Morningstar’s head of research, Justin Walsh, will shortly leave the ratings agency for what is understood to be a boutique funds management role, and has been replaced by head of consulting, Anthony Serhan, with immediate effect.

Walsh, who has been with Morningstar for three years, will remain at the ratings agency for a short transitional period. Serhan said he would continue as head of consulting in the short term, but would immediately begin the process of recruiting a replacement in the role, which aims to spread the distribution of Morningstar’s research to institutional investors. He will also seek some new recruits for the research side. Serhan said his strategy as head of research would not fundamentally differ from his predecessors. “Since the late 1980s, the approach has been to express a clear opinion about a manager, not just reproduce rheams of IFSA documentation for the client to decipher,” he said.