Gervais Williams has quit as head of UK smaller companies at Gartmore and will be replaced by colleague Adam McConkey.

Williams previously managed the Gartmore Fledgling Trust, Gartmore Growth Opportunities Trust and Gartmore Irish Growth Fund. The boards of these investment trusts will announce new managers in due course. 

The Gartmore UK & Irish Smaller Companies Oeic will now be jointly managed by McConkey and senior investment manager Rob Giles. They will also continue to manage the Gartmore AlphaGen Volantis hedge fund and Dublin-domiciled Gartmore UK Small Cap Best Ideas Fund. 

McConkey joined Gartmore in 2000 and is a senior investment manager in the UK smaller companies team.

A Gartmore spokeswoman said Williams’ future plans were not known.

Dominic Rossi, chief investment officer of Gartmore, says: ‘We are confident, with the support of the hugely experienced Rob Giles and the rest of the team, Gartmore will continue to be a leading light in the specialist management of UK small cap equities.’

The Gartmore Growth Opportunities Trust is a top performing smaller companies investment trust, coming second in the UK smaller companies peer group over the past seven years with a 162.4 per cent return. Williams has been recognised by Money Observer as a star fund manager and picked up several awards for his fund management at Gartmore.

However, as we report in the forthcoming October edition of Money Observer, Williams’ performance over the past year has slipped somewhat. We tipped Gartmore Growth Opportunities in our Small Companies portfolio and, while uncertainty surrounds its management, we would recommend investors consider selling the trust.