Aberdeen Asset Management has been left with a cut down Australian equities desk following the departure of investment manager Dawn Kanelleas.
Kanelleas resigned in December after less than nine months at the Scottish group’s Sydney office. She is yet to resurface at another fund manager.
Kanelleas was one of three former Deutsche Bank managers who joined Aberdeen following the group’s $148 million capture of the German bank’s Australian asset management manufacturing operations in March 2007.
The other two, both working on Aberdeen’s Australian equities portfolio, are investment manager Justin Farley and investment analyst Jovita Khilnani.
The acquisition added $14 billion in assets under management to Aberdeen and reduced Deutsche’s share to $26 billion.
Kanelleas worked at Tower until 2003 when it dropped its internal Australian equities operations.
A spokesman for Aberdeen said the company would not replace Kanelleas and could operate effectively with a six-strong equities team, which is led by head of equities Mark Daniels.
Aberdeen added socially responsible investments specialist Andrew Preston to the team in September.
Meanwhile Deutsche Bank’s Australian business has a new head of asset management, Chris Larsen, following the departure of former Asia Pacific chief investment officer Andrew Fay at the end of last year.
