Craig Arnott
About Craig Arnott
Craig Arnott is Burford Capital’s Deputy Chief Investment Officer (DCIO), age 58, with portfolio-wide responsibility and service on the Management Committee and Commitments Committee. He became DCIO in January 2020 after serving as a Managing Director from August 2016–December 2019; previously he was a barrister in Sydney and a partner heading Competition/Antitrust at Fried Frank in London, with earlier roles at Cravath, Gilbert + Tobin, and Ashurst. He holds a BCL and DPhil from Oxford (Balliol College), is a Rhodes Scholar, and earned First Class Honours with University Medals in Law and Arts from the University of Queensland; he clerked for Hon. W. Pincus, Federal Court of Australia . Company performance context in FY2024 included consolidated net income of $230 million, consolidated realizations of $907 million, and Burford-only proceeds from capital provision assets of $648 million, underscoring strong portfolio execution against long-duration assets .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burford Capital | Deputy Chief Investment Officer | Jan 2020–present | Portfolio-wide oversight; member of Management and Commitments Committees |
| Burford Capital | Managing Director | Aug 2016–Dec 2019 | Senior investment leadership across legal finance portfolio |
| Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (London) | Partner; Head of Competition/Antitrust | Not disclosed | Counsel to Merck on Schering-Plough acquisition; European counsel to Delta & Pine Land on sale to Monsanto |
| Sixth Floor Selborne & Wentworth Chambers (Sydney) | Barrister | Not disclosed | Advocacy and litigation experience in Australian courts |
| Cravath, Swaine & Moore (New York) | Attorney | Not disclosed | Training in top-tier corporate litigation and transactions |
| Gilbert + Tobin (Sydney); Ashurst (London) | Attorney | Not disclosed | Corporate and competition law roles in leading firms |
Fixed Compensation
- The 2025 proxy discloses detailed compensation only for Named Executive Officers (NEOs) for FY2024 (Bogart, Molot, Licht, Will, O’Connell); Craig Arnott was not an NEO and his base salary, bonus, and stock/option values are not itemized in the Summary Compensation Table .
Performance Compensation
| Award/Metric | Weighting | Target | Actual | Payout | Vesting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 LTIP PSUs – Relative TSR (Rolling TSR vs FTSE AllShare median) | 50% of 2024 grant | Vest in full at or above median TSR; 0% if below | Ongoing (three-year period) | Pending | 3rd anniversary of grant (Mar 22, 2027) |
| 2024 LTIP PSUs – Annual TSR vs FTSE 350 Financial Services median (each year of 3-year period) | 50% of 2024 grant | Vest in full at or above median TSR; 0% if below | Ongoing (annual tests across 3 years) | Pending | 3rd anniversary of grant (Mar 22, 2027) |
| 2024 LTIP RSUs – service-based | 50% of 2024 grant | Continued service | N/A | N/A | 3rd anniversary of grant (Mar 22, 2027) |
| Prior LTIP vesting (Mar 31, 2024) | N/A | Service/performance conditions satisfied | 75,496 RSUs vested | Net 75,496 shares delivered; vest price $15.97 | Vested Mar 31, 2024 |
- 2024 LTIP grant: 20,548 shares to Arnott; 50% subject to performance conditions (mix of PSUs/RSUs per LTIP design) .
- PSU design emphasizes long-duration alignment: either Rolling TSR (5-year period) vs FTSE AllShare median or Annual TSR vs FTSE 350 Financial Services median, with binary vesting at target when median TSR is met, reflecting the absence of direct public peers in legal finance .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
| Metric | As of Mar 14, 2024 | As of Apr 3, 2024 | |---|---|---|---| | Ordinary shares owned | 240,122 | 240,122 | | Unvested RSUs | 63,756 not within 60 days | 84,304 | | RSUs expected to vest within 60 days | 75,496 | — | | Shares under deferred compensation plan (cash deferrals) | — | — | | Shares under deferred comp (deferred RSUs) | — | — | | Total potential (owned + unvested + deferred) | — | 324,426 | | Total as % of shares outstanding | — | 0.15% (based on 218,646,081 outstanding) | | RSUs vested and delivered (Mar 31, 2024) | — | 75,496 |
Additional alignment mechanisms and constraints:
- Executive share ownership guidelines require 3x base salary for executive officers other than CEO/CIO; until satisfied, executives must retain 100% of net shares from equity awards, with a five-year target attainment window .
- Company prohibits hedging, pledging, and short-sale transactions in BUR shares; comprehensive clawback policies allow recoupment of incentive-based compensation paid to executive officers .
- March 31, 2024 vesting event: Arnott did not defer receipt; net shares were delivered, which could create supply but retention requirements may restrict sales if guideline not yet met .
Employment Terms
- No executive-specific employment agreement terms for Arnott are disclosed in the 2025 proxy; severance and change-in-control economics are detailed for CEO/CIO (and limited for President), while the Company maintains no single-trigger vesting of long-term awards, no Section 280G gross-ups, and a prohibition on hedging/pledging for executives .
- Share ownership guidelines: 3x base salary requirement for executive officers (other than CEO/CIO); 100% net share retention until compliant; expected to meet within five years of appointment .
- Trading restrictions: No hedging, pledging, short sales; robust clawback policies for executive incentive compensation .
Investment Implications
- Alignment: Meaningful personal ownership (240,122 shares) and continuing unvested equity (84,304 RSUs) plus a performance-conditioned 2024 grant (50% PSUs) tie Arnott’s incentives to TSR and long-term portfolio outcomes, supporting shareholder alignment in a business with long asset durations .
- Supply/vesting dynamics: The 75,496 RSUs vested and delivered on Mar 31, 2024; while this adds potential stock supply, executive retention rules require 100% net retention until ownership guidelines are met, tempering near-term selling pressure .
- Governance risk controls: Anti-hedging/pledging and clawback policies reduce misalignment or risk-taking incentives; absence of single-trigger change-in-control benefits and lack of disclosed tax gross-ups are shareholder-friendly .
- Execution track record: Arnott’s background in complex transactions and antitrust leadership, paired with Burford’s strong FY2024 financial outcomes (net income, realizations), suggests capability to manage performance-linked awards; PSU design focused on relative TSR should reinforce longer-term value creation rather than short-term origination volumes .