An analyst who defected from Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFS GAM) to Macquarie Investment Management’s small caps team amid some fanfare 18 months ago has returned to the Marcus Fanning fold.

David Walsh broke off a thee-year stint with CFS GAM in October 2007 to join Macquarie’s small caps team working with portfolio managers Neil Carter and John Bugg.

He had spent a few months in CFS GAM’s small caps team but prior to that had been part of the ‘GDP Plus’ Australian equities team.

He worked for Macquarie during a period of performance pressure for its small caps fund – a second quartile performer in the Mercer survey over the five years to March 31 (5.5 per cent gross versus the Small Ordinaries’ 1.1 per cent), the manager is third quartile over three years and fourth quartile over one.

Walsh is returning to CFS GAM as a large cap resources analyst in the 18-strong Australian equities ‘growth’ team, headed by Marcus Fanning.