Bob Van Munster to retire; Brad Potter becomes Tyndall AM’s head of Australian equities

After almost 40 years in the industry, veteran Bob Van Munster has decided to retire as Tyndall AM’s head of Australian equities in September 2014. Brad Potter has been appointed as the new head of Australian equities effective from 1 June 2014, with Mr Van Munster remaining in the business for a further three months.

Mr Potter joined Tyndall in 2002 and has 20 years’ industry experience (see biographies below). He has been co-managing Tyndall’s flagship Australian equity strategy with Mr Van Munster for the past seven years and in that time has delivered strong and consistent outperformance to clients. Mr Potter will maintain his portfolio management responsibilities in his role as head of the Australian equities team. Mr Van Munster has headed the Tyndall Australian equities business since 2000, and has worked with Mr Potter for 12 years.

Mike Davis, Tyndall AM’s managing director, said that this is a natural progression of the Australian equities business with succession planning being a strong focus for the team for many years. The Tyndall Australian equity dual portfolio management structure has been in place since 2007. This has been very successful for Tyndall, both in delivering strong performance outcomes for clients and retaining a stable, experienced and motivated team.

“Bob and Brad have made a major contribution to Tyndall’s success and are two of Australia’s foremost equities managers. We are naturally sad to see Bob leave the business and the industry, and understand this is his personal lifestyle choice.

“We have both an extremely capable and talented successor in Brad, and a very strong team that has worked together for an average of 12 years at Tyndall. We have a well-established investment process and philosophy that has proven itself over time and is endorsed by the entire team.”

Mr Van Munster’s co-management responsibilities for the Tyndall flagship Australian equity strategy will be taken over by portfolio manager Jason Kim, with effect from 1 May 2014. Mr Kim is one of the most experienced and talented portfolio managers in the team, responsible for managing the strong-performing Australian concentrated share strategy.

“Warwick Cumming will continue in his role as deputy head, providing high level support to Brad including team management and overall responsibility for research, allowing Brad to focus solely on generating strong performance for our clients,” Mr Davis said.

Yu-Ming Wang, Nikko AM CIO commented: “We are pleased to seamlessly transition our highly-rated and proven investment process for Australian equities from the skilled hands of Bob to Brad, Jason and Warwick. With an average of 18 years’ industry experience, the team under Bob’s leadership has been a top performer for us and we expect that to continue. We also wish Bob all the best in his retirement.”