Thomas Moore of Standard Life Investments has hit the front in The Herald's monthly table of best-performing fund managers working for houses with a significant Scottish presence.
The latest rankings, based on three-year performance to 31 December 2014, see the top 10 managers unchanged from the previous month but jockeying for position. There are eight AAA ratings from Citywire this time around, compared with just one such accolade in mid-2014.
Mr Moore and colleague Edward Legget manage SLI's UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund, which has been attracting IFA plaudits for its performance. They improve their rankings to 106 and 160 respectively in the overall table covering asset managers in 35 countries, up from 182 and 214, but are split by Audrey Ryan of Kames Capital who is placed at 125. Ms Ryan, who manages the UK Opportunities fund and two ethical funds, topped the Scottish league the previous month when ranked 173.
But this time all 10 leading Scottish managers are in the overall top 400, compared with only five back in July 2014.
The chasing pack are led at 187 by another former pace-setter Jacqueline Lowe at SLI Dynamic Distribution, a fund which has benefited from investing in SLI's own unconstrained fund among others.
Next comes Jacob de Tusch-Lec at 220, manager of Artemis Global Income, who led the field for several months in 2014 and retained his AAA rating. He swaps places with Colette Conboy at 228, who runs SLI's International Trust Account.
Ben Russon and Colin Morton, who run four UK equity funds at Franklin Templeton, both improve their positions to 244 and 318 respectively, with Mr Morton showing the sharpest rise in the top 10, up from 461. They complete the AAA ratings.
Not far behind are Iain Buckle at Kames, whose funds include the Ethical Cautious Managed (managed with Ms Ryan) and two ethical corporate bond funds, and David Gait, who manages a range of Asia Pacific funds at First State.
Well-known names in the Scots top 20 include Baillie Gifford's Japanese team Matthew Brett and Sarah Whitley (15th and 17th) and Saracen's Jim Fisher and Craig Yeaman (18th and 19th).
There are 108 rated managers in the Scottish table (two fewer than last time) out of 3354 industry-wide.
Baillie Gifford sees its complement fall from 21 to 19, losing Torcail Stewart and Sally Greig, while Kames Capital continues its marked progress with 11 rated managers in December compared with four last April. Its new entrant this time is Philip Milburn.
Franklin Templeton, boasting the biggest representation with 21, loses three (George Ritchie, Norman Boersma and Jerel Banks) but gains three in their place (Lisa Myers, Purav Jhaveri and Stephen Dover). Franklin Templeton also claims two places in the industry-wide top 10.
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