Apostle hires credit fund manager from FSI

Apostle Funds Management has announced the appointment of John Barrasso to the role of portfolio manager, credit.

According to the firm, Barrasso brings over two decades of experience in credit investments, risk and portfolio management to the role, where he will work in Apostle’s investment team on its credit strategies.

Prior to joining Apostle, he had a nine-year stint at First Sentier Investors as fixed income portfolio manager, where he spearheaded the construction and management of multi-asset fixed income portfolios.

Within this capacity he was tasked with generating alpha by leveraging macro market themes and fundamentals, and also contributed to the development of ESG frameworks for sovereign and semi-government entities, Apostle confirmed.

Barrasso’s experience also includes senior trading positions at JP Morgan, Nomura, and Lloyds Treasury, where he led risk management, pricing, and execution across diversified fixed income strategies and cross-currency products.

“With growing demand for global credit strategies, we are pleased to welcome John to our team,” Apostle director, Mitchell Gunman, said.

“Apostle partners with best-of-breed credit managers offshore to custom build strategies for the Australian marketplace, so John’s role will be to assist with manager selection, managing liquidity, interest rate and currency hedging as well as product design,” Gunman added.

“John’s expertise in multi-asset fixed income portfolios and driving performance will be a considerable asset to our business.”

In April Apostle also appointed Stuart James to the newly created role of director, head of wholesale.

At the time, Apostle’s managing director Karyn West said that the firm is looking to grow its distribution strategy as Apostle expands its footprint within the wholesale sector across Australia and New Zealand.

“We are seeing increasing investor demand for differentiated investment strategies to diversify portfolios within the institutional and wholesale market,” West explained.

“The market has shifted, and investors are seeking a range of sophisticated strategies to build robust portfolios for wealth preservation and to generate alpha with global exposure,” director, head of global distribution, Kimon Kouryialas, added.

“We have partnered with outstanding global fund managers, to provide access to a variety of solutions across asset classes to meet investor’s needs.”