IOOF chief investment officer Steve Merlicek continues to piece together a team to oversee $12 billion in multimanager funds, tapping Russell Investments for a strategy and asset allocation chief.

Stanley Yeo joined IOOF last month, roughly six months after Russell Investments was appointed as external asset consultant to assist its multimanager portfolios, which have resulted from the combination of the legacy United Funds Management and IOOF Multimix products. IOOF remains Russell’s largest ‘traditional’ consulting client.

Yeo had originally come across to Russell as part of its Towers Perrin acquisition in 2005, and was earmarked as a “future leader” of the firm by his boss, head of investment consulting Greg Liddell, at the unveiling of the IOOF deal in February.

At Russell, Yeo had advised on asset allocation, portfolio construction and implementation to large Asian sovereign wealth funds, as well as Australian fiduciaries such as the BHP Billiton Super Fund and Funds SA. He will perform a similarly top-down function at IOOF.

Russell Investments was unavailable at presstime to say whether Yeo would be replaced.