BT undergoes staff changes

BT Funds Management has continued the staff changes with the new head of international equities Paul Durham changing the structure of his role, dividing it into three separate positions.

Durham took on the role in mid July after Chris Selth departed the position. Under Selth the head of international equities had three separate functions: business manager, portfolio manager to the international equities fund and head of research.

Durham has decided to separate out the three functions, with the two remaining roles being filled by David Mills and Adrian Richardson.

Durham will maintain the responsibility for the day-to-day management of the International equities business, with the portfolio managers and the equity strategy team reporting through to him.

In his 14-year career at BT, Durham has held positions as an Australian equity analyst, before moving into an international equities role which involved a secondment overseas. He has also been head of the Asian equity group and head of global emerging markets.

Mills will take responsibility for managing the international equities fund, while Richardson has been appointed as head of research. Mills joined BT in 1990 as a European equities analyst. In April 1998 he was appointed joint head of European equities before being appointed head of US equities in August 1998. Mills’ experience in managing portfolios at BT includes the direct European investment funds.

Richardson has been a senior analyst at BT for almost 4 years. In his role Richardson will be responsible for driving the research process. He will concentrate on the overall implementation of the process and ensuring consistency of research output.

The creation of the two new positions coincides with the departure of several of the company’s international equity analysts. These include Japanese equities analyst Joanna Fisher and US equities analysts Mark Gration and Simon Trevett.

The departure of Selth and the restructure of the position of head of international equities caps off a number of high profile departures at BT. In January chief investment officer Andre Morony departed and since then Rohan Headley has also exited the organisation in April.

However the group has also managed to recruit in recent months former Westpac Financial Services joint managing director Michael Migro as head of business strategy in asset management, and Professor John Okunev who becomes head of investment process and control.