Platinum's investment head departs after 12 years
Platinum Asset Management’s head of investment, Douglas Isles, has departed the fund manager after 12 years.
Isles joined the fund manager in February 2013 as an investment specialist before being promoted to head of investment in March 2022. He also sat on the firm’s management committee.
He previously worked as an investment analyst at the firm from 2003 to 2008 before working at Pengana Capital and Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.
Money Management understands he left the firm on his own terms, and the firm is yet to appoint his replacement as it finalises the merger with global long/short manager L1 Capital which reached binding terms last week.
Earlier this month, it was announced one of Platinum’s investment specialists, Charlie Brooks, had left the firm after 10 years and taken up a client portfolio manager position at Atrium, the multi-asset investment management arm of Fitzpatricks Financial Group.
The departures come after a turbulent period for Platinum’s investment team as co-chief investment officers Clay Smolinski and Andrew Clifford both moved into alternative roles earlier this year.
Clifford moved away from global portfolio management responsibilities and into an investment mentorship role as part of the investment oversight group.
Meanwhile, Smolinski had taken a “leave of absence for six months” after almost two decades at the business. He will also step away from his portfolio manager responsibilities on the flagship Platinum International Fund.
While he is expected to return to the firm in due course, chief executive Jeff Peters said it is unlikely Smolinski will return to his previous role on the flagship International Fund.
“Clay came to me at the end of last year and said he needed to take a break so he’s taking a six-month sabbatical from Platinum, and at the end of those six months, we will re-engage with him and we will see if there’s a role for him to come back to,” he said.
“I don’t think it will be running the International Fund. You can’t step away from a portfolio for that long and then come back and pick up again, but there might be a role in research and we’d be delighted to have him back.”
Instead, Platinum appointed Ted Alexander from BML Funds to run the fund as well as the firm’s other global equity funds. It also appointed Jim Simpson as chair of the investment oversight group to work alongside Clifford. Simpson had been a founding member of Platinum back in 1994 and worked as a portfolio manager on its Japan strategies until his exit in 2007.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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