Since the emergence of “Modern Portfolio Theory” and the “Capital Asset Pricing Model” in the late 1960s, institutional investors have taken a quantitatively driven approach to portfolio construction, looking to create portfolio diversification and obtain better risk-adjusted returns by balancing their asset-class exposures. This journey has seen several important advancements in thinking about how to optimally achieve desired results.
Funds that want to take the total portfolio approach first need to get the total portfolio view. To do that they not only need data – and lots of it – but a rock-solid understanding of exactly how they’re going to use it.
Pella nabs AMP Capital veterans for advisory board
Boutique fund manager Pella has nabbed a trio of high-profile names for its advisory board as the ex-Pengana crew shop their proposition to the institutional market.
Debbie Alliston, former chief investment officer for AMP Capital’s Multi-Asset Group and head of portfolio management, has joined the advisory board of Pella Funds Management. Alliston was with AMP for more than ten years after joining from Apostle Asset Management in 2007, and retired from her role in August 2021.
She also worked as a portfolio manager for BT Financial Group (then Rothschild Asset Management) through the 1990s and was head of investments from 2004-2007.
“Debbie is a highly qualified executive with a demonstrable track-record of success and Pella looks forward to working with her,” said Steven Glass, Pella managing director and analyst.
Also joining are Professor Greg Kaplan and Dr Ian Woods. Kaplan is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, focusing on macroeconomics and labour economics; a consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; and an editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Woods held a number of ESG-focused roles during his 19 years at AMP Capital, including head of sustainable funds and head of sustainable investment. He is currently a member of the co-ordinating working group for the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative.
Pella was founded by Pengana veterans Jordan Cvetanovski, Glass, Joy Yacoub – who handles distribution – and Ronald Yu and Ryan Fisher. Its Global Generations Fund has an explicit ESG bent and employs the same “segmentation strategy” that Cvetanovski first developed in 2004.
“Pella is thrilled with the composition of its advisory board, which is highly complementary to Pella’s investment approach and is bringing material value to Pella and its unitholders,” Cvetanovski said.
