Frontier Investment Consulting has had its principal analyst for international private equity and fixed interest poached by Access Capital Advisers (ACA).
Tim Ridley finished up at Frontier on Friday, two years after joining the consultant from Alliance Capital Management, where he had managed the asset allocation mix of its $10 billion in diversified funds. It is understood Ridley will be taking a Melbourne-based management role at ACA, possibly as a replacement for Philip Graham, an associate director who has just left for a senior portfolio strategist role at Mercer Global Investments (MGI), reporting to chief investment officer Russell Clarke. ACA director, David Chessell, did not wish to comment at presstime pending an announcement. Frontier senior consultant, Kristian Fok, said he would take over principal responsibilities for international private equity, and also assume domestic private equity from Chris Trevillyan, who will be taking over infrastructure. Ashley O’Connor has been promoted to assume principal responsibility for fixed interest. Ridley’s sole client relationship had been with AustralianSuper, but Fok said there were several other consultants assigned to the $25 billion fund, including himself and managing director Fiona Trafford-Walker, and another would be added. Frontier is already looking for three new analysts, after recently employing Karla Babbage as an entry-level analyst. Fok admitted Ridley would be “;hard to replace”; in a jobs market where super funds were now also competing for talent along with the time-honoured consultant’ nemesis, the funds manager.
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