Franklin Templeton beefs up insto team

Franklin Templeton has added a new senior director to its institutional business, hiring from Northern Trust Asset Management.

Thakshi Wijesundara was head of distribution for the global asset manager's Australia and New Zealand business for nearly three years.

Wijesundara landed there from Dimensional Fund Advisers, where she served as regional director of institutional and wealth.

Before that, she worked at BlackRock as a research relationship associate.

Interestingly, she moved across from IFM Investors, where she covered the debt markets as an investment analyst.

She started her financial services career as an accountant, moving to National Australia Bank in 2012, where, most recently, she was a senior performance and risk analyst.

Wijesundara's career is not too dissimilar to that of her boss, Felicity Walsh.

Like Walsh, the recruit has investment, risk and sales experience.

These skills are necessary for distribution staff to assess more complex assets to help super fund clients identify investment opportunities.

Walsh worked at a hedge fund specialist after spending eleven years at Willis Towers Watson as an investment consultant and actuary.

Wijesundara's appointment comes two months after Franklin Templeton hired Chenelle de Rozario as an alternatives specialist as it expands coverage of this asset class to meet higher demand from super funds.