Financial Services Council (FSC) chair, Rob Flannagan, has gone into overtime to steer the industry body into its next innings.
Flannagan was due to exit the FSC board at the end of last year but has agreed to extend his nine-year stay at the crease until the organisation anoints a new captain.
“In light of the recent resignation from outgoing CEO Richard Klipin, the FSC Board has made this decision to focus on the continuity of leadership as the organisation positions for future growth,” the group says in a statement.
Klipin handed in his notice last month after seven years atop the FSC order to return to his native Australia. He will stay in the role until a successor is named – expected to be a few months away.
“It has been a huge decision; however the time is right to hand on the leadership baton,” Klipin said in a release last month.
Flannagan took over as FSC chair in 2015 during a tumultuous period for the financial services sector peak body, overseeing a stabilisation and growth boosted by three mergers with Workplace Savings NZ, the Health Funds Association of NZ and, this month, Women in Super.
Elsewhere, NZX chief, Mark Peterson, said the stock exchange will review how it “can best support the market – be it issuers, participants and other stakeholders” following the departure of general manager capital markets origination, Sarah Minhinnick.
Minhinnick resigned to take up the top job at the government green investment bank.
She replaces Craig Weise, who stepped down as the inaugural New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) chief last June. Chris Day has led NZGIF in an interim capacity since Weise departed.
In a statement, Peterson said the NZX had named Doug Vrame as acting head of origination and Philke Flitcroft as acting head of issuer relationships to assume Minhinnick’s duties, “effective immediately”.
“Decisions will be made in due course,” about whether to fill the general manager capital markets origination vacancy.
In its 2023 annual report published last month, the NZX notes the business “is extremely conscious of its cost base and the cost pressures it is facing”.
The previous Labour-led government established the NZGIF in 2019 to finance investment in greenhouse gas-reducing projects. Currently, the fund invested about $700 million.
Meanwhile, global managed fund network, Calastone, has hired former Bravura CEO, Nick Parsons, as chief technology officer (CTO).
Parsons led Bravura for about 12 months ending August 2022 after a 15-year career at the ASX-listed financial software business.
Previously, he was CTO for seminal back-office financial software provider, DST Global Solutions, which was later absorbed into SS&C.
At Calastone Parsons will be responsible for the group’s “technology operations as well as product strategy and development”, according to a statement.
He replaces Adam Belding, who has been bumped up to the new role of chief architect.
Calastone chief, Julien Hammerson, said in a release that Parsons would be “instrumental in leading our future technology strategy as we expand the business into new verticals and continue to support our clients through the next phase of automation”.
“I am proud of the progress we have made so far in driving innovation in the tokenisation of assets. Adam [Belding] will play a critical role as Chief Architect in leading the funds industry into a new era, which will see tokenised investment vehicles become the standard.”
The UK-founded Calastone now has about 3,900 clients in 54 countries (including NZ where it works with most investment platforms), handling over £250 billion of fund transactions each month.