ABOUT HIGHWOOD

Run by a management team with many years combined experience in financial planning and wealth management Highwood has been going from strength to strength in recent years.

Highwood team members share the same ethos of trust, honesty and transparency and bring solid market experience combined with unparalleled service skills.

Partners

Michael Gould

Michael joined the Financial Services industry in February 1988.He started with a major Insurance company before moving to Guardian Royal Exchange in October 1991 to develop their adviser office in North West London. Michael joined Highwood in December 1992 and became an equity Partner shortly afterwards.

Michael has been advising clients on all aspects of wealth management and has over 25 years of experience. He specialises in working with high net worth clients and helping them to manage their investments. Much of Michael's time is spent with our professional Partners with whom we work closely to provide financial services to their clients, assisting many firms of accountants and solicitors in complex areas of tax and investment planning.

Michael is often invited to give lectures to Directors at companies on financial planning and was instrumental in creating a series of seminars providing financial education to employees.

Michael is married with two daughters. Outside of work his hobbies are travel, motor racing and spending quality time with his family.

Dawn Herriott

Dawn joined the Financial Services industry in 1989, working as an adviser with an Insurance Company. She then spent some time training other advisers.

Dawn joined Highwood in 1999 to set up their mortgage desk, although she was also heavily involved in Compliance and back office administration.She became a Partner in 2002.

Dawn spends much of her time overseeing the day-to-day running of the firm and is the Compliance Officer. In addition, she is also the Equity Release Specialist.

Dawn is married with two daughters and two step-children. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, keeping fit, scuba diving and spending time with her family. She is also the Chair of Governors at a local primary school as well as sitting on the governing body of a local secondary school.

John Helfgott

John joined the Financial services industry in February 1989. He worked with a major insurance company for five years before joining a local IFA practice. He was headhunted to join Highwood in 1999 where he became an equity partner in early 2000.

Previous to joining the financial services industry John achieved a Hons degree in Business Management and worked in the fashion industry as marketing and sales director of a wholesale retail operation.

Prior to work in mainstream industry John was employed in the ski industry and is a qualified Ski Instructor.

Within the financial services sector John is a general practitioner dealing with most aspects of Financial Planning. He believes in taking a holistic approach to client service, looking at the whole client and not concentrating on one small area of planning but the overall picture, thus working in harmony with clients and their advisers so that everyone sings off the same hymn sheet. If John has an area of specialisation it is within the corporate sector, looking at Loan restructure, employee benefits and protection of the key personnel and directors of a company.

John has a son and daughter from his first marriage and two step daughters from his second.

Outside work John is a keen sportsman on and off the couch. He runs daily and follows his football club to both home and away games. He is still a keen skier and enjoys scuba diving in the summer. Family time is of great importance to John apart from being the proverbial parent TAXI.

Advisors

Natalie Cain,

Natalie has been part of the Highwood team for over 4 years. Having begun her financial services career in 1995 working for HSBC, Natalie brings a lot of experience. Having previously worked for the large provider Standard Life and a small discretionary investment manager Natalie has gained a broad knowledge base in both pensions and investments.

Natalie has recently chosen to further her studies in the tax and trust areas. She is proud to have achieved both Chartered and Certified status in her profession and is amongst a very small number of advisers with both qualifications.

Outside of work Natalie enjoys keeping fit and is a keen runner when injury doesn't prevent this! Natalie's running ambition is the London Marathon! She also enjoys travelling, spending quality time with family and friends and her new hobby is gardening having just purchased her first property with a garden!!

Paul Racibowski

Paul joined the Banking industry in September 1969. After 10 years with Lloyds Bank, rising to the status of assistant to one of the managers in a large branch, and being fully qualified by examination, he left to join what was then Hambro Life Assurance.

Being a sales consultant for less than a year he was asked to front a new insurance brokerage in Swindon. The result of this was an offer by Sun Life Assurance to become a sales consultant in North West London where he became one of the first consultants to introduce Small Self-administered Pension Schemes to Financial Advisers and win a Consultant of the Year accolade.

Paul joined Highwood late in 1997 as a sales Associate, already having qualified as a Financial Adviser, and became further qualified with the Advanced Financial Planning Certificate pensions module.

He develops his own client base within Highwood and assists the Partners with their clients from time to time. He runs staff clinics for employers interviewing staff, individually, in respect of financial planning and is very much a people person forming relationships with clients which more often than not lead to friendships.

Paul has never been a family man but makes several visits to his immediate family in the West Country. Outside of work his main pursuit is clay pigeon shooting around the South and South West of England, walking the whole of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and a love of powerful cars.

Investment Team

Matthew Harfitt

Matt joined Highwood as Investment Manager in February 2010. He holds a degree in Economics and has worked in Financial Services since 1996. In this time he has worked as a Portfolio Manager for high net worth clients at some of the largest names in the industry, such as Gartmore, NatWest Portfolio Management and Coutts & Co.

Matt holds advanced professional qualifications, having attained the Investment Management Certificate and the CISI Diploma, the pre-eminent qualification for securities & investment specialists. He is also a Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

He lives near Richmond where he plays squash and the guitar, both to a frustratingly low standard. Matt has a passion for music and as a hobby spent two and a half years working on a BBC 6 Music radio show. He has a season ticket at QPR and enjoys attending major sporting events at home and overseas.

Minal Sachdev

Minal joined Highwood in 2009. She has a BSc in Economics and Management from Cardiff University and attained her Certificate in Financial Planning within 12 months of starting her career in financial services. With 6 years of Paraplanning experience she is part of the Wealth Management team at Highwood. She obtained her Diploma in Financial Planning in 2010.

Minal works closely with advisers to organise her clients’ financial planning which is a key component of the entire planning process. She enjoys researching and Cash Flow planning. Organisational skills are a key strength of hers in (and outside!) the office.

Minal’s achievements include attaining a Second Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo and she is also particularly creative, enjoying arts and crafts. She was awarded a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Advisory Board

Steve Freedman

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Steve Freedman's experience in the business world extends from corporate Management Accountant and Financial Director positions, to financial consultancy with Binder Hamlyn, before becoming an equity partner with BKR Haines Watts Chartered Accountants, one of the top 20 firms in the UK. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Consultants in 1995 and is also qualified under the United Kingdom Financial Services Acts.

Throughout his career, Steve has enjoyed the challenge of starting up and supporting new ventures, and today he describes himself as a ‘serial entrepreneur', an adviser/director to some 30 owner managed businesses at any one time. He gets a real buzz from developing a business and offering strategic and commercial advice to help organisations grow from a bright idea to successful and flourishing companies.

Because of Steve's non-typical accountancy experience his opinions are well respected by other professionals, and in addition to managing his own portfolio of clients, he is Chairman of Highwood.

Steve is a keen sportsman, supporting Watford FC, enjoys music and is known for the "unusual" holidays he takes!

Annick Devillard

Born and educated in France, Annick has spent all her working life in the UK.

Annick's marketing career took her to such prestigious organisations as Avon Cosmetics, L'Oréal, Chesebrough-Ponds, and Seagram Wines & Spirits where she was VP Marketing & Strategic Planning for Global Brands. As European Communications Director for Dell Computers, she worked with Michael Dell, promoting the company across Europe. Her most recent corporate role was running a well-funded dot-com in recruitment.

Since founding The Rooster in 2001, she has been advising small to medium-size companies on how to leverage their strengths and be noticed in the market.

Annick is an Alumni of ESCP Europe, a member of the Marketing Society, the Chartered Institute of Marketing and WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications, London). She is the Marketing Practice Leader for Link Management Group and the current Chair of The Executive Network. She is a Trustee of The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home and an active supporter of the MicroLoan Foundation, a UK-based microfinance charity providing small loans, business training, and continuing guidance to groups of women in sub-Saharan Africa.

Annick's hobbies include skiing, tennis, travelling and good food and wine!