Industry Funds Management (IFM) has restructured its global infrastructure team as head of US and Europe operations, Dunia Wright, decided to move on after not becoming the manager’s next CEO.
Wright confirmed she would leave IFM on April 9 after an unsuccessful attempt to succeed Damian Moloney as IFM chief, a role which was assigned to Brett Himbury, former head of Tyndall Investment Management, last month.
“I was an internal candidate for the CEO position. Following the board’s decision to select a CEO from outside the company, I tendered my resignation,” Wright stated in an e-mail.
Her imminent departure prompted IFM to restructure its global infrastructure team. Kyle Mangini has been promoted to the new role of global head of infrastructure, while Alec Montgomery and Christian Seymour now lead IFM’s infrastructure operations in North America and Europe.
The regional heads will report to Mangini, who will continue to be based in Melbourne, while also originating deals and managing assets in their respective jurisdictions. Garry Weaven, chair of IFM, said he was confident the structure would streamline communications between the offices and to the IFM board.
The global infrastructure team manages more than $3 billion and holds 38 people in its Melbourne, New York and London offices. Weaven said Wright “put together an excellent team” in New York, which currently caters to 16 clients, and further strengthened the London office so that it could expand its focus to include fundraising as well as deals.
But he said further marketing appointments would be made in both offshore offices, and an investment director in New York.Wright was due to return to Australia in December at the expiry of her assignment in New York, but resigned after Himbury won the top executive role, which was also contested by other internal IFM candidates.
In her email, she stated that she strongly believed in IFM’s capabilities and “fully enjoyed” working with Moloney to build the manager’s presence in Australia and overseas.
After a brief break, “I intend to return to the infrastructure space,” she wrote.
Wright joined IFM in 1998 as company secretary of the Development Australia Fund. She ran the manager’s London office for six months before moving to New York in mid-2007 to undertake the global role.
