Just-departed Smart chief, Anna Scott, has been named as the incoming head of Mercer NZ.
Scott will replace long-time Mercer NZ chief, Martin Lewington, who retired last month.
As reported earlier this week, she resigned the NZX-owned fund house to lead the “lead the New Zealand office of a global financial services group from 1 October 2025”.
In a release today, Mercer confirmed Scott would assume the NZ leadership role for the multi-manager and investment consulting firm that is part of the US-listed Marsh McLennan conglomerate.
Toni Ferrier, Marsh McLennan NZ chief, said in the statement: “Anna has the right breadth of experience to lead Mercer’s trajectory in New Zealand. Through her deep understanding of our market, combined with her international experience, she will draw on the best of Mercer’s global expertise and capabilities to serve the needs of clients and members and deliver business growth. We look forward to welcoming her to the business.”
Scott will report to Ferrier.
Mercer has more than $10 billion under management in NZ across its KiwiSaver scheme, in-house retail funds (including the ex AMP Capital, former Macquarie NZ suite) as well as underlying manager for multiple wholesale investors.
She joined Smart, then known as Smartshares, in June 2023 from Hobson Wealth, where she had served as chief operating officer since 2016.
Prior to joining Hobson in 2016, Scott served in several senior market operations roles both in NZ and offshore, including more than eight years as general manager for the JP Morgan currency trading division in London.
Hobson sold to Forsyth Barr in December of 2023.
“An announcement will be made in due course regarding the Smart Chief Executive role,” the NZX says in a release.
As at the end of May, Smart reported more than $13.6 billion under management across its exchange-traded fund and SuperLife (including KiwiSaver) businesses as well as active management shop, QuayStreet Asset Management.