Former Smartshares chief, Hugh Stevens, has landed a second governance role in the space of a few weeks after replacing long-time FundRock NZ independent chair, Ian Russon, earlier this month.
Stevens filled a vacancy on the Government Superannuation Fund board in June.
He formally left Smartshares this March following an action-packed five-year stint at the NZX that included two acquisitions, winning default KiwiSaver status and dozens of exchange-traded fund launches. By the end of his tenure the Smartshares book had grown more than five-fold from under $2 billion to $10 billion plus.
But the FundRock gig is familiar territory for Stevens, who worked at the group during its formative years operating under the Implemented Investment Solutions (IIS) brand.
Immediately prior to IIS he held senior roles for the custody arm of BNP Paribas, serving as head of private equity and real estate fund services in Paris following a stint leading the NZ business.
FundRock NZ managing director, Anthony Edmonds, said Stevens brings wide investment product, custody and administration experience to the board as well as his specific inside knowledge of the business.
“Hugh worked with me during the period that we got our managed investment scheme licence and as the business developed into a full-blown fund-hosting operation,” Edmonds said. “He can certainly hit the ground running with a deep understanding of what we do for our clients.”
IIS, which also owns the InvestNow direct-to-consumer investment and KiwiSaver platform, adopted the FundRock NZ brand following the buyout by the Bermuda-based Apex Group last year.
Apex uses the FundRock name for its global fund-hosting business.
Edmonds also paid tribute to outgoing chair, Russon, who ended a seven-year term on the IIS/FundRock board in July.
“Ian has provided the most incredible governance and guidance to the business through a significant period of change, including growing our fund-hosting client base from a handful to more than 20 today and launching the innovative InvestNow platform in 2017,” he said. “More recently, his oversight was instrumental in the successful sale of the Hunter Global Fixed Interest Fund to Harbour, as well as the acquisition of IIS group by Apex in late 2022.”
Stevens chairs the FundRock NZ board that features Jeremy Valentine as another independent director along with executive board members Edmonds and chief financial officer, Gareth Fleming.
Apex owns a vast global network of investment administration and associated businesses including MMC in NZ and Mainstream across the Tasman.
MMC is now known as Apex Investment Administration NZ. Apex bought MMC, which offers a range of fund back-office services and houses the ex-Aegis investment platform, near the end of 2021.