Maple-Brown Abbott appoints BDM for advisers

Maple-Brown Abbott has appointed Sophie Metcalfe as a business development manager.

The boutique investment manager, which recently saw its chief executive Sophia Rahmani move to join Magellan, made the hire from Schroders where Metcalfe had worked since October 2022.

Prior to this, she was the partnerships manager for Livewire Markets and spent five years at Fidelity in both Sydney and London in a variety of marketing roles.

In her new role at Maple-Brown Abbott, which commenced on 18 March, she will be responsible for working with the distribution team to cultivate strong relationships with financial advisers and increase awareness of the firm’s capabilities.

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This includes across Asian equities, Australian equities, global emerging markets, multiasset and global listed infrastructure as well as a range of investments themed around sustainability.

In an interview last year, Rahmani told Money Management that Maple-Brown Abbott is actively targeting financial advisers in a bid for growth.

“We are definitely trying to grow after years of outflows so we are thinking about where to focus our investments. We are investing more in Australian wholesale and building out our distribution team to reach more advisers, and that is definitely an area where we are making significant investment.”

Head of wholesale distribution, Vijay Srinivasan, said: “Sophie has strong technical knowledge and a good understanding of the needs of financial advisers. These strong links, and her reputation for delivering outstanding service to the financial advice community, make her an excellent choice for the role.

“Sophie’s work with the Schroders Investment Education Community in particular demonstrates her ability to communicate and work with financial advisers by delivering valuable insights.”

The Schroders Investment Education Community is an initiative to help investors and advisers learn the essentials of investing, sustainable investing and behavioural finance.

It was announced earlier this year that Rahmani will be departing Maple-Brown Abbott in May to take up the role of managing director alongside Andrew Formica as executive chair. She is then expected to transition to a CEO role within 12 months.

Rahmani will focus on the fund management business, while he will look after the “strategic development” of the wider Magellan business.

Her departure follows the exit of Geoff Bazzan last year who departed after almost 30 years at the business as the head of Asia Pacific equities.

Will Main was promoted to replace Bazzan from his previous role as portfolio manager, while John Moorhead leads the combined Asia and emerging markets team.