Director talk: Shefaly Yogendra
Shefaly is a director of JPMorgan US Smaller Companies and Temple Bar investment trusts.
In the boardroom
What’s the number one skill you bring to the board?
Independence of thought.
Who’s been the biggest influence on your career?
My father for parenting me with enormous patience, fostering my curiosity which remains undimmed with age.
What is the proudest moment of your career?
Hopefully one singular moment worth a special mention is yet to come! It would probably be cheating to mention having been involved in three corporate actions and a fund manager change, all with good outcomes for shareholders, within my first decade on boards.
What’s the most challenging part of your job as a trust director?
Broadening marketing to reach new potential investors, within the bounds of regulation, and the relative opacity but growing popularity of execution-only platforms amid the changing technology landscape.
What advice would you offer to new directors?
In peace time, anyone can be a board director; it is in war time aka crises (or corporate action) of any kind, that we find out our true ability to keep a sharp focus on shareholder and stakeholder interests, balancing conflicting demands on our attention, not being influenced by the loudest voices, preventing leaks to the markets or the press, all while pushed for time.
Away from work
What’s your number one desert island disc?
West Meets East (Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin).
If you had to cook for a dinner party, what would you make?
I would cook goat biryani which is quite challenging to get right. It is however a one-pot dish so if done right, it is fragrant, and comforting, and delicious, and everyone can eat together.
What are you terrible at?
A poker face.
What is a hidden talent that few people know you have?
My patience with curious children of all sorts of ages, and their endless streams of questions.
What do you do for fun?
Normally I read – politics, history, economics, poetry. But in 2025, I wrote a book that is due out in April 2026. It is titled ‘Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda, Reimagine the Boardroom’.
Shefaly was formerly a director of Harmony Energy Income and Witan investment trusts.
