Stonegate Capital, a newly launched Dubai-based family office, has appointed Peter Warnes as chief investment officer, the firm announced. The appointment marks the second major leadership hire for the nascent wealth manager, which named Faisal Ahmad as chief executive officer earlier in September. Warnes will oversee investment strategy, portfolio construction, and manager selection across public and private markets as Stonegate executes its core differentiator: embedding artificial intelligence throughout its operating infrastructure and decision-making processes from inception rather than retrofitting legacy systems.
Stonegate Capital was created to manage the global financial and investment interests of an established UK-based family with business and investment interests spanning multiple sectors and jurisdictions. The office launched earlier this month with technology infrastructure built around AI-enabled systems designed to support opportunity identification, research, financial modelling, due diligence, scenario analysis, portfolio oversight, risk monitoring and consolidated reporting. The firm positions itself as wholly independent, avoiding proprietary products or in-house investment mandates. The hiring of a veteran multi-asset manager like Warnes underscores the family office's commitment to combining institutional investment discipline with its technology-native operating model.
Warnes brings more than two decades of institutional asset management experience across Asia and London. He joined JPMorgan Asset Management in Hong Kong and London, developing and managing global equity and multi-asset investment portfolios before moving to Manulife Investment Management in 2014, where he led the portfolio solutions group with international responsibility. His mandate at Manulife encompassed setting strategic direction for the firm's expansion in Asia, where the group oversaw a substantial international multi-asset business. Warnes subsequently relocated to Malaysia in 2018 and served as managing director and chief investment officer at BOS Wealth Management Malaysia, an onshore subsidiary of the Bank of Singapore. At BOS, he held responsibility for investment strategy, portfolio construction, risk management and implementation across the Malaysian market. He holds a degree from Kingston University.
Stonegate Capital represents an emerging category of ultra-wealthy family offices that are gravitating toward Dubai and the broader United Arab Emirates as a base for managing dispersed global assets. The office is backed by a UK family with substantial business holdings and operates within Dubai's institutional finance ecosystem, positioning itself to develop multi-decade relationships with other family offices, entrepreneurs and asset managers across the Middle East, North Africa and internationally. The firm's operating model emphasizes complete transparency in fees, charging only the family rather than accepting commissions or retrocessions from service providers.
The appointment of Warnes signals that early-stage family offices anchored in technology innovation still require depth in traditional portfolio management to navigate complex global capital markets. While AI-integrated systems offer advantages in research automation, scenario analysis and consolidated reporting, the core function of manager selection and investment oversight appears to remain the exclusive domain of experienced human judgment. Warnes' track record managing large multi-asset institutional mandates across global markets arguably positions him to marshal both technological capability and seasoned decision-making as Stonegate builds out its investment operations during its formative phase.
