Director of ratings Chris Douglas departs Morningstar
Morningstar’s director of manager research ratings, Asia Pacific, Chris Douglas will be leaving the company at the end of August, according to an external company email.
Morningstar global practice leader, manager research, Grant Kennaway, and Morningstar managing director, Australia and New Zealand, Jamie Wickham, indicated the departure was of a personal nature.
“Chris has been based in Auckland, which has meant a heavy travel schedule. He has decided that the travel has become too much given his young family – so it is very much a personal decision,” they said.
“It goes without saying that we are sorry to see him go. But he leaves the team in really good shape – a strong bench of senior analysts with a depth of experience and close integration into our global manager research group.”
Kennaway and Wickham said Morningstar was getting moving on the recruitment process for his position and would be considering both internal and external candidates.
In the interim, they said Douglas would continue to lead the team and that Tim Murphy, Morningstar’s director of manager research, APAC, would become more involved where necessary until a replacement director of ratings is hired.
Recommended for you
Bennelong Funds Management chief executive John Burke has told Money Management that the firm is seeking to invest in boutiques in two specific asset classes as it identifies gaps in its product range.
Responsible investment performance concerns have lessened as the market hits $1.6 trillion in AUM, according to RIAA’s annual report, but greenwashing fears among asset managers are on the rise.
Research by Morningstar has found fixed income funds are bucking a general trend around managed fund fee dispersion with a smaller fee dispersion compared to equity ones.
As investors seek to diversify their portfolios, the naming of bond labels has broadened out to include green, social and impact bonds, according to the annual RIAA report.