She reports to Fortress Senior Managing Director and Head of Capital Formation, Stuart Bohart, and was most recently Vice President of Business Development and Investor Relations at global investment firm Indus Capital Partners in New York.

The Fortress Australia office opened in 2004 and is led by CEO David Kelleher.   The firm has made over $3 billion of investments in Australia/NZ, and currently has a nine-member team that manages a portfolio of investments in real estate, mining and resources, health care, and consumer finance.

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Montgomery Investment Management has hired David Buckland as CEO.  He was previously CEO of Hunter Hall, a boutique manager focussed on ethical investing.  Montgomery IM, a long-only Australian equities boutique, was founded by high-profile investment identity Roger Montgomery January 2011.   The firm counts Magellan Financial Group as a minority equity investor.

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Robeco has appointed Stephen Dennis to head its first Australian office based in Sydney.  The office will focus on marketing Robeco’s active management strategies, including SRI, quant, Asia-Pacific and alternative strategies, to institutional investors.  Dennis was previously head of institutional business at Aberdeen Asset Management.  Robeco is part of Rabobank Group and has €150 billion AUM.

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Rob Sullivan has been appointed global head of institutional distribution for nabInvest.  He was previously global head of distribution at Treasury Group

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David Gonski (58) will replace David Murray as head of the $73 billion Future Fund from 1 July 2012.   The government appointed role includes overseeing three other ‘nation-building’ funds totalling $16.3 billion which are invested near-risk-free interest rate markets only.   Gonski will relinquish his role as Chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange.

The Future Fund is Australia’s largest single investor in alternatives with a 19.8 percent allocation.  In addition, equity long/short strategies are counted within its equities asset class.

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Sharon Hicks, CIO of GESB, will leave the $12 billion Perth-based superannuation fund on March 2, according to I&T News.  The superfund’s senior investment strategist Steve McKenna (ex-Everest fund-of-hedge-fund Sydney) will cover her role until a new CIO is appointed.

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Dennis Sams will manage investments for the $6 billion Australia Post Superannuation Scheme (APSS), according to I&T News.  He was previously head of fixed income at the $29.8 billion UniSuper.

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MLC Implemented Consulting has appointed Steve Gamerov as head of asset consulting, according to InvestorDaily.  He replaces Gareth Abley who now heads up the capital markets and alternative research group.  Gamerov was previously product and strategy director at Pinnacle Investment Management.

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Perpetual Investments has hired Sandi Orleow as senior portfolio adviser covering multi-asset management, beta prime and alternative strategies.  Orleowv was previously head of private markets at Towers Watson.

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Parametric has appointed Scott Lawrence as its Managing Director – Australia. Lawrence (ex-Vanguard Australia) will be responsible for promoting Parametric’s tax-managed investment products.

Parametric is a subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp, a $184 billion US based asset manager.  The international arm of Eaton Vance uses third-party marketing firm Allen, Allen & Partners, to market in Australia.  Eaton Vance recently established a Singapore office to market a range of products in the region including global macro.

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John Sevior and David Cooper will establish a boutique funds management firm in the second half of the year, according to InvestorDaily.   Sevior is a former high-profile head of equities at Perpetual Investments, while Cooper is a former Treasury Group managing director.

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Perpetual Investments has hired former Ellerston Capital portfolio manager Anthony Aboud.  He will work with Paul Skamvougeras on Perpetual’s Share Plus Long Short Fund, as well as on the development of new absolute return equity products.   The pair worked together at Ellerston in 2006 to 2009.

Most recently, Aboud was Portfolio Manager of the Ellerston Capital Global Equity Management (GEM) Fund.

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The Pengana Asian Equities (long/short) fund has been downgraded to three stars by Standard & Poor’s following the resignation of senior fund manager/technical analyst Elan Miller.  He will be replaced by a new hire, Yan Zhang.

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Macquarie Private Wealth has appointed MarkChartres to its Melbourne office as a senior investment advisor. He was previously Intersuisseʼs head of wealth management. MPW has grown its advice team by more than 20 in the past few months, according to the divisionʼs head,Eric Schimpf, speaking to InvestorDaily.

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London based CQS has hired Louise Walker in Sydney in a client facing role. She previously worked at Tria Investment Partners and Macquarie Group but now reports to Paul Chadwick, managing director of CQS Investment Management (Australia). CQS manages around $11 billion and was founded by Australian Michael Hintze

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Jonathan Ayres has been appointed the first head of the new Bank of Melbourne Private.   He was previously a senior investment specialist with nabInvest and spent more than 10 years with the NAB in roles such as head of financial planning for NAB Private.

Bank of Melbourne Private is part of BT Financial Group.  He will report to Jane Watts, General Manager of Private Wealth at BT Financial Group.

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James Wright, ING Investment Management’s CIO of asset strategies and alternatives, has left the firm following its takeover by UBS, according to Financial Standard. He had been responsible for Australian equities, fixed income, listed property, private equity and quantitative services.

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The merger of Vision Super and Equipsuper will formally take place in February 2012 to create a $9.6 billion superfund.   Danielle Press has been appointed CEO of the combined entity.  She was previously CEO of Equipsuper.  Vision Super’s head Paul Curtin is Deputy CEO.

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Amanda Gillespie has been promoted to research general manager at Lonsec.  She replaces Grant Kennaway has left the firm to take an extended break. Lukasz de Pourbaix will assume responsibility for Lonsec’s investment consulting team.  Lonsec was recently sold to Financial Research Holdings.  (see Australian Hedge, June 2011).

• ASX-listed Treasury Group has eight boutique fund managers whose combined AUM is $16 billion.  McGill replaces Mark Burgess who is becoming GM for the $75 billion Future Fund.

• Premium Investors has appointed Lindsay Mann as a board director.  Mann is the former head of First State Investments in Asia. He is also an independent director of BRIM Asian Credit Fund, a Cayman Islands-domiciled hedge fund managed by Singapore-based Blue Rice Investment Management.  Premium is an ASX-listed investment company established by Treasury Group to provide retail investors with access to its suite of boutique fund managers.

• Challenger Financial Services Group has appointed Cathryn Franks as its national sales manager to focus on distribution for the firm’s 10 boutiques, according to InvestorDaily.  Franks was previously head of retail sales at Amundi Asset Management.

• BlackRock Investment Management Australia has appointed Evan Jones as senior portfolio manager, according to InvestorDaily.  He will help manage the BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund and will report to lead portfolio manager David Hudson. Geoff Ryan will also continue to help manage the fund, which deploys tactical asset allocation strategies and has nearly $400 million under management.  Jones was most recently a senior proprietary trader for National Australia Bank.

• Deutsche Bank has appointed Chris Selby as its new head of private wealth management in Australia.   He was previously head of wealth management, Australia, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

• Frontier Investment Consulting has appointed Damian Moloney as its first CEO. Managing director Fiona Trafford-Walker will take on the newly created role of director of consulting, according to Financial Standard. Moloney was previously CEO of Industry Funds Management, and more recently was a senior consultant at Frontier, assisting Trafford-Walker on the management side.

• Zenith Investment Partners has transferred investment analyst Angela Burmeister to its alternatives research team to boost coverage of hedge funds and other alternative investment products, according to Financial Standard.  The alternatives team is headed by Daniel Liptak.

• Macquarie has appointed Jay O’Neil as its new head of Macquarie Private Bank.  O’Neil is currently a managing director at Merrill Lynch New York.  Macquarie Private Bank services the HNW market with investible assets of more than $5 million.

• Long/short Australian equities portfolio manager Paul Skamvougeras has received increased media coverage since his promotion to head Perpetual’s $6.1 billion concentrated equities fund.

• Skamvougeras (ex-Ellerston and head of Perpetual’s $100 million Share-Plus long/short equity fund – see TripleA Australian Hedge, March 2010) is replacing Perpetual’s star portfolio manager, John Sevior, who is leaving for a 6-month sabbatical.

• Bennelong Funds Management has appointed Roger Phipps as director of distribution, based in Melbourne.  He previously held senior distribution roles at MAB Funds Management, Legg Mason and HSBC Asset Management.  He replaces Andrew Aitken who has been promoted to head of distribution.

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Ascalon Capital Managers has appointed Chuak Chan to develop its Asian business.  He was previously COO for Hong Kong based Segantii Capital Management.  He will initially work from Westpac’s Hong Kong office to obtain licensing approvals before sourcing new boutique managers to incubate.

Westpac owned Ascalon is currently incubating seven Australian boutique managers. Two are hedge funds – H3 Global Advisors and Regal, and five are boutiques – Alleron, Arkx, ATI.AM, Continuum and Helix.

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UBS has appointed Colin Lunn in Hong Kong to grow its fund administration business in Asia.  Lunn was previously head of business development at HSBC Securities Services HK.

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Credit Suisse has appointed Edward Jewell-Tait as managing director and head of private banking Australia.  Based in Sydney, he reports to David Livingstone, CEO, Australia and to Marcel Kreis, head of private banking, Asia Pacific.  Most recently, Tait was the head of investment advisory and distribution at Caledonia Investments. The bulk of his career was at Macquarie Bank that included a role as head of futures.

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Perpetual’s head of equities John Sevior is to take a six-month leave of absence. As a result, the Perpetual Wholesale Concentrated Equity Fund will be managed by Paul Skamvougeras.   Skamvougeras is also portfolio manager for the Perpetual Share Plus long/short Australian-equity fund.