The All-Rounder: Q&A with Centrepoint Alliance's new CIO

It was a high school project that piqued Toby Lewis' interest in the finance space and following a 20 year career, in the "back, middle and front" sections of the industry, this month he was appointed as Centrepoint Alliance's first CIO. Following the GFC, Lewis was drawn to Australian shores from Europe; he tells Industry Moves a little about the move, describes his upbringing in picturesque Guernsey and shares a valuable lesson that is "fundamental to success" in the industry.

TOBY LEWIS

It was a high school project that piqued Toby Lewis' interest in the finance space and following a 20 year career, in the "back, middle and front" sections of the industry, this month he was appointed as Centrepoint Alliance's first CIO. Following the GFC, Lewis was drawn to Australian shores from Europe; he tells Industry Moves a little about the move, describes his upbringing in picturesque Guernsey and shares a valuable lesson that is "fundamental to success" in the industry.

As the firm's first Chief Investment Officer, what are your goals within the first 12 months?

I'm in my third week, so it's perhaps a little early to have specific goals. I'm sure we'll set some soon enough when we establish some priorities. For the time being, I'm enjoying asking a lot of questions. I'm looking at all elements of our investment services and processes as I develop the business plan for the Investments team. If we have one overarching aim though, it's to make it as easy as possible for our network of advisors to generate the right outcomes for their clients.

What attracted you to the investment space?

I remember preparing a research note on Rio Tinto in a business studies class as a 15 year old high school student. Initially, the fascination was with discovering all the things that companies did. It was so beyond my realm of experience at that age and learning about these businesses was far more interesting than anything else on the curriculum. I later studied law at university and at one stage aimed to be a barrister; but I kept being drawn back to investing because I enjoyed it so much.

How has your previous experience prepared you for this role?

The early part of my career was spent in London. By my mid-twenties I'd worked in investment management teams at a large insurer, a hedge fund and a large institutional manager with sovereign wealth clients. I'd worked in virtually every department in the back, middle and front offices at one point or another. I'd been on the trading floor for a large part of the tech rally of the late nineteen nineties and the crash that followed. The variety of experiences in my early career is something that I continue to draw on. I realised that I knew more about how investment management companies and investment processes worked than just about anything else. Since then I have tended to focus more on multi-manager investing and asset allocation. More recently I've become very interested in how we can borrow techniques from the institutional world to provide better outcomes for wealth clients. I'm very lucky that I was in the right place at the right time to get some great experience. Now I can apply it directly to helping our clients and, being in the wealth industry, I often get to meet them. I love that about my job.

What prompted the move from Europe to Australia in 2010?

I had been specialising in managing portfolios that covered the Pacific and emerging markets. In the aftermath of the financial crisis I had decided that I wanted to move to the region and I took some time off. My intention, at the time, was to move to Singapore, but I came to Australia to visit friends and family for a few weeks and loved it. Within a year I was back and have been here ever since.

What has been your greatest lesson learnt in your 20-year finance career so far?

No matter how smart you are, this is a job about people. Trust is fundamental to success in our business. I'm a big fan of continuing education, in fact I'm still a student now; but education won't get you very far if you can't build relationships with the people around you.

Who has had the biggest influence on your life/career so far?

There's a long list of influencers. Too many to mention. But it's probably my grandparents at the top; we always spent a lot of time together. They were both business owners and shrewd investors - my grandmother in particular. She would never overpay for anything.

Where did you grow up and what was it like?

I moved around a bit, but I spent the most time in Guernsey. Most of my family is still there. It's a bit warmer than the UK and, being closer to France, it has some obvious French influences. It's very green and has great beaches. The lifestyle is not unlike Sydney, which I think is why there's a few people that I grew up with that have also moved here.

What was your very first job?

Working in my uncle's commercial greenhouse when I was seven. He paid me one pound an hour, I'm not sure if that counts? I cleaned cars for a rental company when I was eleven too. My brother and I were both taught to be pretty self-reliant from an early age.

What's something that most people wouldn't know about you?

In my very brief legal career as a student I worked in court on one of the many prosecutions that resulted from the collapse of Barings Bank.