The Directors
David and Ian, co-founders of Absolute Strategy Research, each bring to the firm over 20 years of experience in investment research and have established strong global client franchises.
David is Head of Research, Ian is Chief Investment Strategist. Together they formulate ASR’s overall view of markets across asset classes and across time horizons.
Verity is the Head of Sales for ASR and has been rated in the top three in Extel’s Macro Specialist Sales category every year since 2003.
David Bowers
Previously, David was Chief Global Investment Strategist for Merrill Lynch, where he worked for eleven years -including three years in New York. He ran the firm’s Global Fund Managers’ Survey and developed it into a powerful tool for understanding how investors view the world.
Head of Research

Ian Harnett
Chief Investment Strategist
Ian has over 25 years of experience in economics and equity strategy, having previously been Chief European Investment Strategist at UBS (where he was #1 Extel ranked for European Strategy). He also led European Strategy for NatWest Markets and was Group Chief Economist for Société Generale London. Ian started his career as an Economist at the Bank of England and has a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University.

Verity Hunt
Head of Sales
Verity has been rated in the top 3 of the Macro Specialist Sales category (often in the #1 position) by Extel in the Global and European Economic and Strategy categories every year since 2003: in 2019 she was ranked No 1 in Global Strategy, No 1 in Global Economics and No 1 in Multi-Asset. She previously worked for 19 years at Dresdner Kleinwort, both running UK equity sales and as a Macro Specialist.
