Former Amplifi chief executive, Fred Ohlsson, has resurfaced as group chief of Avanti Finance.
Ohlsson ended an almost two-year stint with the Mint Asset Management-backed Amplifi this month.
The former ANZ senior executive replaces veteran chief, Mark Mountcastle, atop the long-standing consumer finance company.
Avanti was founded in 1989 by Glenn Hawkins, who remains as chair and biggest shareholder in the business.
Hawkins said in a statement that Ohlsson was hired to help grow the lending business in both NZ and Australia.
“He’s held senior positions covering a broad range of functions at ANZ, including product, marketing, strategy, and retail and business banking,” Hawkins said.
Meanwhile, last week the US$10 trillion asset manager, BlackRock, rejigged its Asia Pacific leadership team last week, appointing Susan Chan as head of the region.
Previously, the multi-hatted Chan had served as deputy APAC chief, head of China as well as leading the manager’s regional trading, liquidity and lending activities. She joined the manager in 2013 as head of iShares capital markets and products APAC, later upgraded to regional head of exchange-traded funds and indexing.
She replaces Rachel Lord who moves to London to assume the newly created role as BlackRock head of international title.
Following Chan’s promotion, BlackRock named current head of Australasia, Andrew Landman and Hiroyuki Shimizu, head of APAC institutional and North Asia, to share the deputy regional chief role.
Landman also picks up extra duties for the South East Asia region and as head of the BlackRock APAC wealth arm.
The APAC reshuffle comes amid a global retrenchment announced earlier this month that will see about 3 per cent of the BlackRock workforce cut – amounting to about 600 job losses.
At the same time, the world’s largest fund manager revealed a US$12.5 billion purchase of private asset firm, Global Infrastructure Partners, and a ‘re-architecture’ of the broader business.
BlackRock chief, Larry Fink, said the move would involve “embedding our ETF and Index business across the entire firm”.
According to Reuters, the restructure would also see Stephen Cohen – current head of Europe, Middle East and Africa – take up the position as chief product officer with responsibility for the new strategy. Salim Ramji, global head of iShares and index investments, and Edwin Conway, global head of equity markets, are set to exit BlackRock as part of the senior executive makeover.
Also last week, Morningstar appointed Adam Fleck as head of research for its environmental, social and governance (ESG) business, Sustainalytics.
Fleck, previously Morningstar director of research, ratings and ESG, moves into the newly created role following a strong period of growth in the sector.
The global research house first bought a 40 per cent stake in Sustainalytics in 2017 before taking full control of the ESG-ranker in 2020.