Dalton Nicol Reid has announced the appointment of Robert White as its new Chief Executive Officer and Head of Distribution.

Jamie Nicol, Director and CIO said the new appointment was a positive step and that it would allow the business to continue on its current growth trajectory.

“Dalton Nicol Reid has passed some significant milestones lately.  In the last six months, we have secured two institutional mandates, our funds under management has reached $850m and we have broadened both our investor and shareholder bases.  We also bid farewell to our former CEO and one of our founders, Harley Dalton.”

“We are delighted to now announce that Robert White will take on the role of both CEO and Head of Distribution.   We are pleased to have found such a high calibre professional with a depth of knowledge in both wealth and funds management, across a diverse client base of retail, wholesale and institutional investors.  We believe the qualities Robert brings to Dalton Nicol Reid will be a perfect fit for our business.”

Mr White has significant experience spanning nearly 20 years in the financial services industry gained through working in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. Most recently he was Executive Director and Head of Advice at JBWere Private Wealth Management.  Prior to that, Mr White was Joint Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for HFA Asset Management (now Certitude Global Investments) where he and his team delivered the strategy that saw the business grow funds under management from $80m in 2003 to $4b in 2008 and successfully navigated the business through the GFC.

Mr White will take up his new post effective 24 March.

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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.”

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In London, Emma Haight joins the team as Director from NIBC Bank where she was Vice President in the Project Finance division and a lead negotiator on infrastructure transactions. Ms Haight has held similar roles at Nur Energie and Allen & Overy. James Fox is joining the London office at the end of April as Associate Director. He previously worked in the Finance team at British Land and is a fully qualified chartered accountant. Ms Haight and Mr Fox will both report to AMP Capital Infrastructure Debt Principal Richard Lane.

In New York, Spencer Ivey is joining as Associate Director. He will relocate to New York in May from AMP Capital’s Sydney office where he was Fund Controller for the infrastructure debt team. Mr Ivey will report to AMP Capital Infrastructure Debt Principal Patrick Trears and work alongside Associate Director Andrew Liao. He will be replaced in Sydney by Greg Gill, who was previously Manager of AMP Capital’s Fund Accounting team.

AMP Capital Global Head of Infrastructure Debt Andrew Jones said: “These appointments reflect gathering momentum behind our fundraising efforts. Adding senior talent to the team will ensure our asset sourcing and management capabilities keep pace with our fundraising success and they will all be integral in sourcing and securing new deals.

“They also demonstrate the scope of AMP Capital’s global infrastructure debt team, which has a presence in London, New York and Sydney.”

AMP Capital has been investing in infrastructure debt since 1998 and focuses on defensive, non-cyclical, cash-flow producing assets. Its first fund, IDF I, was closed to new investment in 2012 after raising US$503 million from 30 global institutional investors.

In January, AMP Capital announced that it had successfully closed a US$100 million subordinated debt financing for New York City-based Astoria Project Partners, a fully operational, combined cycle power generation facility, with a total generating capacity of 550MW.

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Peter ‘s appointment comes on the back of over 26 years’ experience across the life insurance, fund and superannuation industries, both in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region.  His broad knowledge of the financial services industry will provide a new perspective to the FSC board.

Since joining the AIA Group in 1994, Peter has held a variety of senior executive roles throughout the Asia-Pacific region, before his appointment as Chief Executive Officer for AIA Australia in December 2011.

Under Peter’s leadership AIA Australia has grown to become the fifth largest life insurer in Australia with over $1.4b in annual premiums. The company now covers more than three million Australians with life insurance, and is currently the largest group life insurer by market share.

Commenting on his appointment, Peter Crewe said that the new role will provide an opportunity to ensure that life insurance takes on greater prominence in Australia.

“While there have been improvements recently, underinsurance is still a big issue for Australia. We are trying to address this as a business, and I look forward to working with Greg and my fellow directors to ensure that the standards that are agreed by the FSC for the provision of life insurance benefit all Australians.”

In addition to the appointment to the board of the FSC, Peter is also a board member of the Australian Science Media Centre, an independent, not-for-profit service for the news media, giving journalists direct access to evidence-based science and expertise.

Greg Cooper, chairman of the Financial Services Council said: “Peter brings extensive Australian and International experience in the life insurance industry to the FSC board.”

“He will be part of a critical stage in the growth of Australia’s financial services industry as it expands from $2 trillion today, to $3 trillion by 2020,” Mr Cooper said.

The Financial Services Council board now includes:

• Chairman: Greg Cooper  – CEO, Schroder Investment Management Australia Limited
• Deputy Chairman:  Brad Cooper – CEO, BT Financial Group;
• Directors: Brian Benari – MD and CEO of Challenger Limited; David Bryant:  CEO & CIO of Australian Unity Investments; Robin Burns – MD, Equity Trustees Limited; Andrew Hagger – group executive, NAB Wealth and CEO MLC Limited; John James – MD and Chairman of Vanguard investments; Brett Jollie – MD, Aberdeen Asset Management Australia Limited; Geoff Lloyd –CEO and MD, Perpetual Limited; Annabel Spring – Group Executive, Wealth Management, Commonwealth Bank of Australia; Geoff Summerhayes – CEO Suncorp Life; and,  Maria Wilton – MD, Franklin Templeton Investments Australia Ltd.

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Al Clark has joined Nikko Asset Management’s Australian subsidiary, Tyndall Investment Management Limited, in the newly created role of GlobalHead of Multi-Asset. Based in Sydney, Clark will be responsible for driving the growth of the multi-asset business for Nikko AM globally.

Nikko AM is bolstering its investment infrastructure to provide more value to its growing base of institutional and retail clients. Clark has more than 21 years of experience in trading and portfolio management, and has worked for major asset management groups such as Macquarie Funds Management, BT Financial Group and Schroder Investment Management, in both Sydney and Singapore. He has been developing and implementing strategic asset allocation models for almost a decade.

“We are very pleased to have Al on board, with his broad multi-asset knowledge and his proven experience in growing assets in this exciting area,” said Yu-Ming Wang, Global Head of Investment and CIO International. “Nikko AM’s investment team will concentrate on delivering performance in their respective asset classes, and Al will ensure that this performance is captured and packaged into products and investment solutions that meet the needs of our global clients. His appointment will accelerate the speed at which we can bring competitive multi-asset, multi-region products to market.”

Clark will report to Yu-Ming Wang, based in Tokyo. His appointment is the latest in a series of hires to support Nikko AM’s plans to deliver world-class investment products to clients across the globe. The matrix management structure announced by Nikko AM earlier this year has already proven successful in cross-fertilising investment ideas and investment capabilities, and the company intends to launch new products that combine local market needs with sophisticated multi-asset strategies.

Clark joins the Nikko AM Group from Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) Ltd, where he was responsible for growing the multi-asset business in Asia-Pacific.

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Khanh-vy Ho

Zurich Financial Services Australia Limited (Zurich) announced yesterday the appointment of Ms Khanh-vy (“KV”) Ho to the role of Regional Sales Manager Life Risk, Victoria. In this role Ms Ho will be responsible for the delivery of Zurich’s risk proposition to key distribution partners in Victoria and Tasmania.

Ms Ho joined Zurich’s Life & Investments business in 2013 in the role of Business Development Manager, bringing with her more than ten years experience in adviser relationship management and deep specialist knowledge in  Business Insurance and Self Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs).

Ms Kristine Wade, Head of Retail Sales for Zurich’s Life and Investments business, said “KV has already proven to be a valuable addition to the Zurich team. Her extensive experience and her passion for working with advisers make her a perfect fit for this role. The fact that we were able to promote from within also demonstrates the depth of the talent we have here at Zurich.”

Ms Ho replaces Andy Marshall, who was promoted to the national role of Head of Sales Strategies and Research, Life Risk earlier this year.

According to Ms Wade, “Zurich’s Life and Investments business had a fantastic year in 2013, achieving record levels of growth at a challenging time for the industry.”

The key to this growth has been tailoring our proposition around the individual needs of our distribution partners, and I look forward to KV building on this platform by helping advisers create real and ongoing value for their clients.”

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Craig West

In late February, SME Association of Australia (SMEAA) Founder and Executive Chairman Matthew Johnson announced his intention to step down as Executive Chairman of the SMEAA due to growing business commitments.

The SMEAA was established in late 2011 and as the Founder of the SMEAA Johnson has been a very strong, vocal advocate of the association and will continue as a Director on the board.  Johnson looks forward to an ongoing contribution to the SME community in Australia, a move supported by incoming Chairman Craig West.

West is the CEO of Succession Plus, a long-term advocate and supporter of the SMEAA.

In taking over as SMEAA Chairman, West thanked Johnson for his vision, contribution, efforts and commitment to establishing the SME Association of Australia.

“The Australian SME community should be very grateful that people like Matt had the vision, commitment and energy to establish an organisation to represent the vast number of SMEs throughout the country,” West said. “The vision and founding principles introduced by Matt will be strongly followed and supported going forward.

“I’m extremely grateful that Matt has been able to accept my invitation to stay on as a board member – I hope to continue to rely on Matt for support and guidance, as he has done an excellent job building the organisation into a strong and viable association of business owners to represent the needs of the SME community to government, large businesses and the Australian public.”

West also confirmed that the board had a number of immediate priorities the first being the appointment of a CEO for SMEAA and he expected to make that announcement before the end of this month.

Another will be the expansion of the board with the addition of new directors with a diverse and dynamic blend of business skills, backgrounds and expertise at the helm to lead the Association.

West is confident that the appointment of the first new director will be made in a matter of weeks.

In addition, over the next quarter, the SMEAA board will be meeting with State and Federal governments and several of the Small Business Commissioners throughout the country.

Craig West concluded, “As the peak body dedicated to being the leading voice of Australia’s SME business owners with over 18,500 members, SMEAA is committed to continuing its vital role representing Australia’s SMEs as this sector is the most important driver of this nation’s long term economic viability and prosperity.”

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The new credit analyst position has been created to support the growing capability of the team which currently manages $5.2 billion in fixed income assets (as at 31 December 2013).

Ms Moal brings to Perpetual Investments more than 15 years’ experience in analytical, research and origination roles within the credit and fixed income market. She joins the team from the Global Markets division of Deutsche Bank where she spent 10 years, most recently as a Director focusing on origination and underwriting of sub-investment grade debt.

Michael Korber, Head of Credit and Fixed Income, Perpetual Investments, said Ms Moal’s extensive experience will complement and broaden the team’s credit specialist capability.

“We are delighted to welcome Anne to the team,” Mr Korber said.

“Anne has a wealth of experience in credit markets and having a team member 100 per cent research focussed will allow us to broaden our coverage of securities. Furthermore, with Anne joining us we will be exploring a range of higher yielding income and investment grade opportunities.

“Net inflows into the credit and fixed income funds have been accelerating, which has provided us with an opportunity to recruit skilled individuals such as Anne to add to the team’s overall capability.”

Ms Moal holds a Master in Management from Rouen Business School (France) majoring in finance and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Prior to her tenure at Deutsche Bank, she also held roles with Bankers Trust International, Banque Nationale de Paris and Credit Lyonnais in London.

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AMP also announced that Mr Simon McKeon AO will become the Chairman of the AMP Limited Board in May following the planned retirement of Peter Mason.

Simon McKeon joined the AMP Limited Board in 2013. He is a member of the Audit Committee and a Director of AMP Capital Holdings Limited. He is also the Chairman of CSIRO and holds a number of not-for-profit directorships.

The Board of AMP Limited thanked Mr Mason for his outstanding contribution to AMP over the last decade and paid tribute to his critical role overseeing a successful transition of CEO twice during his time as Chairman, his calm stewardship during the global financial crisis and the fruitful negotiations leading to the acquisition of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Limited.

Mr Mason said: “It has been a great privilege to be the Chairman of AMP Limited, a company with a long and proud heritage that continues to make a real difference to people’s lives. During the tenure of this Board we oversaw the merger between AXA and AMP, which has delivered transformational change. The new AMP has significant scale and capacity, market-leading products and platforms, is number one in key market segments, has an expanded financial planner footprint and is well-positioned for growth.

“Succession planning has always been a key focus of the AMP Board and I am pleased that Simon McKeon will take over from me as Chairman when I step down after a full cycle of board renewal. The company and the Board are in very capable hands.”

Mr McKeon added: “Peter Mason has served and guided AMP through a successful expansion into Asia and a period of significant change in a challenging environment including the global financial crisis, substantial legislative and regulatory shifts and the merger with AXA.

“This phase of the board renewal process was timed to follow the smooth transition to the new CEO Craig Meller and the completion of the merger. We thank Mr Mason for agreeing to stay an extra year past his planned retirement date to oversee these important milestones.”

AMP Limited also advised Mr Rick Allert AO having reached the end of his three year term, has announced his intention to retire from the Boards of AMP Limited and AMP Bank Limited. Mr Allert joined the Board in 2011 following AMP’s acquisition of AXA Asia Pacific, where he was Chairman from 2000 – 2011 and a Director since 1992. The Board wishes to express its appreciation for Mr Allert’s contribution in providing continuity and insight from his deep experience in the sector.

As part of the board renewal process, AMP Limited further announced that Mr Trevor Matthews will join the AMP Limited Board as a non-executive Director, effective 3 March 2014.

Mr Matthews brings significant life insurance experience to AMP having held senior management roles in life insurance businesses in Australia and internationally over the last 30 years.

Mr Matthews is a qualified actuary who most recently was Executive Director and Chairman Developed Markets for Aviva Plc, based in London. Previously he was Chief Executive Officer, Aviva UK and has held a number of other senior executive roles with Aviva and other life insurers.

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Mr Buckley will work closely with Equity Trustees’ advice and personal services team and his responsibilities will include communicating with private clients as well as wealth management partners about Equity Trustees’ investment approaches and strategies. He is based in Melbourne and reports to George Boubouras, chief investment officer.

Mr Boubouras said that the continued expansion of Equity Trustees’ asset management business made it necessary to add an experienced portfolio manager to the team.

“James has a depth of experience that will be invaluable to our business as we continue to build our capabilities and approaches. We are very pleased to have attracted someone of James’s calibre,” Mr Boubouras said.

Mr Buckley has over 20 years’ experience in investments and financial services, working in Australia and the UK for both private clients and large institutions across asset classes. He joins Equity Trustees from Phillip Capital Australia where he was head of asset management, and he has also worked at NAB Private Wealth as an investment consultant. Prior to this, he held several senior roles at UBS Wealth Management in both Australia and the UK, including head of managed funds.

Mr Buckley holds a graduate diploma in applied finance and investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, and a bachelor of arts from Melbourne University. He holds an Investment Management Certificate (UK) and SFA Securities and Investment Certificate (UK).

Equity Trustees Limited (EQT) is a publicly listed company that provides a range of financial services to corporate and private clients. Its businesses include asset management, distribution, responsible entity appointments, private client wealth management, and corporate and personal superannuation.

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