Mission Statement
Didasko’s mission is to improve the understanding of finance, investment and economics. We achieve this by working with a range of groups - including schools, universities, charities and businesses - funded by our courses and other revenue generating activities.
Didasko’s mission is to improve the understanding of finance, investment and economics.
We achieve this by working with a range of groups - including schools, universities, charities and businesses - funded by our courses and other revenue-generating activities.
Objectives
Didasko Education Company’s objectives are:
- To support educational projects, teaching, research and scholarships
- To improve the practice of investment
- To improve diversity in the investment industry
The Library of Mistakes
Edinburgh's Library of Mistakes is like no other venue: a hub of research, intellectual curiosity and conviviality set in the city's historic New Town.
Advanced Valuation in Financial Markets Course
If you’re a professional in financial markets wanting a fuller, holistic understanding of their workings, or someone who’s interested in financial markets and would like a professional-level understanding of how they operate, then this is the course for you.
Future Asset
We’re working hard to encourage high school girls in Scotland to look at the world of investment.
In investment they can develop their interpersonal skills, confidence, problem-solving powers and resilience.
Leavers’ Money Skills (LMS)
Leavers' Money Skills offers free, impartial financial education workshops to 18-year-olds in schools across Edinburgh, the Lothians, and Borders.
The programme aims to combat poverty by teaching essential money management skills like budgeting and banking.
Leavers’ Money Skills (LMS)
Leavers’ Money Skills (LMS) is an independent and impartial financial education organisation aiming to alleviate poverty by providing young people as they reach 18 years of age with appropriate life skills and knowledge to manage their personal finances. Operating under the charity, the Didasko Education Company Ltd, workshops are offered to school leavers. Didasko is providing operational support and allowing LMS to work under their Board of Trustees.
The main aspects of the workshop activities are personal money management; including banking, budgeting, savings, debt, and touching upon pensions. The workshops are designed to give recipients more confidence in coping with everyday money and in dealing with future financial challenges. The workshops are delivered face to face in schools and there is no charge to the school. The materials used are impartial and independent of influence by commercial organisations.
LMS is managed and delivered by Catriona Scott and Leonie Griffin
The Didasko Board
Tony Foster
Tony Foster joined the Board of Didasko in the spring of 2021 after working for over 30 years in the investment industry. During his career, he managed a range of funds and investment trusts, primarily in multi-asset investments and UK equities. As Chair of the CFA UK Scottish Committee, he helped organise regular industry talks and events, co-hosted by the Library of Mistakes, the University of Edinburgh Business School and other partners. He became Chair of the Board in September 2021.
Stewart Brown
Stewart is a Didasko board member, representing Artemis Investment Management LLP in its support of Didasko. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, Stewart worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer. He joined Artemis in 2005, becoming its General Counsel in 2010. Stewart is a partner in Artemis Investment Management LLP, a member of Artemis’ Executive Committee and a director of Artemis Funds (Lux) SICAV.
Mary Duffy
From a rural, working-class home in Northern Ireland, Mary has lived in Scotland since 1997 and has two children who attend Gaelic-medium state schools.
She is managing director at Juniper Trust, which provides support to business-oriented students from low-income families, a trustee of The Carnegie Trust and a director of The Juniper Companies Ltd, which owns the investment company Juniper Partners. Prior to this, she led the work in Scotland for BBC Children in Need, was vice chair at Social Enterprise Academy Scotland, and was a founding trustee of Changing the Chemistry.
Mary is disabled and believes passionately in the power of diversity and the importance of education. She has a DPhil from the University of Oxford.
Fiona MacRae
Fiona MacRae is a Board Member of Didasko, representing the investment management firm Walter Scott in its support of the goals of Didasko. She is a qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the investment management industry.
Russell Napier
Professor Russell Napier is the author of The Solid Ground investment report for institutional investors and co-founder of the investment research portal ERIC- a business he now co-owns with D.C. Thomson. Russell has worked in the investment business for over 30 years and has been advising global institutional investors on asset allocation since 1995. Russell is the author of the book Anatomy of The Bear: Lessons From Wall Street’s Four Great Bottoms (‘a cult classic’ according to the FT) and is the founder and course director of The Practical History of Financial Markets at The Edinburgh Business School.
Russell is Chairman of Mid Wynd International Investment Trust a GBP500m market cap. closed-end investment vehicle listed on the London Stock Exchange. He is a member of the investment advisory committees of three fund management companies, Cerno Capital, Kennox Asset Management and Bay Capital.
In 2014 Russell founded the charitable venture The Library of Mistakes a business and financial history library in Edinburgh that now has branches in India and Switzerland.
Russell has degrees in law from Queen’s University Belfast and Magdalene College Cambridge. He is a Fellow of The CFA Society of the UK and is an Honorary Professor at The University of Stirling and a Visiting Professor at Heriot-Watt University. He is a contributing columnist for The Toronto Star newspaper. His second book – The Asian Financial Crisis 1995-1998: Birth of the Age of Debt – was published in July 2021.
Claire Simpson
Claire works at Artemis Fund Managers as Fund Company Secretary for Mid Wynd International Investment Trust plc and Artemis Alpha Trust plc. Prior to a career in company secretariat, Claire came from a background of fund administration and client service, concentrating on OEICs and unit trusts. Claire is a Chartered Accountant.
Sarah Whitley
Sarah Whitley spent her entire professional career learning from her mistakes investing at Baillie Gifford and since retiring five years ago has built a portfolio of interests predominantly in the voluntary sector. These range from the Edinburgh International Festival Endowment Fund via St Andrew Boat Club to the Abbotsford Trust and the Didasko Education company, where Sarah chairs the Future Asset initiative.
Klyzza Jayme Lidman
Klyzza Jayme Lidman is an investment analyst at Aubrey Capital Management, covering public equities as a global generalist and is a member of the Sustainability Committee. She joined the Board of Didasko in June 2023. A graduate from the University of Edinburgh Business School, with an MSc in Banking and Risk Management, Klyzza is a Swedish national and has been educated in the Philippines, Sweden, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia. She is also a member of the CFA UK Scottish Committee and the steering group of Leaver’s Money Skills.
