The NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has named Alex Bacchus as head of asset allocation to replace incumbent, Charles Hyde, who has landed a mystery role offshore.
Hyde has led the asset allocation team for five years after joining the-now $95 billion sovereign fund in 2015 as a senior investment strategist.
Prior to the NZS he held various academic and investment management positions, mostly in Australia.
Bacchus moves up to the top asset allocation job next month from his current gig as head of strategic tilting, one of the leading sources of investment alpha for the fund.
He filled several other senior roles in a long career at the NZS, dating back to 2009, including a six-month stint as interim chief investment officer (CIO) following the departure of Stephen Gilmore in June 2024. Gilmore is now CIO of the largest US pension fund, CalPERS, which recently adopted the ‘total portfolio approach’ (TPA) in line with the NZS model.
Brad Dunstan, NZS co-CIO, said in a release the Bacchus’ experience in “risk, portfolio construction and strategic tilting will be invaluable as we continue to refine and improve the way we invest the Fund”.
In May this year, the fund completed a regular five-yearly review of its reference portfolio with changes in the key investment benchmark slated for implementation last month.
Dunstan said Hyde was instrumental in developing the TPA model for the NZS as well as helping finalise the latest reference portfolio review, which remains under wraps for now.
Meanwhile, Mercer has hired former AMP NZ head of investments, Aaron Klee, in a newly created business lead role.
Klee left AMP last November after a 15-year career at the NZ arm of the ASX-listed financial services business amid an executive restructure.
He has been charged with leading “a new retail fund strategy as well as further develop the wholesale funds for underlying investments”, according to a Mercer release.
The statement says Klee will work alongside Mercer head of wealth partnerships, Catherine Pollock, as well as the senior team at the manger, now led by Anna Scott. Pollock moved from Smart earlier this year, following the former chief of the NZX-owned fund manager, Anna Scott, who was named Mercer NZ chief in July 2025.
Also last week, the government named James Miller as permanent chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) to replace the current temp, Steven Bardy, amid an internal ruckus at the regulator.
Bardy took over as interim chair last December as Craig Stobo stepped down ahead of an investigation into alleged governance breaches. Stobo resigned this May.
FMA chief, Samantha Barrass, was placed on leave early in August while the board launched an unrelated probe into unspecified ‘cultural concerns’ in the senior regulatory ranks. The government has hired KC Kristy McDonald to lead an independent investigation into the allegations. Barrass is due to leave the FMA early next year.
Miller, who takes up a five-year term at the regulator, has a long history in NZ investment governance including as an inaugural FMA director.
He has also chaired the NZX and the ACC investment committee among a raft of other current and former board roles.
Along with Miller, another local corporate governance stalwart, Trevor Janes, has been named to a two-year stint on the FMA board.
Janes was the first chair of the NZX RegCo, the regulatory arm of the local exchange spun off into a separate entity in 2020.
In a reply to the ministerial ‘letter of expectations’ this May, the FMA said: “Maintaining public and market confidence in the FMA’s governance and regulatory credibility is a core responsibility of the Board and we place a strong emphasis on accountability. In addition to a Board self-review, an external Board review is planned to test and strengthen our governance and performance arrangements.”
Elsewhere last week, June McCabe was named as director for the $1.3 billion Auckland Future Fund (AFF), to bring the active board membership back up to three.
The AFF governance team has been down to two members – chair, Christopher Swasbrook (also on the FMA board) and David Callanan, head of corporate trustee services for Public Trust – since fellow director, Stobo, stepped away last December pending the outcome of the regulatory investigation.
Stobo remains “temporarily stood aside”, the AFF website notes.
McCabe is currently on the Devon Funds board and chairs the asset management entity of far North iwi, Te Rarawa.
“Previous relevant roles include director of Avanti Finance, Accident Compensation Corporation, founding director of the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund and executive roles in JBWere and Westpac New Zealand,” according to a statement.
Established in 2024 out of the sale of the Auckland City Council holdings in the Auckland Airport, the AFF initially held the circa $1.3 billion proceeds in term deposits before investing into a global portfolio managed by Vontobel, with Adminis as custodian, last December.
“The return rate for these placements was below the long-term average return expected for funds invested in global markets,” the March quarter AFF report says.
Over the 2025/26 financial year to March 31, the AFF reported a loss of almost $30 million with fund costs of $3.6 million including $2.8 million of “investment commission” expenses incurred.
The target portfolio annual net return of 7.24 per cent was “at risk” the report says, while a scheduled 5.24 per cent (amounting to almost $71 million) distribution was paid to council in June.
Meanwhile, former Pyne Gould Corporation (PGC) managing director, George Kerr, has been bankrupted in a NZ court just a week or so after a similar legal move in the UK.
According to the Auckland High Court insolvency register, Kerr was deemed bankrupt on July 31. The Bank of NZ has been chasing the ex PGC head over a $90 million property loan for years with the well-known NZ financial services entrepreneur, now based in the UK, missing a July 23 deadline to settle the debt.
As reported last month, Kerr was bankrupted in the UK on July 21 on the request of his former business partner, Vadim Perelman. Following the legal action, he stepped down as managing director of PGC, which is now listed on the Guernsey-domiciled The International Stock Exchange.