Andrew Mehrtens, the former All Blacks great, is to return to New Zealand to work and live after a four-year stint in finance in Australia. He is to become BNZ Markets Investor Sales director, fixed income, currencies and commodities in Auckland.
Mehrtens is currently an associate director of business development at NAB Asset Servicing, based in Sydney. He joined NAB, the parent company of BNZ, in 2015 but has been able to maintain his ongoing rugby promotional commitments with Sky and others, which should become easier for him from a New Zealand base.
He is expected to start the new role in August, but will continue to assist NAB Asset servicing, which is closely involved with FX trading too, with its future growth.
Mehrtens was lured across the Tasman to work by friend and foe Phil Kearns, a former Wallaby captain against whom Mehrtens played, in 2013. Kearns was the chief executive of private equity- backed financial planning dealer group Centric Wealth, of which Mehrtens became a senior sales rep.
Centric Wealth was sold to Findex, a much larger group, about a year later and most of the senior Centric Wealth people left the firm not long after.
Before moving to Sydney, though, Mehrtens had already acquired a half-share in a business there, together with another former Wallaby, George Gregan. They own the successful Local Bar restaurant. Gregan also owns a string of coffee shops.
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)