Executive exodus from Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments’ equity funds might be top quartile but it’s also leading the turnover stakes with a rash of recent executive departures, including its operations head to a senior product role at AMP Capital Investors.

Four months into running Fidelity’s Australian business, Gerard Doherty is faced with filling several senior vacancies, none more senior than that left by Peter Smyth, who headed all operational areas incorporating client services, finance, systems, legal and compliance. He has resigned and will become AMP Capital Investors’ head of product development after June 30, reporting to head of product Jacqui Sullivan. Fidelity is also searching for a head of institutional sales, following Jason Ciccolallo’s move to Orbis Investments in April, and a new head of intermediary sales after Meaghan Unsworth was let go last month. New BDMs are also being sought following two recent departures of national account managers -Tom Keenan last October to Barclays Global Investors and Matthew Dell last month to head retail at RARE Infrastructure. Separate to Gerard Doherty’s business, Fidelity has also just accepted a resignation from the head of its Sydney-based Asia Services Centre, a 100-strong team providing centralised finance and accounting functions for all of Fidelity’s businesses in the region. James Law will leave in late July after seven years with Fidelity, with the group actively recruiting for a replacement. Doherty was ill and unavailable for comment at presstime, however a Fidelity Investments Australia spokesperson said “;every business has its fair share of turnover and we don’t see that we are any different or worse than our peers in the industry”;. She said Fidelity would look to build upon the “;solid”; team it already had in place. “;As a privately owned firm, we can make long-term business investments, at a time when many of our competitors are downsizing. In this regard, we will be selectively hiring people with deep experience to be part of this next phase in the Australian business.”;