NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) chief, Adrian Orr, has been named chair of the institutional investor ‘thought leadership’ group, the Pacific Pension & Investments Institute (PPI).
Orr, who served as PPI vice-chair for the two years ending February 2016, also holds the top board role at the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF).
The PPI boasts a membership of just over 100, split about evenly between asset owners and institutional fund managers that collectively represent over US$12 trillion.
According to the PPI promotional materials, the 20-year old San Francisco-headquartered organisation brings together “global pension and investment thought leaders for in-depth dialogue and knowledge sharing on issues facing long-term institutional investors in Asia, the Pacific Rim, and worldwide”.
As well as twice-yearly seasonal roundtables – with the just-concluded winter event in Seattle to be followed by a summer gathering in Toronto this June – the PPI holds an annual Asia event and executive seminar, both slated this year for India in November.
Orr hosted the IFSWF annual conference last November in Auckland with the 2017 meeting scheduled for Astana, Kazakhstan in early September.
Meanwhile, as foreshadowed on Investment News NZ (IN NZ) last week, the approximately $7 billion Fisher Funds has named former Co-operative Bank boss, Bruce McLachlan, as CEO.
McLachlan replaces the firm’s founding figure, Carmel Fisher, in the role she held since launch in 1998. Fisher said in a note to clients: “We wanted someone who would maintain our longstanding performance record and our commitment to exceptional client service.”
It is understood, McLachlan’s banking experience also appealed to the Fisher Fund’s almost half-owner, TSB Bank.
“As previously advised, I will continue to be a shareholder, director, member of the Investment Committee and very interested observer of Fisher Funds,” Carmel Fisher says in the note.
In other appointments last week, Auckland-based fintech firm, Shareclarity, has hired former Morningstar equity specialist Carolyn Holmes to take up a new role as head of research.
The Sydney-based Holmes was hired as head of equity research Australia/NZ by Morningstar in 2015 after filling a number of similar top roles at the NZ arms of ABN Amro, Citigroup and Credit Suisse First Boston. She also served in various equity research roles for AMP Capital from 1982 to 1991.
Daniel Kieser, Shareclarity managing director, said Holmes would bolster the firm’s growth”especially as we look to expand into Asia”.
“Her experience and financial acumen will help our members understand more companies and stay on top of the share market,” Kieser said in a statement.
Launched in 2015 Shareclarity, INFINZ ‘emerging leader of the year’ in 2016, provides an equity research subscription service featuring ‘crowd-sourced’ data as well as traditional metrics currently covering almost 200 Australasian stocks.
Also last week offshore, the world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, announced a major leadership shake-up with founder, Ray Dalio, dropping his co-chief executive role.
At the same time, fellow co-chief executive, former senior Apple man, Jon Rubenstein, left Bridgewater after less than a year in the job. In a note, Dalio says the pair “mutually agree that [Rubenstein] is not a cultural fit”.
Bridgewater president, David McCormick, has filled the co-chief executive gap along with Eileen Murray.
Dalio, who will remain as co-chair and co-CIO, says in the note the upper level restructuring was part of a “planful transition from a founder-led boutique to a professionally managed institution”.
“Any organization run by a 60+ year old that says that it isn’t in transition is either naïve or disingenuous,” he says in the letter.
Bridgewater manages some US$150 billion globally including a $270 million investment from the NZS.