One of Australia’s expatriate success stories, Michael Gordon, has come out of a brief retirement to take the helm of the European equities arm of a big global manager.

Gordon, who held several senior roles, including UK-based global CIO, for Fidelity Investments until early last year, has been appointed “CIO Equity” for the “multi-expertise investment centre” of BNP Paribas Asset Management.

Gordon is best known in Australia as the former CIO and joint-chief executive of Schroders Australia, although he has spent most of the past decade with Fidelity, first in Hong Kong and then in London. He decided to take a break last year and after flirting with retirement and various board positions decided to return to the fray with BNP. He started his investment career in 1985 with the former Rothschild Asset Management.

In his new role Gordon will have a particular focus on Europe and Asia for BNP Paribas Asset Management, which is the largest firm within the multi-affiliate umbrella of BNP Paribas Investment Partners.