Invesco reinforces domestic commitment

Invesco Australiahas appointed formerAXA Australiaand New Zealand chief investment officer John Nairn in the newly created role of chief operating officer.

The appointment reinforces Invesco’s commitment, which it highlighted a few months ago, to its Australian operations despite the global downturn in financial services.

In the role Nairn will be responsible for the group’s operations, finance, legal and compliance, human resources, information technology and business strategy.

Nairn makes the move to Invesco from the National Australia Bank, where he most recently acted as senior adviser - corporate strategy and investments, and was responsible for a number of strategic and merger and acquisition projects, predominantly withMLC.

Prior to his role at National, Nairn held a number of roles at AXA including chief investment officer, Australia and New Zealand. In this role he was responsible for managing the relationships with AXA’s investment managers, Alliance Capital Management andDeutsche Asset Management.

Invesco chief executive officer Mark Armour says Nairn will bring extensive domestic and international funds management industry experience to the group, while Nairn himself has high hopes the group will “become a major player in Australia’s funds management industry”.

Invesco global chief executive John Rogers says the success of the Australian operation has been in finding local people to run the operation, supported with global resources.