Colonial First State(CFS) has lost three senior executives who have been poached by former chief executive Chris Cuffe to join him at CPH Investment Corp.
The three executives are general manager for administration Hayden King, general manager for marketing and client services Joanna Wagstaff and chief financial officer Tim Foster. King and Wagstaff will leave the group immediately while Foster is tipped to leave in May after a replacement is found.
CFS’s head of institutional marketing, Joe Marrassa, will also walk away from the group, however he will not be following Cuffe to CPH.
His departure will bring the total number of senior staff to leave the group to seven since the start of this financial year, with head of investments and insurances Peter Poulson and fund manager Greg Perry also having left the group last year, and Cuffe officially resigning in January.
CFS staff were notified of the departure of King, Wagstaff and Foster via email with word quickly leaking out of the group.
News of the departures caps off a busy week for the funds management group and its parent, theCommonwealth Bank, which was forced to make a $33 million payout to Cuffe, but said it may not have purchased CFS in 2000 had it known the extent of the former chief executive’s contract.
The payment to Cuffe was triggered after he decided to leave CFS in January for the Packer-owned CPH Investment Corp, a decision he reached after taking a six month sabbatical from June last year.
Despite all the ructions, research house InvestorWeb Research has stated it will not change its views on Colonial.
InvestorWeb chief operating officer Toby Potter says since the staff departures were not from the investment team there was not a direct impact on the company.
“The only concern we have is that any organisation is dependent on a number of senior executives and together they hold the knowledge of the culture and process,” Potter says.
“When this is deconstructed it can create stability. However CFS is some way from that occurring but these departures may contribute to that effect. However in terms of funds management these departures are neglible.”
