Specialist consulting firm, Mosaic Financial Services Infrastructure, has doubled its partner ranks in under a month with a second new appointment in February.
The latest Mosaic partner, Mike Stobbs, closely follows on from former NZ Funds chief operating officer, Phil Doak, who took up the role with the Auckland-based consultancy earlier in the month.
Mosaic now boasts four partners in a firm of 30-plus staff, a number which has grown rapidly over the last few years to cope with spiraling demand for technological solutions in the NZ finance sector.
Stobbs has more than 30 years’ experience in technology-related advisory, executive and governance roles including electronic banking, home shopping, payments, digital transformation and multi-sector e-commerce initiatives.
Myles Allan, Mosaic founding partner, said Stobbs brings unique knowledge and expertise from a career spent “at the leading edge” of technological change.
“Mike has served on the frontlines of the digital revolution that has been sweeping across all industries for the last few decades,” Allan said. “He knows what businesses must do to adapt and thrive in the fast-evolving technology-led environment.”
Prior to joining Mosaic, Stobbs has held a number of senior management roles in organisations such as ASB Bank, Electronic Commerce Network, Advantage E-Commerce, Xelocity, Oracle and more recently, Power Genius.
In other moves last week, former Sargon NZ senior supervisory manager, Lloyd Wong, returned to the Mercer fold two years after leaving the multi-manager and investment consulting firm.
Wong, who served as a Mercer retirement consultant from 2016 to early 2018, will take on a KiwiSaver-focused role at the Auckland-based business.
A Mercer spokesperson said Wong has been appointed senior consultant in the group’s consumer wealth team.
He will lead the Mercer KiwiSaver default licence application process “along with other key client and customer projects”, the spokesperson said.
Mercer is one of the nine incumbent KiwiSaver default providers, all of whom must reapply for reappointment under dramatically altered terms announced by the government early in March.
The default scheme tender process is expected to kick-off before June this year with approved providers due to begin operating under revised terms by mid 2021.
Mercer’s Consumer Wealth leader, Sarah Whitelock, said in a release: “Lloyd is an expert in the industry, so it’s great to have him back with Mercer. His knowledge of KiwiSaver will strengthen our team and ensure our members have the best possible experience while we incorporate any changes that the government makes to KiwiSaver.”
Prior to Mercer, Wong spent 13 years with Public Trust in senior client services positions for the corporate trustee division.
However, in 2018 he took on a role for Heritage Trustees just as the long-established firm joined the elite group of licensed supervisors.
Heritage had ambitions to move in on the corporate trustee business dominated by the big three of Guardian, Trustees Executors and Public Trust before selling out to Sargon for $10 million later that year.
While Wong was among a group of Heritage staff included in Sargon clean-out last June, it is understood he continued in an interim role with the firm until recently.
The Australian Sargon parent was put into administration this January, sparking a break-up of the company that will likely see the NZ assets offloaded as part of an imminent bulk sale.