Apex NZ has hired Smartshares chief customer officer, Donna Mason, to head its Auckland-based investment administration arm.
Mason replaces Renée Tourell, who left the business formerly known as MMC in October for health reasons.
Prior to joining Smartshares in 2020 as head of client development, she spent 12 years at AMP NZ wealth management in various advisers support and corporate superannuation roles.
In a note to clients last week, Apex said Mason had “strong people, leadership and strategic skills” as well as broad experience across investment operations, product and client-facing positions.
Anthony Edmonds, Apex NZ group chief, will remain as acting head of the administration business until she assumes the job early next year.
Edmonds said Mason brings “great technical skills and enthusiasm” to the role.
“Donna will also be complementary to senior management in the Apex group,” he said.
At the same time, former BNZ chief general counsel, Hayley Cassidy, has joined the board of the Apex NZ admin business to work alongside Edmonds and Nick Happell, the Australia-based Asia-Pacific regional managing director for the global investment administration business .
Currently Rabobank chief compliance officer, Cassidy also served as Nikko Asset Management NZ general counsel for almost five years before the BNZ gig.
She has “qualifications in law, mediation, banking, organisational psychology and corporate governance, and has completed a post-graduate program at Harvard Business School”, the Apex note says.
Apex NZ business has about $150 billion in funds under administration in the ex-MMC business. The broader Apex NZ group also includes the fund-hosting division, FundRock NZ, and the direct-to-consumer InvestNow platform.
Also last week, outgoing Mint Asset Management head of sales and marketing, David Boyle, has landed a directorship on the board of Ngāi Tahu funds management subsidiary, Whai Rawa.
Launched in 2016, the Whai Rawa fund serves as a savings vehicle for iwi members with a matched contribution option. The fund has about $140 million under management on behalf of over 34,000 members. Originally established with one non-unitised conservative strategy managed by Mercer, the scheme added balanced and growth funds in 2020 – also run by Mercer – and moved to a unit trust structure.
Boyle, who leaves Mint at the end of this year, said he looks forward to working with Whai Rawa as it looks to further enhance the savings and investment outcomes for scheme members.
“Whai Rawa is a good fit with my own interests in investor education and financial wellbeing,” he said.
The iwi fund also appointed Banqer co-founder, Kendall Flutey, to the board last week.
Meanwhile in the US, former Nikko NZ head of distribution, James Wesley, has been bumped up to lead the Japanese-owned fund manager in his recently adopted country.
Wesley left NZ in February to take on the deputy chief job for Nikko in the Americas.
But he will move into the CEO Americas role as of January 1 next year as incumbent, Lawrence Prager, retires at the end of 2023.
Stefanie Drews, Nikko president, said in a release. “We are proud to have James step into this new role, following a seamless transition from Larry. With his own experience and Larry’s introduction of the idiosyncratic opportunities and mechanics in the U.S., I am confident he can drive the US, Canada and Latin America sleeve of our global growth strategy.”
As at the end of September, the Nikko Americas group reported about US$8.4 billion under management.
Back home, the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) named Paula Steed as interim chief pending a full-time replacement for the departing Matt Whineray.
Whineray is due to exit the NZS at the end of the year after five years as chief and 15 years in total at the now $67 billion sovereign wealth fund.
Steed joined NZS as general manager strategy and shared services in July 2021 following a more than two-year stint as chief internal auditor at ASB.
Previously, she held senior finance and management positions at UDC, ANZ and AMP after beginning her career at Deloitte.
Catherine Drayton, NZS Guardians chair, said the board expected to confirm a permanent CEO before the end of 2023.