Simon Hopkins
CEO
Milltrust International Group
Simon Hopkins serves as CEO of Milltrust International Group in Singapore, Chairman of Swallowcourt Holdings Ltd, and CEO of Milltrust Ventures Pte Ltd (Singapore).
Mr Hopkins is a successful entrepreneur and investment professional and has been a senior figure in the international investment management industry for more than two decades.
Mr Hopkins started his career at British bank S.G. Warburg, subsequently holding senior roles at HSBC James Capel and Nomura International. In 1996 Mr Hopkins created Global Fund Analysis, one of the industry’s first dedicated research and investment consulting businesses with over 27,000 registered users at its peak.
Concurrently, Mr Hopkins played a pioneering role in seeding many European hedge funds through the Fortune Group, an award-winning alternatives investment advisory, and fund of hedge funds business. Fortune Group went on to become one of the UK’s pre-eminent multi-asset advisory firms managing over 7bn USD, with clients in 24 countries and a focus on pension funds, charities and endowments, as well as a number of the world’s leading families. The firm was successfully sold to Close Brothers Group PLC in 2006, culminating in its full integration in January 2010.
In 2011, Mr Hopkins founded impact-focused Milltrust International in Singapore dedicated to the mantra of “Sustainable Prosperity”, and operating an award-winning, FCA authorised, investment platform focusing on three key secular themes: the development of Emerging Markets, with long term ESG-focused investments across 32 developing countries, Agricultural Investments, and Science & Technological innovation.
More recently, Mr Hopkins launched Milltrust Ventures, a Milltrust affiliate regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and co-located in the London.
In the UK, Milltrust serves as manager of the Irish-regulated Collective Asset Vehicle (ICAV), Milltrust International Managed Investments, which invested local authority pension fund assets into 20,000 ha of diversified farmland investments in Australia and New Zealand. Concurrently, Milltrust launched the British Innovation Fund (BIF), partnering with the leading Universities and Centres of Innovation in the UK and around the world. Milltrust successfully managed the exit of these assets in early 2022.
Today, Mr Hopkins’ focus is on three long term secular themes – Health, Food and Planet. This encompasses resource sustainability and impact through the Green Earth Ventures, innovation in health and wellness through Future Health, and food innovations through the Smart Protein Fund. In addition to these ventures funds, Milltrust also manages the high impact climate-focused initiate back decarbonisation focused companies, and support the biodiversity and conservation focused work of WWF-Hong Kong, through the Climate Impact Asia Fund. The Milltrust Ventures GP has made over 15 investments into ground breaking innovation which form the core holdings of its funds.
Additionally, Mr Hopkins serves as adviser to the board and was formerly investment manager at CerraCap Ventures, an early-stage technology investor with offices in Singapore. He is a director of Swallowcourt Limited, a UK social care operator, and until 2022 a founding director of Roslin Technologies (University of Edinburgh). Until 2019, he was the manager of the Asian Film Fund, advised by Singapore-based movie production company, M! Capital Pte Ltd, which financed over 11 Asian language films. Mr Hopkins was also a founding director of Novare Fund Manager, one of the largest African asset management firms, and CITIC Securities One Belt One Road Fund (CSOBOR).
He currently serves as a member of NUS Medicine International Council, Singapore where he sits on the Kickstart investment committee, helping to mentor breakthrough science.
He graduated with honours from the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Law in 1986 and speaks fluent French. In 2017, Mr Hopkins completed the FT Non-Executive Director Diploma in Hong Kong. He resides permanently in Singapore with his wife but travels extensively.
