Small Cap Awards 2025: Analyst of the Year Nominees

Held annually, the Small Cap Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in the UK’s sub-£350m market cap quoted company sector. This prestigious event brings together industry leaders, fostering trust, innovation, and excellence among smaller quoted companies.

The awards will recognise companies and participants listed on or before January 1, 2024, across various categories. Winners will be unveiled at a black-tie gala dinner on Thursday 19th June, at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, City of London

This exclusive event will be attended by institutions, fund managers, brokers, company directors, entrepreneurs, and advisors, providing a unique opportunity to connect with those driving exceptional growth and performance in the small-cap sector over the past year.

The nominees for Analyst of the Year are as follows:

Robert Sanders – Shore Capital

Robert has worked in the City for 37 years – 17 as a fund manager, the last seven of which up to 2003 were at Smith & Williamson where he managed smaller company and technology funds. Since moving to the sell-side in 2003, he has worked as a smaller companies analyst/head of growth companies research at Arbuthnot/Westhouse/Stockdale Securities and Shore Capital from April 2019, following its takeover of Stockdale Securities.

Robert likes to get to know management teams well and fully understand the financial drivers of a company so he can communicate the investment case in a clear and concise fashion to new and existing investors. He has covered companies in many sectors and particularly likes those ones that have the potential to deliver strong secular growth through a disruptive technology and/or product. He is pleased to note that three of the companies he is analyst to have been nominated for awards. As always, the management of expectations is almost as important as the management of the company. The monthly research note “Share & share alike” analyses economic, political and stock market trends with a view to supporting the investment case for UK Small Caps.

Having graduated with an upper second-class honours degree in Economics and Economic History from the University of Leicester in 1987, Robert qualified in 1989 with first time passes with what is now the CFA UK.

Outside of work, Robert is married with three children which help to keep him young at heart. He has a life-long passion for sport and football, in particular, which he played up until the first lockdown. He supports Liverpool FC and has enjoyed the highs and lows that goes with being a football fan, at least there have been quite a few highs associated with Liverpool in recent years.

Harold Evans CFA – Singer Capital Markets

Meet Harry, a Chartered Accountant and Senior Technology Analyst with over 15 years expertise. Now at Singer Capital Markets, he delivers razor-sharp enterprise-software insights via the acclaimed TMT Daily email and high-conviction stock recommendations. His 2024 standout pick was Windward (Buy) which achieved a significant premium upon acquisition. He’s a Durham University graduate and outside the office, Harry channels his passion for performance by tackling cycling challenges.

Julie Simmonds – Panmure Liberum

Julie is a Managing Director at Panmure Liberum. She has over 25 years of experience in Equity Research, covering both UK and continental European companies across a wide range of healthcare subsectors including healthcare services, biotechnology, medical devices and digital health. She joined Panmure Gordon, now Panmure Liberum, in November 2015 from Canaccord Genuity and previously spent seven years at Piper Jaffray with the No 1 Extel rated team. She is also Chair of the NIHR i4i Connect panel, awarding translational funding for early-stage medical technologies. Julie has a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kent.