Drabble crosses Tasman to lead AMP NZ branch

AMP has chosen a new boss for its New Zealand financial services business following general manager Rodney Cooke’s promotion to director of group finance at the group’s UK office.

John Drabble, currently national manager of AMP's superannuation and retiree services division in Sydney, will leave for Wellington in April. He will head a staff of 500, including 350 advisers, and control New Zealand's largest funds management group, with assets of $NZ8.5bn.

Drabble, who has been with AMP for five years, says it is "too early to make any assumptions" on the New Zealand market but sees "enormous potential for growth". The AMP brand will this month be "revamped and reinvigorated" in New Zealand through a new advertising campaign.

"The environment in New Zealand is characterised by a little less regulation than in Australia and has tended to orientate to traditional forms of savings and investment," he says. "But there have been recent developments in unit trusts and real strides in addressing the contemporary needs of business. New Zealand, for example, has the highest usage of eftpos systems in the world."

His predecessor Cooke has been credited with driving AMP's direct distribution of mortgages in New Zealand. As for Drabble, he says profits are his "baby" and he has been instrumental in driving down costs following AMP's merger of its corporate and retail businesses.

"There has been a cultural and financial transformation of the business. In super, we have made the business more cost-effective by closing down products, rationalising underlying product platforms, eliminating the losses from new business and creating more contemporary products," Drabble says.