Devon Funds portfolio manager, Victoria Harris, is to leave the firm in April following a two-year stint at the Auckland boutique to focus on her financial education start-up, The Curve.
Harris joined Devon from Pie Funds in October 2020 where she also served two years in a portfolio management role. Pre-Pie she spent six years at Milford Asset Management.
Slade Robertson, Devon managing director, said in a release that the firm had “strong layers of succession” to absorb the duties currently carried out by Harris.
“Mark Brown, Devon’s Chief Investment Officer, will take up the reins of managing the Sustainability Fund, alongside Patrick Washer, who has been promoted to the role of Assistant Portfolio Manager for this strategy, together with his existing duties as an Equity Analyst,” Robertson said. “Alice Jones will also assist in this area as Devon’s ESG Analyst. Alice has already been working with Victoria in this capacity.”
Meanwhile, Harris will decamp to the UK to promote the female-focused investment education service she co-founded with Sophie Hallwright in 2020.
The Curve initially offered investment training and workshops directed at women in NZ but is looking to grow in the UK.
“Victoria has been a fantastic member of our team, but she goes with our support, and we are excited for her as she commits to this new direction in her career,” Robertson said.
Devon manages about $2 billion on behalf of retail, wholesale and institutional investors including a mandate with the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS).
Meanwhile, the NZS has boosted its data analytics unit with the hire of Paul Shucksmith from the now Fisher Funds-owned Kiwi Wealth.
Shucksmith joins the NZS in May as a senior data scientist to make up a team of five in the specialist analytics division headed by Kathryn Kerner.
Kerner arrived at the NZ sovereign wealth fund last year after working as data analyst for the Chicago Federal Reserve.
She said Shucksmith had “strong predictive modelling experience to support Investment decision-making and joins the team to lead data analytics projects, to build analytical solutions, and to support [the NZS] in data science”.
At Kiwi Wealth he lead the technical team responsible for the $1.5 billion quantitative global equities strategy managed by Steffan Berridge, the soon-to-depart chief investment officer. Berridge is one of four Kiwi Wealth executives set to leave the firm over the next few months in the wake of the Fisher Funds takeover. Kiwi Wealth portfolio manager, Nathan Field, also moves to Generate next month to take up a new international shares management role. Field will run a global shares thematic investment strategy for Generate, similar to his current Kiwi Wealth portfolio.
Elsewhere, BNP Paribas Securities Services has named Philippe Kerdoncuff in a newly established position as head of asset owners and asset managers client lines for Australia and NZ.
Kerdoncuff, a 22-year BNP veteran, moves from China to Sydney to assume the new role that includes responsibility for “the development and management of our products and solutions to meet the changing requirements of local asset owners and asset managers”, the group says in a statement.
He will report to BNP Paribas Securities Services executives, Daniel Cheever, head of Australia and New Zealand and Philippe Tassin, Asia Pacific regional head of asset owners and asset managers client lines.
“Philippe’s global experience across multiple client segments as well as his in-depth knowledge of securities services will be invaluable to his new role where he will continue to grow our successful business across Australia and New Zealand,” Cheever said.