Bates shocks conference
Tony Bates shocked yesterday’s AiC Private Banking conference by announcing his departure from the top job at Macquarie’s Private Banking.
Tony Bates shocked yesterday’s AiC Private Banking conference by announcing his departure from the top job at Macquarie’s Private Banking.
Bates, who has been with Macquarie’s private banking division for the past six years, says he is looking for new challenges, although he won’t be pinned down on what these will be.
“I think I’ve done the job that was needed to be done,” Bates told the conference, of which he chaired, citing his reason for the sudden exit.
Bates remained tight lipped about his future moves, however he did say he is likely to remain in a related field.
“I’m particularly interested in the electronic commerce in the financial service in-dustry and that is broadly the direction I will want to go,” he said.
The number of private client advisers at Macquarie has grown substantially over the past two years and now stands at 35. Bates attributes the bank’s success to brand and quality of the people.
During his time at Macquarie, Bates created and developed The Macquarie PRISM, a vehicle designed for clients of all private banks to get access to the best deal flow in the market.
He has acted as chairman for every AiC Private Banking conference since incep-tion and earlier this year he chaired a regional private banking conference in Sin-gapore.
Prior to joining Macquarie Private Investment Banking in 1994 Bates worked in funds management and stockbroking.
Christine Buckland has been slated as Bates’ replacement. Buckland, who has been with Macquarie for the past five years says: “it is a terrific opportunity for me, and no doubt Tony will have many good ideas to choose from.”
Prior to joining Macquarie, Buckland worked for seven years as a tax adviser for a small Perth chartered accountant practice.
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