Vanguard appoints journo to senior retail role

Vanguard Investments Australiahas chosen a left-field candidate to fill its vacant head of retail role position - formerPersonal InvestorandAssetmagazine managing editor Robin Bowerman.

Vanguard managing director Jeremy Duffield says this is not the first time the group has appointed former journalists to key positions, with previous success in the US with experienced financial journalists being brought into the business and “converted” into new roles.

Duffield says he is confident Bowerman will be a good fit for the role, which focuses largely on communication with the financial planning market.

“We did a survey recently and only 29 per cent of people knew what an index fund is. We’ve got a lot of work to do there. Robin is a genuine investor advocate who is well known in both the financial planning and investment community,” Duffield says.

“I think he’ll pick it up pretty quickly, he will have a lot of funds management expertise around him.”

Bowerman replaces previous Vanguard head of retail Tony Winwood, who is now running business services and operations within the group following the return of another staff member to the US.

Based in Melbourne, Bowerman will report to Duffield and focus on growing the group’s retail business, which is currently at $2.4 billion.

Duffield says the retail push is currently proceeding at “a good rate”, with the group having added $1 billion to retail in the last year.