Marc Geall & team, Deutsche Bank

Marc Geall guides the Deutsche Bank team from runner-up to second place. The London-based duo follows a dozen companies and plans to add more this year. “The macro environment continues to be uncertain; however, the need to improve employee productivity to deliver growth in a head-count-constrained environment means corporates have to invest in information technology,” Geall explains. “A number of specific drivers support this trend: mobile adoption, consumerization of business information technology, cloud computing and big data analytics.” The pair is more positive on software companies, which benefit from an increasing percentage of IT spending, than on IT services providers, which face margin pressure because of rising labor costs and slowing demand, among other factors, he adds. Clients say Geall is “forever rational” in challenging managements and “fearless” when it comes to taking an occasional contrarian stance.