About Us
Our Philosophy
We live in a finite world. And the supply of critical material resources, given foreseeable mining technologies, is limited. At CDMR. we believe that the wealth management industry should adapt to these facts. Ours is a long investment horizon that focuses on two key considerations.
First, the world is undergoing a technological revolution, in which rare metals play a pivotal role. Rare metals are practically unknown to most people, yet they are all around us. They are already fundamental to today’s technological landscape, and will be even more critical to the future decarbonisation and digitalisation of our economies, underpinning new growth sectors ranging from solar, wind and EVs to hydrogen energy and 5G. Without rare metals, the developed world as we know it would not exist, and the changes to our world of tomorrow would not be possible.
Second, today’s leveraged and debt-driven economies are not sustainable and, broadly speaking, financial and investment practices are failing to take this into account.
In this context, investing in rare metals represents a unique opportunity both for wealth preservation and for capital appreciation.
These are tangible assets whose value is determined by extreme rarity and by real, critical tech applications. As such they constitute a unique addition to any truly diversified portfolio.
And CDMR uses its unique expertise to analyse tech trends on one hand, and geological and geopolitical supply risks on the other, in order to select the most promising metals and exploit their upturn potential.
Our Team
Vincent Donnen - CIIA- Partner
Vincent studied economics, finance and geopolitical science in both France and China, with an Asian bias. After working as an economist for the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in Asia, he went on to accumulate more than ten years of experience in the financial industry. He started with analysis and selection of Alternative and Long Only investment funds for EIM, then moved on to Prisminvest before co-founding CDMR in 2013.
Vincent gives conferences for the SFAA (Swiss Financial Analyst Association) and the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts) on the theme of rare metals. He also teaches regularly at the Ecole des Mines de Nancy.
He has a BA from IEP Grenoble and a Masters in Business from IEP Lyon and the University of Chengdu. He is a CIIA (Chartered International Investment Analyst), a member of the Swiss Financial Analyst Association (SFAA), and is a qualified financial analyst and asset manager (Swiss Federal Diploma).
Grégoire Tézé – Partner
Grégoire studied business and management in the US, and benefits today from a financial experience accumulated over more than twenty years. He started his career at Paribas as a financial analyst and then went on to become an auditor and financial consultant at Arthur Andersen. Afterwards he joined EIM, first as head of International Affairs, then of Marketing, and finally as head of the Singapore office. After leaving EIM, Grégoire took over leadership of the Singapore office for RAM Capital up until 2013, when he co-founded CDMR.
Cyril Fort - Senior Advisor
Cyril has accumulated 25 years of experience as an asset manager both in London and in Paris. He was an international equity manager for 15 years, and then managing director of an independent fund management company.
In 2012, he co-founded Caerus Family Office. Cyril joined CDMR as a business provider in 2019.
Charles Anson – Advisor
Charles holds a first class MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University, where he specialised in STS (Science and Technology Studies), and Science Communication. He then remained at Cambridge to complete an Mphil in History and Philosophy of Science. He worked for the Long-Only department at EIM, and on management consultancy projects for Bain and AMR international, before taking his career in a more creative direction, running his own bespoke art business, and working as an actor in TV and film. He joined CDMR in 2018.
Pablo Maniglier - Market Analyst
Pablo Maniglier is an industrial engineer with a master’s degree in purchasing. He has worked in several large industrial companies of the SBF 120 (Airbus, Michelin, Soitec) in purchasing and Supply Chain departments and has developed an expertise on the criticality issues related to rare metals. He is the author of a book on the challenges of rare metals for European companies.
He joins CDMR as a market analyst. He will work with Vincent Donnen on portfolio strategies.
Advisory Board
François Rousseau
François is a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where he studied mathematics and physics. He did research work in plasma physics at MIT before joining the Corps des Mines. After working at France Telecom and then at Novaled AG (Germany), he became head of the industrial risks department at DREAL Alsace, then head of the Subtances, Products and Processes division at INERIS. In 2016, he was made director of the Ecole des Mines de Nancy.
Guillaume Pitron
Guillaume is an award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and author of “The Rare Metals War”. He focuses his work on commodities and on the economic, political and environmental issues associated with their use. Guillaume holds a post-graduate law degree from the Paris Universities, and a Masters in international law from the University of Georgetown (Washington, D.C).
Milestones
Creation of the Advisory Board
Fund listed on Lombard Odier platform
Best performing commodities fund in the world in 2017
License distribution authorisation by FINMA
Certified Sharia Compliant
Launch of the CSSF approved rare metals fund
Creation of CDMR
USP
We are the first – and still the only – company to be invested exclusively in a diversified and dynamically managed portfolio of physical rare tech metals.
Expertise
Since founding CDMR, we have developed unique knowledge and understanding of the industry-specific market dynamics for every metal in our portfolio, sharpening our financial analyses with technological, geological, economic and geopolitical insights.
Structure
We have built strong relationships with key players in the highly specialised world of rare metals trading, all of whom are members of the MMTA (Minor Metals Trading Association).
We have the expertise required to position ourselves opportunistically ahead of advantageous market events, and the structure that enable us to act when we need to act in an often illiquid market.