Responding to a shift in the primary areas of interest for institutional investors across our client base, Frontier has decided to modify the team composition in our research practice and promote internal talent into a number of new roles.
Our two service areas of investment governance and responsible investment will now join the sector research program, under the direction of Paul Newfield. The other dedicated research teams reporting to Paul will be Real Assets; Equities; Defensives and Alternatives; and Private Markets. Supporting Paul, Principal Consultant Andrew Kemp will take on the new role of Deputy Director of Research, while also leading our private markets research effort.
Manish Rastogi, James Gunn and Joey Alcock will remain in their roles as Head of Real Assets; Equities; and Responsible Investment respectively, while Iain McMahon and Sarah Cornelius will move into new roles as Head of Defensives and Alternatives and Head of Investment Governance. Rounding out the promotions, Marie Cardaci has been promoted to Deputy Head of Responsible Investment.
Frontier has previously isolated alternatives as a standalone research team, however, we have decided to bring that area into a broader ‘Defensives and Alternatives’ group to create a larger team of aligned specialists. As a result, the former Head of Alternatives, Michiel Swaak, has left Frontier. We are thankful to Michiel for his efforts over the last two years.
Frontier CEO Andrew Polson said the changes were a reflection of Frontier’s recently released five-year strategy and a shift in what clients are looking for.
“There’s no doubt that both responsible investment and enhanced governance in investing are key areas of focus for asset owners. We think bringing our dedicated teams already working with clients in these areas directly into our research program will deliver further synergies and further integrate those insights and practices,” said Andrew.
“At the same time, we’re going to merge our teams researching in the alternatives and broader defensive classes to get a better holistic result with a bigger single team looking at a complete range of aligned investment ideas outside of the more traditional equities and real assets areas.
It’s also exciting to be able to give added responsibility and promote some of our team who have shown great capability and commitment for the firm and our clients over a number of years.
Many of our leaders in the business have grown from entry level roles with Frontier, and that’s been a hallmark of our business for almost three decades now. To help facilitate the introduction of new talent to Frontier, and to provide a clearer career path for our junior staff, we’ll be introducing an entry level pool of investment and data analysts to support all our teams and add greater dimension and challenge to our Associate level staff by taking on some of their less-intensive work,” said Andrew.
We will begin searching for the next generation of consultants to build out our new pool of analysts and also add more senior capability to our research and client consulting teams. Patience will be key.
Andrew added that “we’re a people business. The quality of our team and the integrity of our unconflicted advice model is what our clients really value. So, we have to be very selective in finding the right people to join our team. That includes cultural fit as well as intellectual capability and work ethic. We have a strong record of finding and developing talent and I’m looking forward to that process. It’s exciting.”
The changes to roles and titles within the firm take effect immediately.
