Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund founder to retire

Richard Fish, founder of the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund and the Bennelong Market Neutral Fund, has announced his retirement after 15 years of service, effective 1 July 2017.

Fish will remain a non-executive director of Bennelong Long Short Equity Management (BLSEM) and continue to be a substantial investor in the fund and a shareholder in the management company beyond 1 July 2017.

Fish joined the Bennelong Group (now known as the Bangarra Group) in 2001. Prior to this, he worked in portfolio manager and dealer roles with National Asset Management Ltd, as well as positions at ANZ McCaughan Securities, Bain Securities (Deutsche Bank AG), and MacNab Clarke & Partners (CS First Boston).

Portfolio manager, Sam Shepherd, who has spent the last five years working alongside Fish at BLSEM, will step up to lead the team as sole portfolio manager.

In a statement the firm said that "there will be no change in approach to the day-to-day management of the portfolio following Richard's departure. Portfolio management is clearly defined and is managed in a highly disciplined way. Decision making is team based, and that has been the case for a number of years."

Commenting on his departure, Fish said: "The time is right for me to step back from BLSEM on a personal basis and also it's the right time for the business. I have total confidence in Sam's and the team's capabilities and expect the transition to be seamless. The team is high quality, highly motivated and fully engaged in driving superior outcomes for investors."