The trading desk is headed up by Mike Staten, who joins with a wealth of experience trading in the small cap space after precious spells as Investment manager for the Credit Suisse subsidiary Astin Capital providing capital and liquidity to the UK small market, with a view to bringing ‘investment banking skills to the UK small cap market’. From Astin, his team was parachuted into Darwin Strategic, by Henderson Global investors, where Mike was responsible for all of Darwin’s trading activity, as Darwin became the number one provider of capital to AIM. After the buyout of Darwin Strategic by Lombard Odier in 2018, Mike joined Novum and has since been instrumental in forging new relationships with market makers as well as advising and working closely with a network of ultra high net worth investors which form the core of the trading activities at Novum. Mike graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Information Management and Business Studies.