Australian Wealth Management (AWM) head of research Justin McLaughlin has departed the firm to join former Bridges Financial Services chief Alex Hutchinson at MMC Contrarian.
McLaughlin joins MMC as chief investment officer. He replaces incumbent chief Peter Constable who has resigned from the group.
As well as McLaughlin’s hire, MMC has appointed Investors Mutual portfolio manager Paul Frost to its investment team.
McLaughlin will report directly to MMA chief executive Alex Hutchinson, while Frost will report to McLaughlin.
The new hires are in line with MMC’s review of its business operations.
Last month, Hutchinson confirmed to InvestorDaily the company was undertaking a review of its business operations.
The review follows the departure of Constable and rumoured departures of Stephen Atkinson, Charles Dalziell and Brendan Burgess.
“We are going through a change of process; there is a review under way. And I’m not really prepared to comment on it further than that,” Hutchinson said.
Prior to MMC, Hutchinson held the management chief executive position for Australian Wealth Management and its financial planning subsidiary, Bridges Financial Services.
Global economic volatility led to a combined after-tax loss of $2.6 million for the six months to December 31, 2007 for MMC, which still managed to maintain its interim dividend at four cents a share.
The company’s portfolio returned -1.60 per cent during the December quarter versus -1.73 per cent for the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index.
MMC Contrarian, the listed parent company of MMC Asset Management, acquired the asset management arm in February 2007.
