Tracey Kellett is taking the role, after having worked with Ardea’s parent company Challenger in various roles, including head of investment operations support and derivatives for three years.
Ardea now manages approximately $10.5 billion in funds under management for clients within the superannuation, insurance and government sectors.
It launched its ActiveX Ardea Real Outcome Bond Fund (Managed Fund) in December.
Ardea said it anticipates further growth in the coming year.
Ardea Investment Management Principal and co-founder Stephen Clout said: “The COO position is a newly created role that will take on new responsibilities as well as a number of tasks that were previously shared by the rest of the team, allowing investment personnel to focus on investing.
“As COO, Tracey will be responsible for ensuring growth is undertaken in a measured and appropriate manner so that Ardea can continue to deliver consistent and reliable returns for clients.
Mr Clout added Ms Kellett will take on the responsibilities of compliance manger, to ensure the firm meets all of its regulatory and investment compliance requirement, as well as maintaining and managing Ardea’s third party relationships.
She will also have oversight of portfolio and risk management systems development and continual improvement processes as well as being responsible for all of the operational requirements of the business which includes monitoring and supporting day-to-day tasks.
Tracey Kellett, COO of Ardea Investment Management said: “I am delighted to join the Ardea team, which is supported by a unique relative value investment approach.”
“Ardea has robust systems and processes that have delivered reliable risk-adjusted returns that are independent of market direction and exhibit low correlation to broader fixed income and equity markets.”
