The Victorian Funds Management Corporation is set to appoint an 18-year veteran of JBWere as its new chief executive officer, I&T News can reveal, seven months after the resignation of previous incumbent Syd Bone.

Industry sources say that Justin Arter, the ‘managing director of firmwide strategy’ at Goldman Sachs JBWere until a move to its proprietary trading desk two years ago, is set to take the helm at the $31 billion Victorian Government-owned funds manager.

Arter, who has previously been a board member of the Melbourne institution, is set to be the last of a slew of names linked to the big VFMC vacancy since Bone’s departure. The appointment of a new CEO comes at a sensitive time for the VFMC, which has faced a battering in the Victorian press over the executive salaries revealed in its 2008/2009 annual report.

The acting CEO of VFMC – chief investment officer Justin Pascoe, whose $1 million-plus pay packet raised particular ire in a financial year where VFMC’s funds under management plummeted 25 per cent –  said last night he would not comment on “market rumours”.

Similarly, VFMC’s chairperson John Fraser (who is also chair and chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management) said overnight that he had no comment, “at least at this stage”.

Goldman Sachs JBWere refused to comment.