(Pictured: Ken Marshman)
Ken Marshman, the chair and head of investment outcomes at JANA Investment Advisers, who is due to retire from full-time consulting at the end of this month, has been awarded a major accolade as the “fifth most influential consultant in the world”.
And another Australian, Frontier Advisors’ most senior investment person, Fiona Trafford-Walker, has been ranked 13th on the same worldwide list, produced annually by US publishers Asset International.
The ‘aiCIO’ list ranks what it regards as the top 25 investment and pensions consultants for their influence with clients and in their respective industries. It includes, for instance, Keith Ambachtsheer, the Canadian pensions consultant and academic, who is well known to the Australian industry and is ranked fourth.
Asset International said of Marshman, who is also former CEO of JANA and has been with the firm for 19 years: “The global financial crisis era may have been among his best: Marshman was recommending credit from mid-2008 and then, starting early in 2009, had clients restocking equities for the imminent recovery.”
The publisher quoted Marshman last week saying: “I believe that Sir John Templeton used to say, ‘Investing is one of the only things in life you get better at as you get older.’ I like that. And I believe I have become a better adviser over the years. Not necessarily from seeing more events but knowing myself better. It’s about finding your weaknesses—greed, following trends, fear—and learning to counteract them.”
Similarly, they say of Trafford-walker: “Asset owners who listened to (her) from 2007 through 2009 emerged from the crisis better than most. ‘We kept saying to clients in 2007, ‘Equities are getting expensive.’ We were worried about the strength of the markets and felt there would be a correction—but maybe of 10 per cent, not 30 per cent,’ she says.”
The top 10 on the list are: 1. Erik Knutzen of NEPC; 2. Jon Exley of KPMG; 3. Ari Jacobs of Aon Hewitt; 4. Keith Ambachtsheer of KPA Advisory Services; 5. Ken Marshman of JANA; 6. Robin Pellish of Rocation Investment Advisors; 7. Rob Gardiner of Redignton; 8. Andrew Kirton, CIO of Mercer Investments; 9. Steve Nesbitt of Cliffwater; and Josh Cohen of Russell Investments.
