After 17 years at MSCI and having established the office in Australia, Michael Anderson has decided to take a long holiday and look for new opportunities. He finished up last Friday.

When he started in 2001 in Australia MSCI was still owned by Morgan Stanley. It is now an S&P 50 stock with four product lines in Australia, each with an individual running it. They are: analytics, including BARRA and risk products; ESG, which includes 180 people doing research at the company level; the index business; and real estate.

Anderson said over the weekend that Jack Lin, the firm’s head of Asia Pacific, would oversee Australia in the short term.

In terms of his future, Anderson said that the industry fund sector looked appealing, especially since the Royal Commission, after which they look like coming out of it stronger than ever. “A lot of the asset owners use our risk products and ESG products,” he said. “I’m quite proud of it. I think I will be having a lot of coffees with people over the next little while.”

– G.B.