Annual Moves Roundup 2014 - A hive of activity!
An analysis of people moves over the past 12 months reveals some interesting trends - there were at least three new boutiques, including the much-awaited Koda Capital from Steve Tucker and Paul Heath - and plenty of merger and acquisition activity. A gender breakdown of the appointments continues to show that the industry is a long way from equality, although there were some encouraging signs, and new appointments show that the asset class of alternative investments is continuing to grow.
Download the 2014 Annual Moves Roundup which includes a complete list of moves in alphabetical surname order sorted by month (from January through to December 2014).
Last year was another eventful year for financial services. The S&P/ASX 200 may have only finished 2014 marginally up - by 1.1 per cent - but the level of personnel movements suggests the investment management and superannuation industry remains a hive of activity.
There were 40 per cent more appointments reported than departures. But we're quite sure that's got more to do with companies' reticence to report departures rather than particular growth in the industry. Our expectation would be that overall numbers in the industry have remained fairly stable.
Personnel moves are often the first sign of structural change within an organisation but can also signal that previously announced plans are finally underway.
But it wasn't until July last year that the relevant appointments were made with State Super's Mark O'Brien becoming the general manager of investments, Steve McKenna appointed general manager of investment and client strategy and Jonathon Green, head of investments at TCorp, becoming general manager of investment implementation and operations at the amalgamated fund.
The T-Corp moves weren't the only appointments that signalled merger and acquisition activity. In August, dealer group Clearview finalised its merger with Matrix Planning Solutions but prior to that it appointed three new business development managers -for Victoria, Queensland and NSW, in July. Then in November the combined dealer group announced the appointment of a chief executive (Todd Kardash), head of advice (Tanya Seale), head of business development (Mike Pope) and head of platforms (Atit Rungta), along with a general manager - distribution (Christopher Blaxland-Walker).
And new NAB chief executive officer Andrew Thorburn copied many former new bosses by building an entirely new leadership team around him with Angela Mentis as group executive - business banking, Renee Roberts being lured from Bank of New Zealand to the position of group executive - enterprise services and transformation, Antony Cahill as group executive product and markets, and David Gall as group chief risk officer.
New boutiques
There was plenty of boutique activity during the year as well. We wrote about 100 Doors in our half-yearly wrap-up in July. Founder Dion Guargliardo and managing director Peter Esho have since streamlined the company's website which states that its services "include portfolio management, access to deal flow and strategic planning". It focuses on linking investors with disruptive technology opportunities.
Another much awaited boutique launch was that of former MLC and JB Were chief executives Steve Tucker and Paul Heath. They launched Koda Capital in early December. The independent dealer group, which will focus on high net wealth individuals, has also recruited Jason Coggins as head of managed fund research from ANZ Wealth and Brigette Leckie from BNY Mellon as chief investment officer. Lisa Gay and Andrew Rothery have come on board as non-executive directors.
Three former van Eyk research consultants - Jonathan Ramsay, Fil Andronaco and Jonathan Tolub - left van Eyk in August to launch portfolio construction and consulting company InvestSense. The group said they wanted to provide "a robust, transparent process centred on a valuation based framework." They signed up their first dealer group client - former van Eyk client Sentry Group - in November.
The move was prescient and preceded the unfortunate demise of van Eyk. It went into administration in September after Macquarie terminated its Blueprint funds.
Unfortunately the fate of two consultants - Franz Baumgartner and Otto Rieth - who joined van Eyk in August in consulting positions to replace the departed team, was not so bright. Industry Moves is not aware of any announcements regarding their current positions.
Investment highlights
The Future Fund made four new appointments and although one of them was widely flagged - the promotion of David Neal to managing director- the others were in investments and the new position of head of ESG is of particular note.
As overseer of such a large sum of money - $105.5 billion at last count in September last year- the Future Fund is generally at the forefront of new investment trends, mostly because it has to be. And the new position in ESG in particular is indicative of a wider trend in the industry. Don't be surprised if other, particularly larger funds, soon follow.
Although not an entirely new position, the appointment of Craig Dandurand to director of debt and alternatives was quite a big get for the Future Fund. Dandurand was head of hedge funds at the $US277 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) where he had spent the past 13 years.
State Street also appointed a new head of alternative investment solutions for the Asia Pacific region, recognising the increasing inflows into the asset class. Bob Keogh took up that position in September.
Louis Christopher's property research group, SQM Research, also branched into alternatives during the year with the appointment of former van Eyk research head Rob da Silva, to the newly created position of head of fixed income and alternatives.
All these appointments highlight the growing importance of the alternative asset class.
Gender balance and boards
As for gender balance, as this picture below (from the 2013/14 Annual Report) of the investment committee of the Future Fund - Australia's sovereign wealth fund - shows, there really isn't any. (And since this picture was taken, the only woman, Elspeth Lumsden, has left the fund.)
Of the moves tracked by Industry Moves, just 21 per cent of appointments in the industry during the past year were female, with women accounting for 17.6 per cent of departures.
Some reshuffling of boards during the year didn't do much for equality either with two new appointments on the SMSF Professionals Association of Australia - Peter Crump as chair and Andrew Gale as deputy chair - both being men. The Association of Financial Advisers did a little better, appointing Jenny Brown to the board as vice president and Deborah Kent as its new president. The Australian Institute of Trustees also appointed two women - Kate Andrews and Sue Gould.
According to analysis by Industry Moves of the composition of the boards of the 10 largest superannuation funds, just 33% of board members are female, although five funds, including AustralianSuper, have female chairs. However just four of the total 24 women on boards are also on investment committees. The industry is going to have to do a little better this year if it's serious about gender equality.
