What's really going on? Appointment activity tells the story.

Appointment activity over the past six months reveals the establishment of at least one new firm, forewarns the eventual sale of NAB custody, and highlights the expansion in the alternative investment space. With, on average, less than 50 reported changes a month, Penny Pryor takes a closer look at an industry that could probably be regarded as relatively stable.

Personnel movements are often the first sign of a change within a company.

New appointments at NAB Asset Servicing in January, in business development and client servicing roles, appeared, on the surface, to be a ramped-up focus on the custody side of the business. However, as news emerged over the following months that NAB was shopping the business around, the personal movements turned out to be the first indication that something was afoot.

Another interesting trend were the appointment announcements that were really about the establishment of new firms or the expansion of existing ones into new areas.

In May it was reported that Peter Esho was joining 100 Doors - founded by former head of financial planning at Wilson HTM Investment Group, Dion Guagliardo - as managing partner.

Peter Esho says they established the firm because they wanted to create a holistic wealth management offering. This will include traditional advice for private wealth and family trusts, with a focus on providing access to investments, both listed and unlisted, in technology.

"What we discovered was there was a big gap in the Australian market between the technology space and the wealth management space," Esho says.

Due to the low representation of technology firms on the Australian Stock Exchange, the group will start to seek out private investment opportunities in the technology sector over the next 12 months. Esho says the kinds of businesses that the firm looks to invest in will mostly depend on the people involved.

"In the technology space there is a big demand for capital, there is a big demand for investors," he says.

The group is independent with its own Australian Financial Services License. Esho says this is essential in order to be able to offer a quality unbiased service and also the option for a wider range of suitable products where appropriate.

Further growth is on the cards.

"We are looking at hiring and we will be meeting more people in a formal way over the next a couple of months," Esho says.

Three appointments at listed alternative investment asset manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments also highlight a growing private equity and venture capital sector.

Over the past six months two key account managers and one investment director were appointed at Blue Sky, as the company launched a new diversified alternatives listed investment company and a new venture capital fund.

Over five new hires at financial software and technology firm Rubik Financial, signals that company is entering a new development phase after a run of acquisitions, which included the Visor Desktop financial planning software from Macquarie and a reseller agreement with Revex Solutions.

The departure of Stephanie Weston as director of investment management at AMP Financial Services in February heralded the demise of that team, with five more resignations following and the remainder of the 17-person team understood to have taken redundancies or found other jobs within the company.

That also resulted in some appointments and reshuffling in the multi-asset group at AMP Capital, as it took on some of the financial services group's former investment responsibilities.

The behemoth AustralianSuper reported that it would be creating a big data team early in the year, which would need a team of five, and the Future Fund appointed Cameron Price as general counsel, Joel Posters from The Netherlands to the newly created role of head of environmental, social and governance matters and elevated David Neal from the position of chief investment officer to managing director.

On boards there were fewer than 40 reported movements in the past six months. A lot of the activity was at representative organisations. Angela Emslie replaced Cate Wood as the president of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees in April and David Smith and Susan Gould were appointed trustee directors in March.

And on the SMSF Professionals Association of Australia (SPAA) board, Peter Crump was appointed chair as Andrew Gale was appointed deputy chair.