The managing director of Standard & Poor’s in Australia will leave at the end of July after 18 years, while the firm is understood to have hired a refugee from Allianz Global Investors as its head of manager research.

A spokesperson for S&P said yesterday that Chris Dalton was departing the firm for “personal reasons” and to “pursue other opportunities”. Dalton, who was unavailable for comment, became managing director of the Australasian arm of the global ratings, indices and data provider in 2000 after joining the firm in 1990. He will be replaced in the Melbourne office by Australian expatriate and current managing director of the S&P Greater China office, John Bailey, who first joined S&P in 1989. Meanwhile, the former head of retail business at Allianz Global Investors, Leanne Milton, is understood to have been appointed as head of manager research. While the business had recently announced Dalton’s exit internally, many clients had not yet been informed. “We’re in the process of notifying clients,” the spokesperson said, adding that a formal announcement regarding the changes would be made later this week.