Former Wallaby flanker-turned corporate broker, Simon Poidevin, will soon end a long tenure at Citi to become an executive director with an Australian funds manager, focusing on global volatility strategies.

At Pengana Capital, Poidevin will join his old friend Al Wilkinson, regarded as a pioneer of stock volatility measurement and investing, and the manager of Pengana’s global volatility fund from a Chicago office.

Poidevin will join the manager on April 16 to work with Wilkinson on the volatility fund, and in developing multi-asset volatility strategies.

The ex-Australian rugby union international has worked in stockbroking and investment banking in Australia for 25 years. His most recent role in his 14-year tenure at Citi was joint-head of corporate broking.

Poidevin and Wilkinson worked together on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) in the early nineties, and maintained a friendship. As Wilkinson’s global volatility strategy manifested and attracted support from Pengana, Poidevin convinced him to visit Australian investors with substantial appetites for risk, such as Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC).

Poidevin believed the big Queensland government-owned manager, which has a considerable alternatives program, would be interested in backing such a product.

QIC seeded the fund in November 2007 with $150 million, and has topped-up this investment with at least one $50 million instalment since then.

Wilkinson led the team at the CBOE that created the volatility index, known as the VIX. In the 12 months to December 2008, the volatility fund returned 19.3 per cent, net of fees