Noah Schiltknecht, Russell NZ director of institutional, is to leave the business by the end of June.
It is understood Schiltknecht planned to launch an independent consulting business later in the year.
Alister van der Maas, Russell NZ chief, said the firm had begun a recruitment process to replace Schiltknecht, whose duties included advising institutional clients and designing implement investment solutions.
“We’re sorry to see Noah go, he’s been a hugely valuable asset to the business but we also support him in what he wants to do next,” van der Maas said.
The Switzerland-born Schiltknecht, joined Russell in 2011 following a three-year turn as an investment analyst at NZ power company Vector.
Also this month, long-time man-on-the-ground in NZ for the BlackRock-owned iShares, Bruce Edgar, has stepped away from the crease.
Edgar, better-known as a NZ cricketing great in the 1970s and ‘80s, has represented iShares in the country for at least a decade via his consulting business.
Co-incidentally, he also stepped down this March as coach of the Wellington Firebirds cricket team after four years in the role.
“You can be in a job too long,” Edgar told Stuff at the time. “You need to keep refreshing the ideas and the innovation coming through and I feel that what I’ve done is right.”
He has had a long career in the Australasian financial services industry including marketing roles for State Street Global Advisors, BNZ Investment Management and Trustees Executors.
(According to his Linkedin profile, Edgar also scored the “most overlooked century of all time” during the infamous ‘underarm’ one-day cricket match between Australia and NZ in 1981.)
BlackRock won’t be replacing Edgar’s role in NZ, however, Katie Petering, head of institutional iShares Australasia, said in a statement: “iShares by BlackRock has deep and long-standing relationships with institutional investors in New Zealand.
“Our continued commitment to the New Zealand market is demonstrated by our recent collaboration with Smartshares. We look forward to the launch of their eight new ETFs on the NZX in June.”
In other appointment news last week, the Westpac investment arm, BTNZ, added two new team members including a trained data scientist, Teresa Brandts-Giesen, as portfolio analyst.
Brandts-Giesen will work with BTNZ senior portfolio manager, Francois Richeboeuf, “on portfolio implementation and asset allocation for the Westpac diversified funds, including KiwiSaver as well as portfolio management duties for the cash and money market funds”, according to a release.
She moved to NZ from Jersey in the UK Channel Islands in 2016 following a 15-year career “in finance and technology sectors globally”, the statement says.
BTNZ hired another UK import, Angus Allison, as credit analyst for its fixed income team.
Previously, Allison worked at Barclays in London in a variety of roles covering credit and equity research as well as “on the sales and trading floor”.
Westpac/BTNZ manages over $12 billion in retail funds including approximately $6.4 billion in the bank-owned KiwiSaver scheme.