Morningstar has named Eva Cook as director of manager research ratings as well as new equities asset class lead for Australia and New Zealand.
Cook joins Morningstar from the giant New South Wales government fund, TCorp, where she was head of equity partner selection following a portfolio management role at BT Financial Group.
The research house has beefed up its Australasian manager research division after a string of departures and a restructures over the last couple of years.
Most recently, Matt Olsen came aboard as Morningstar lead director manager research ratings Australasia from rival researcher, Lonsec, this July to replace Annika Bradley who left in March.
Bradley, in turn, stepped into the job previously held by Morningstar veteran, Tim Murphy. Murphy departed the firm at the end of 2022 in the wake of a corporate reshuffle to eventually front rebooted researcher, Genium Investment Partners.
Over the last few months Morningstar has also hired Thomas Dutka as director manager research – in place of Tim Wong who jumped ship to Genium – along with Ibrahim Guled-Warfield and Liem Nguyen as analysts.
Charity-focused fund manager, Trust Management, has named ex Apex Investment Administration chief, Renee Tourell, to the newly created role of general manager client services.
Tourell will be responsible for the Trust commercial property and accounting functions, according to a release.
She left the Apex NZ admin arm (formerly MMC) last November for health reasons after about 18 months with the firm, starting as chief operating officer before gaining a rapid promotion to chief executive in August 2022.
Prior to Apex, Tourell held senior roles at Meredith Connell, Wolters Kluwer and Dealogic.
Trust chief, Rachael McDonald, said in the statement: “Her extensive experience in client success and operational leadership makes her a valuable addition to our team, and we look forward to the positive impact she will undoubtedly have on our clients and business.”
The investment business, which specialises in servicing the charitable fund sector, manages over $2 billion across various asset classes including a large direct property book.
In 2020 Trust launched a series of portfolio investment entity funds with an environmental, social and governance tilt.
Meanwhile across the ditch, Kirsten Morton, long-standing Magellan executive – and one-time interim CEO – will leave the business by year-end after handing in her notice.
Morton holds the dual duties of chief financial officer and chief operating officer for the fallen-star funds management firm. She was property head of finance at Colonial First State Global Asset Management (now First Sentier Investors) before joining Magellan in 2013.
Following the shock resignation of then-chief, Brett Cairns, in December 2021, Morton served as acting CEO until July 2022.
At its peak near the end of 2021, Magellan managed over A$116 billion but suffered a run of institutional and retail investor withdrawals that have since cut assets to just A$38 billion.
Last year, well-known funds management identity, Andrew Formica, took the helm at Magellan as executive chair when chief, David George, departed in October 2023.
The company hired then Maple-Brown Abbott chief, Sophia Rahmani, as managing director this February. Rahmani is also queued up to assume the Magellan chief executive role within months.
Under Formica’s watch, outflows from the firm, known intially as a global equities shop, have slowed with assets under management steady at A$38 billion month-on-month as at the end of October, comprising: A$14 billion in global shares; A$16.7 billion of infrastructure equities; and, A$7.3 billion of Australian shares managed under the Airlie brand.
During October Magellan reported net outflows of A$0.2 billion from retail clients and A$0.1 billion from institutions.
In August this year, the ASX-listed firm also paid A$138 million for a one-third stake in Australian quant specialist, Vinva Investment Management.
Also last week, Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) named Jan Rohof as Asia-Pacific director quantitative solutions.
Rohof joins NTAM in Melbourne from the Dutch quant house, Robeco, where he split the last 10 years firstly as an investment specialist in Rotterdam before taking up a portfolio manager role in Sydney.
Guido Baltussen, NTAM international head of quantitative strategies, said Rohof would be part of more than 40-strong global team of investment specialists “supporting a variety of strategies to provide factor exposures across the capitalisation and regional equity spectrum”.
The new hire “brings strong regional expertise and quant experience to our business, further strengthening our global platform”, Baltussen said in a statement.
NTAM has several key institutional clients on this side of the Tasman including the NZ Superannuation Fund and ANZ Investments.
