Today marks an important day in the history of Church House. After 30 years of commendable service, Carol Hooper, one of our team of five executive directors, is starting her retirement.

Carol has experienced an impressive journey with Church House, joining back in 1990 from Battens Solicitors. She initially worked closely with Richard Gibbons and Graham Hughes before moving on to manage the back-office function. Carol had a passion for learning and self-improvement, which saw her achieve a diploma from the Securities Investment Institute in 2009. A year earlier, she joined our Investment Team under the tutelage of current CEO James Mahon and later became co-manager of our Balanced Equity Income fund.

Always generous with her time for colleagues and clients alike, Carol is held in high regard by all who have enjoyed working with her. Whatever the situation, Carol's focus was always on doing what is right for our private client investors, and that is a quality for which she deserves great credit.

Carol was made a director and joined the board in 2018. Since then, she has continued to play an integral role in the design and management of our discretionary portfolios, managing the good times and the bad, most recently the impact of a global pandemic. In the last twelve months, she played a crucial part in our move to a new custodian partner. This vital project has improved our client experience and ensured that Church House can continue to provide considered investment management for many more years to come.

Known for her strong work ethic and compassion, many of the current team have learnt much from Carol, and her influence and support will be sadly missed.

Though based in Sherborne, Carol was a regular visitor to the London office. There she was an active participant in our Investment Committee and met regularly with brokers and investee companies. Also, whilst in the capital, she attended client meetings and was an important supporter of our events for partners and clients.

Her Sherborne friends and colleagues will miss their walks together to Waitrose to grab some lunch, but we all expect to see her back in the office from time to time, so this is most definitely a farewell and not a goodbye. The sincere thanks from everyone at Church House go with Carol as she starts the next chapter of her life, and we hope it will bring her much happiness.