Former Kiwi Wealth chief customer officer, Joe Bishop, has returned to the industry after a brief hiatus with a new role at TSB Bank as general manager product and marketing.
Bishop resigned as chief executive of Police and Families Credit Union (PFCU) in September, ending an 18-month stint at the Wellington-based organisation.
Previously, he served in several senior executive roles for Kiwi Wealth during an eight-year career that ending in February 2020.
It is understood Bishop will move to New Plymouth to take up his new position at the TSB headquarters.
Owned by the Toi Foundation (formerly known as the TSB Community Trust), the Taranaki-based bank also shares a parent with Fisher Funds. Toi owns about two-thirds of Fisher with US private equity firm, TA Associates holding the remainder.
Meanwhile, the Auckland boutique Salt Funds Management has named long-time Fisher Funds investment analyst, Zoie Regan, to replace the departing Michael Kenealy.
As reported last week, Kenealy moves to Mint Asset Management next month as a senior investment analyst.
Regan joins the Salt equity team as a senior analyst in January. She left Fisher in 2019 after serving seven years in various senior analyst and portfolio manager roles.
More recently, she took up a senior position for a new Forsyth Barr research initiative launched last December. Regan was research director for the Forsyth Barr MST Access Research partnership.
In a release, Salt managing director, Matthew Goodson, said the new appointment “emphasises Salt’s commitment to continuously investing in our high quality investment team”.
The Auckland-based manager, named boutique of the year in the recent Research IP NZ fund manager annual awards, has also hired Mia Gemmell as an operations analyst to bolster the back-office team.
Also in Auckland, Milford Asset Management – the big winner in the Research IP awards last week – has added NZ financial industry veteran, Gavin Walker, as independent director.
Walker was inaugural chief of Bankers Trust NZ as well as holding a string of high-level executive and governance roles here and in Australia.
He retired as chair of both ASB Bank and Australian broking giant Commonwealth Securities (CommSec) this year. CommSec is owned by ASB parent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Walker was also chair of the Guardians of the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) from 2010 to 2015.
“I’m excited to join the board of an iconic and fast-growing fund manager like Milford,” he said in a release. “The firm has a track record of delivering fantastic client outcomes and I’m thrilled to help contribute to their continued growth in New Zealand and Australia.”
Milford boasts about $16.5 billion under management, largely sourced from NZ investors.
Elsewhere last week, Australia-originated fund giant, First Sentier Investors, has hired former AMP Capital head of equities, David Allen, to take over from Perry Clausen as global head of investment management.
Clausen retires from the almost A$250 billion First Sentier early next year.
The London-based Allen spent five years heading global equities for AMP Capital, ending this April, after a long career in the UK with managers including Sarasin and Partners, Fidelity International and Pioneer Investments.
Allen has been charged with leading the First Sentier investment teams “excluding FSSA Investment Managers and Stewart Investors”, according to a release, in addition to further corporate strategy duties.
He will also “be responsible and accountable for achieving the A$247 billion fund’s gender diversity target for women to represent at least 40 percent of its investment management staff by 2033”, the statement says.
In other appointment news, the Melbourne-headquartered JANA has promoted three long-time consultants to newly created general manager positions.
Under the changes, Duncan Smith, Kirsten Temple and Anthony Ballard will assume general manager titles for client relationship management, investment strategy and research, respectively.
Previously, Smith, Temple and Ballard held the respective JANA jobs as principal consultant, research manager and head of Australian equities.
In a release, JANA chief, Jim Lamborn, said: “Together, Duncan, Kirsten and Anthony bring more than four decades of collective commitment to JANA and our clients. Their expertise and insight are unparallelled, and we are excited about this next chapter to recalibrate and deliver even greater returns and experiences for our clients.”
JANA has seen its staff numbers grow by 18 this year. The long-established Australian investment consultancy firm – part-owned by the ASX-listed IOOF – has several high-profile NZ clients including BNZ and Foundation North (replacing Cambridge Associates in the plum gig last December).
Finally, the Wellington-founded infrastructure investment manager, Morrisons & Co, has appointed Peter Coman and Geoff Hutchinson as joint heads of the group’s Australia and NZ business after a hiring spree that has seen the firm add 17 team members since September across global locations.
While Coman is an internal promotion, Hutchinson comes to Morrisons “after 14 years at Pacific Equity Partners, where he was a managing director and led investments across a range of industries including healthcare, education, and business services,” according to a release.
As part of a big global push, Morrisons also promoted William Smales to investment chief, based in its recently opened New York office.
He joined Morrisons “in 2013 and moved to New York in August this year, reaffirming its commitment to its international growth strategy”, the release says.
As reported last week, Nicole Walker, Morrison chief commercial officer, is due to shift from Sydney to lead the group’s new Singapore office.
The A$21 billion specialist investment firm launched a US$3 billion global infrastructure fund in November.