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.
Loftus Peak appoints first chief executive
Loftus Peak, a boutique equities house, is expanding its remit with the appointment of a professional funds management chief executive. Rick Steele has had a long career in the industry, including several senior roles at both big and small companies.
Alex Pollak, the Loftus Peak founder, a former finance journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald who went on to become a celebrated media analyst on the sell-side, said: “At the outset I took on the combined role of CIO and CEO, which was appropriate for a firm in its infancy. Now we are approaching $100 million in client funds under management, the firm requires a dedicated CEO. Rick’s appointment is an important step in the development of the company.”
Rick Steele said: “The funds management landscape is changing rapidly in Australia and Loftus Peak’s independent positioning and sound investment process means the firm is well placed to be a global equity manager of choice. I am looking forward to the challenge the role offers.”
Steele is a founding director of Loftus Peak (in 2014) and is well known in the funds management industry, having been a key member of the BT Funds Management team for over a decade, as well as former CEO of the small-cap manager Eight Investment Partners and a director of Spectrum Funds Management.
At Loftus Peak, he has joined a well-known fund manager, Paul Davis, with whom he launched a fintech investment company in the early 1990s. Davis is still one of the big names in the Australasian fintech industry. At Loftus Peak, he is a research advisor.
– G.B.
