Pacific Current Group welcomes non-exec director to board

Pacific Current Group (PAC) has appointed a former acting chief executive of Challenger Funds Management to its board as a non-executive director.

Michael Clarke joins the PAC board as a non-executive director, commencing on 14 February.

He holds more than three decades of experience in asset management across Australia and overseas, including in a variety of roles managing equity, fixed income, currency portfolios, and building asset management businesses.

Prior to joining the boutique asset manager, Clarke was the acting chief executive of Challenger Funds Management from January 2022 to July 2023. He first joined Challenger as the general manager of institutional and offshore distribution in June 2013.

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The new non-executive director was also the managing director for Russell Investments’ institutional business in Australia and New Zealand. His other previous positions include director of strategy and international at AMP Capital Investors, chief executive and CIO at Goldman Sachs JBWere Asset Management, and division director at Macquarie Bank.

Clarke is currently a director of the Perpetual Equity Investment Company and a member of the firm’s corporate governance and audit and risk committees.

Tony Robinson, PAC chairman, commented on the appointment: “On behalf of the board, I am delighted to welcome Michael to the Pacific Current board and look forward to his counsel and advice with particular reference to his extensive background and experience in funds management and capital allocation businesses.

“The board is continuing to review its composition as part of its board renewal process and the market will be advised promptly of any further changes.”

In November 2023, it was announced that PAC’s head of the independent board committee (IBC), Jerry Chafkin, had departed from the firm following the end of its acquisition plan.

Chafkin joined the board in April 2019 as a non-executive director and was co-chair of the IBC, which had been assessing potential buyers for the company, including GQG Partners and Regal Partners.

With bids having been initially made in late July, the firm wound up the process in November as both deals fell through.

For Regal, it opted to pull out in September as it felt it was not receiving sufficient engagement from the board while GQG said it could see merit in the deal but failed to obtain the support of the firm’s largest shareholder River Capital.