KiwiSaver provider, Aurora Capital, has made a leadership change with two former Fisher Fund executives joining the fast-growing scheme while incumbent general manager, Ian Coates, departs.
Sharon Mackay and Marcus Wild – respectively, Aurora chief executive officer and chief client officer – were culled from Fisher last July under a C-suite clean-out engineered by new CEO, Simon Power.
Sean Henaghan, Aurora chief investment officer and co-founder, said in a release that Mackay and Wild would be “crucial to helping build on our momentum and take Aurora into the future, and it’s fantastic to have them on board”.
Coates joined Aurora as a financial adviser in 2020 following an almost eight-year career at the Earthquake Commission in various settlement and claim roles. He was named as head of KiwiSaver and financial adviser at Aurora in 2021 before taking on the Aurora Capital general manager position in 2022.
Established in 2021 by Henaghan, who was previously head of multi-asset for AMP Capital in Australia, and Simon Rolland, founder of the Aurora Financial advisory group, the KiwiSaver scheme has grown from scratch to reach almost $380 million and close to 15,000 members.
However, following an ownership change last year, the youth-oriented Aurora Financial advice business was rebranded as Enva, an entity majority controlled interests associated with the Haven mortgage and insurance advisory network.
Enva has almost 130 advisers under its licences with a further 60 plus housed under Haven.
Aurora is the sole KiwiSaver product offered via Enva network while Haven includes the scheme on its approved list along with Booster, Generate and NZ Funds.
Henaghan said Mackay, who had a long track record in bank-based wealth management operations prior to Fisher, and Wild would be instrumental in supporting the Aurora relationships with advisers.
He said the group may broaden distribution to other advisory firms over time.
In the release, Mackay said Aurora had “tremendous potential” to grow further “by maintaining a laser-sharp focus on being the easiest KiwiSaver manager for advisors to work with”.
The scheme follows a multi-manager approach for most asset classes with its global equities panel currently including Dimensional and Stewart Investors.
Rolland no longer has any financial interests in the associated advisory firms but he retains an almost 10 per cent stake in Aurora Capital.
Last month, the Aurora Capital Group also registered as a company with Mackay currently listed as the sole shareholder via a nominee entity.