The NZX-owned funds house, Smart, has seen further staff movements across both investment and distribution with one-in and one-out, respectively.
Former Mint Asset Management multi-asset portfolio manager, Marek Krzeczkowski, joined Smart last week in a newly established role as head of investment strategy and quant.
Krzeczkowski left Mint in September after an eight-year stint at the boutique.
Stuart Millar, Smart chief investment officer, said in a release that the new hire represented a “significant step” as the manager looked for further growth.
“His strong technical expertise in data science and machine learning will be instrumental as he leads the enhancement of Smart’s investment framework to deliver innovative, risk-adjusted solutions for our clients,” Millar said.
According to the latest NZX update, Smart reported more than $15.5 billion under management as at the end of November, hitting a target previously identified by exchange chief, Mark Peterson, as the minimum level to generate ‘synergies’.
But Smart now has a sales gap to fill after general manager business development and distribution, Catherine Pollock, resigned this month after just 18 months in a role established last year. As well as holding responsibilities for the Smart suite, Pollock is also the sales and distribution lead for the group’s active funds management subsidiary, QuayStreet Asset Management.
According to a NZX spokesperson, Pollock, “will be leaving Smart” early next year.
Pollock reports to Smart chief sales and marketing officer, James Wesley, who took up the newly created role in November after serving more than two years Nikko Asset Management (now Amova) Americas chief.
“Decisions on Catherine’s replacement will be made in due course,” the spokesperson said.
Former head of the NZX Wealth Technologies investment platform, Lisa Turnbull, took over as Smart chief in October as the permanent replacement for Anna Scott, who left to lead Mercer NZ in July.
Elsewhere last week, the $1.5 billion Clarity Funds has named Craig Stanford in a newly created chief executive officer role at the Investment Services Group (ISG) subsidiary.
Stanford comes to Clarity from Australia where was most recently Asia-Pacific business development director for France-headquartered systematic investment house, Capital Fund Management (CFM).
Prior to Capital he spent almost nine years as Morningstar Australia head of alternative assets but his duties at Clarity will centre on growing the firm’s fund-hosting footprint.
As well as several in-house NZ and Australian strategies, Clarity hosts a number of global funds managed by groups including MFS, Capital Group (no relation to CFM), Daintree and, most recently, Nanuk.
Clarity has emerged as the operational home of The Investment Store, the third-party fund marketing business bought by ISG in August this year. The Investment Store founder, Matthew Mimms, agreed to remain with the firm during a transition phase.
Andrew Kelleher, Clarity executive director, said in a release that Stanford would lead the business “through the next phase of growth, and to further extend Clarity’s offerings for retail and wholesale investors in the local market”.
“We look forward to a series of further announcements in 2026 of differentiated fund offerings for New Zealand investors,” Kelleher said.
Australian wealth management firm, Shaw and Partners, took a 75 per cent stake in ISG this June: the ISG advisory arm, JMI Wealth, was subsequently rebranded as Shaw and Partners NZ.
ISG reported more than $8 billion of assets under management across the group that includes Devon Funds and the Select Wealth platform as well as Clarity.
Meanwhile, another NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) investment team member has popped up in a new position after a shake-up that saw about a dozen roles cut earlier this year.
Former senior investment strategist on the NZS direct asset unit, Barbara Salazar, was named as Suncorp NZ strategy manager last week.
Salazar spent six years at NZS, starting as an analyst on the direct investments team in 2019.
The almost $90 billion sovereign fund embarked on an investment strategy refresh under new joint CIOs, Will Goodwin and Brad Dunstan, earlier this year that replaced an “access-point-focused structure to an asset-class-based one”.
As part of the change several long-time NZS investment staff moved on.
The fund is also recruiting to fill new leadership roles in investment strategy, real assets, private equity and alternatives and portfolio implementation.