Vanguard has announced that Greg Davis, principal and head of bond indexing in Vanguard’s fixed income group, will assume the chief investment officer role for the Asia Pacific region in 2013.

Davis, who has been with Vanguard for 13 years, currently has responsibility for managing in excess of US$240 billion in bond index portfolios. He will relocate to Vanguard’s Australian head office in Melbourne, where he will take over the regional role from Joe Brennan, who is returning to a senior position on the investment team at Vanguard’s Pennsylvania headquarters.

Davis, pictured right, will lead Vanguard Australia’s team of 45 investment professionals responsible for managing a wide range of equity and fixed income portfolios for both Australian and Asian investors.

Vanguard said the announcement is being made now to allow for a smooth transition and planned handover, with the transition to be completed during the first half of 2013.

National Australia Bank wealth management unit, Plum Financial Services, has announced the appointment of Lara Bourguignon as its new managing director.

Bourguignon will be responsible for leading and evolving the Plum business, which provides corporate superannuation solutions to medium and large Australian organisations and has more than $14 billion in funds under management.

Bourguignon is currently working in a senior strategy role for NAB Wealth and was previously head of investment control. She has held a variety of other key roles at Lend Lease, Merrill Lynch, MLC and the wider National Australia Bank Group during her career in financial services.

Plum is part of National Australia Bank’s wealth division and currently administers more than $14 billion in committed funds on behalf of more than 80 clients and over 200,000 members.

Industry Funds Management has appointed Steven Lipchin to lead its co-investing and direct investing initiatives.

Lipchin was previously head of private equity at Melbourne-based private investment and advisory firm, Wingate Group, and prior to this was co-founder and managing director of South African independent private equity firm, Horizon Equity Partners.

His appointment complements the existing capacity of the firm, headed up by Judith Smith, who said Lipchin’s appointment is an important step in the evolution of its private equity program.

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