Westpac head of private wealth management, Joy Marslin, has resigned after serving a little over three years in the role.
Marslin, who took over the position from Roy Thompson (now head of boutique investment firm New Ground Capital) in February 2013, would finish with Westpac in September, a bank spokesperson told Investment News NZ (IN NZ).
“She is looking forward to spending more time travelling and pursuing other activities with her husband,” the Westpac spokesperson said. “In terms of her replacement, nothing is finalised at the moment as we look at the various options in how we move forward.”
Aside from a three-year stint running her own consultancy firm from 2010 (which overlapped with an executive coaching role for another business), Marslin enjoyed a long private banking career at ANZ and National.
After starting as a private banker for National in 1991 she worked up to head private wealth for the-then merged ANZ National Bank from 2008 until 2010.
Marslin was responsible for Westpac’s private banking and network of just over 70 authorised financial advisers (which has fallen from about 100 in 2013).
Elsewhere, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) has lured a senior ANZ currency strategist across to a newly-created position.
An NZS spokesperson said Sam Tuck would join the $30 billion plus fund at the end of June as portfolio manager strategic tilting after quitting his ANZ job over a week ago.
Tuck spent three years on ANZ’s proprietary foreign exchange desk before joining the bank’s currency research team in 2013.
Previously, he served 10 with the arbitrage and systematic trading group of Barclays Capital in London.
Also last week, Milford Asset Management revealed out-and-in movements in the group’s Sydney office as portfolio manager Australian equities component of the Trans-Tasman fund, Marc Whittaker, left the building.
Whittaker, who joined the approximately $3.3 billion NZ fund manager in 2010, would be replaced by Wayne Gentle, the former deputy head of Australian equities for the Commonwealth Bank-owned investment subsidiary, Colonial First State.
Gentle takes up the broader role of head of Australian equities for Milford.
Outgoing Milford managing director, Anthony Quirk, said the group was “delighted to have [Gentle] on board”.
“He has a strong investment track record in managing a diverse range of Australian Equities portfolios for institutional and retail clients with various investment styles, benchmarks and risk profiles,” Quirk said. “His appointment reaffirms our commitment to a growing and thriving Australian based office for Milford.”
Quirk ends his own executive career with Milford at the end of this month after announcing his resignation in March.
He said the search for his replacement was on track with a number of high-quality candidates to consider.
It is understood the process is now at short-list stage.
Quirk, who owns about 11 per cent of Milford, said he would take some time to “recharge the batteries” before deciding on any further professional career moves. However, he will remain as non-executive director on the Milford board after his exit in a couple of weeks.
Whittaker, meanwhile, had “accepted a new role with a Sydney based funds management firm”, Quirk said.
