. The real difference lies in our teamwork. It’s continually fed by our interaction – how we challenge and question each other. That’s what makes our work so fulfilling and we think it’s why our performance is so consistent and so constant.

If you could only bring one thing with you to Mars, what would it be

The Guide des valeurs moyennes (Guide to Mid-Caps), signed by Didier Le Menestrel, the founder of La Financière de l’Echiquier.