Stephen O’Brien, the former chief executive of Deutsche Asset Management in Australia, has joined the advisory and marketing firm Brookvine as executive director, starting today.
Steve Hall, Brookvine’s chief executive, said the recruitment of O’Brien, with whom he had worked in the late 1980s at ipac, showed the firm was continuing to invest in the business and was expecting continued growth.
Brookvine raises capital for fund managers, both in Australia and offshore, some of which it invests in and also usually co-invests with. It has raised about A$9 billion for clients since formation in 2001.
Hall said: “We’re broadening our reach to be more active in the Asian region and over the last few years we have also looked to provide opportunities among family offices and the high-net-worth market.”
Brookvine currently represents 10 managers, including Axiom Asia Private Capital, commercial real estate debt group Balmain Investment Management, the insurance-linked securities manager Fermat Capital, an endowment-like investment program manager Makena Capital, hedge fund of funds Prisma Capital Partners and the most-recently added QS Investors, which is a US-based global equity manager.
The firm was started by the UK-based managing director and chair Kerstin Sallows, who has spent about 25 years in the industry including in private equity roles at AMP Capital and Sentient Asset Management. Other AMP alumni at Brookvine include executive director Jack Gray, who splits his time between Brookvine and academic work at the University of Technology Sydney, and Rob Estcourt, who is executive director and chief operating officer.
Brookvine also hired earlier this year another former Deutsche Asset Management person, Alison Stauss, who is strategic accounts and research manager.
O’Brien, who spent five years at Deutsche, said he was looking forward to joining Brookvine for many reasons: “They’re a great group of people, we have really interesting strategies to discuss with investors and I believe the company is poised for strong growth.”
Apart from Deutsche, O’Brien has had several other senior roles in funds management, including head of sales and marketing at Schroders and at Tyndall Investment Management.
