Ken Liow has joined Access Capital Advisers, the $12 billion fund manager that invests in infrastructure, property and private equity, as an adviser who will sit on the firm’s advisory investment committee.

“Access has shown a willingness to do something different,” says the former equities chief investment officer of BlackRock in Australia who left that firm in March. “The last couple of years have been tough on them.”

The value of the investments Access Capital advised clients such as MTAA Super to invest in plunged in value in 2009 when the world went into recession.

Liow, 41, says he has known Access Capital chief executive Alexander Austin for a decade. Former Reserve Bank of Australia director Warwick McKibbin will also work as an adviser.

McKibbin and Liow will review advice Access Capital gives to the company’s clients.

“The key levers that will drive markets are phone calls made at the very highest levels of central banks and government,” says Liow. “It is a very difficult market to analyse.”