Speaker's Profile

Charles Robertson, a leading emerging and Frontier markets specialist, is FIM Partner’s Head of Macro-strategy. Mr. Robertson covers the global economic themes having the greatest impact on emerging and Frontier markets, including democratisation, demographics, education, electricity, ESG, fertility, pension funds, savings, terrorism, as well as key ways to examine exchange rates, debt and equities in emerging and frontier markets.  

Mr. Robertson published The Time Travelling Economist in 2022, outlining 3 centuries of economic development and the education, energy and demographic lessons for Frontier markets in Asia and Africa in the coming 50 years. It was runner-up in the African Business Book of the Year in 2023 by BCA Leadership. A free introduction is here. He is also the lead author of The Fastest Billion: The Story Behind Africa’s Economic Revolution (www.fastestbillion.com), published in October 2012, and is often found on twitter @CharlieTTEcon. 

In his previous roles, Charlie was voted the #1 Frontier analyst in the Extel survey in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, #1 Frontier analyst in Institutional Investor in 2019, and Renaissance Capital was the #1 rated Frontier firm in both 2016 and 2017. He was previously ranked the number-one economics and macro analyst for emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa in the Extel survey in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. In addition, the team he led was ranked the best macro team in Extel’s 2010 survey of equity investors. Another of Charlie’s teams took 1st place for SSA coverage in the institutional investor survey for 2012.

In 2021, Charlie was the first non-African to receive the African Icon award from African Banker as his work has helped change perceptions about Africa and position the continent as a serious investment destination. 

Mr. Robertson graduated from the London School of Economics in 1993 and worked at a UK parliamentary defence think-tank and a research boutique until joining the financial services industry in 1998.