A direct report to Challenger funds management boss Rob Adams will move on to become managing director of boutique incubator Ascalon next week, following the departure of previous Ascalon chief, Nick Basile, before Christmas.
Andrew Landman, the chief financial officer at Challenger’s funds management business prior to a short stint helping run its own boutique incubation division, will start Monday at Ascalon’s helm.
Ascalon has also recently had a change of board, following the transfer of a 50 per cent ownership stake from St. George Bank to BT/Westpac as part of last year’s takeover of St.George, with Kaplan Equity retaining its half-share in the incubator.
Prior to his stint at Challenger, Landman was an operations executive at BT and is understood to have been sought out by Rob Coombe, the BT Financial Group chief executive who is now also on Ascalon’s board.
Westpac/BT’s other rep on the new-look board is Harvey Carter, whose Westpac M&A team was instrumental in the takeover of St.George. The Kaplan interest is represented by founder Sam kaplan and his lieutenant Paul Lewis, while Deborah Page is independent chair.
Managers in which Ascalon has a stake include global absolute return shop H3 Global Advisors, property investor MacarthurCook, and high alpha-seeking Australian equity manager Alleron. It is also incubating Continuum Capital Management, the quant manager formed by former GMO executives including Australian equity head Max Cappetta, and last year bought a majority stake in retail distribution agent, The Private Collection.
Private Collection founder, Krystyna Weston, recently left and Paul Robson, a former Challenger state manager, came in as manager of distribution.
Nick Basile, who ran Ascalon from August 2006 after previous roles at St.George and Commonwealth Investment Management, was unavailable for comment at presstime.
