Chris Durack, the chief executive of the $38 billion New South Wales State Super fund, will become head of distribution at Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd.
Durack will replace Brian Scott and Stephen Kwa. Scott left Schroder to become the CEO of Amundi Asset Management in Australia in October 2010. Stephen Kwa, Schroder’s domestic head of marketing, left for Schroder’s New York office earlier this year.
Schroder manages $25.8 billion in Australia. Durack will leave State Super and join Schroder in October.
Durack will lead Schroder’s business strategy, product development and sales efforts in the institutional and retail markets. Before joining State Super in 2009 Durack was general manager of investments at Challenger.
Durack will be part of Schroder’s senior management team. Greg Cooper, chief executive of Schroder in Australia, says Durack’s appointment was not part of succession planning at the company.
“He will be looking at elements of strategy with me,” Cooper says. But that will be product and distribution strategy. There’s not much to business strategy in asset management unless you make acquisitions — which is not what we do.
“Funds management is very much a people business. When the right individuals pop up it’s an opportunity to hire them,” Cooper adds.
Schroder has also hired Stuart Gray, a former Aberdeen Asset Management senior portfolio manager, as a fixed income fund manager and head of credit research. Alicia Low, formerly an associate director with Standard & Poor’s, also joined the manager as a senior credit analyst.
