Bates joins AM Corp

Former Macquarie private banking head Tony Bates has resurfaced at AM Corporation after a nine month stint consulting.

Bates steps into the role of general manager marketing at AM. He says while it's a change from his last role in private banking, the marketing aspect of the job is similar to work he took earlier in his career.

"I used to work at Global Funds Management before it was taken over by Tyndall in client services and marketing," Bates says.

Even as the head of private banking at Macquarie where he built up the private banking business from nil to $1 billion under management, Bates says the job always involved marketing.

For the new job, Bates will be looking to enhance the relationship between AM and advisers, or as he says, "to get them to love AM even more". His role as head of marketing will initially focus on business development management but will broaden over time. In the meantime he will be using his ability to influence the AM management team as well as providing some firepower to marketing division.

"Although it's only a few days I've been with AM, I'm really happy being with an independent Australian company, and am looking forwards to opportunities in building on the AM name," he says. "The integrity of AM fits my own very closely."

Prior to working at AM, Bates was working as a consultant for Bates.Newport with St George helping them get into private banking business. He left in December after appointing Nick Kalikejeros as manager and then assisted a major international group identify bidders and suitors with "a good cultural fit" to buy a national financial planning practice. He was tight-lipped about the identity of the parties, but said the sale should occur in the next month.

He says he enjoyed the freedom and variety of working as a consultant, but the time between contracts was one of the aspects of the job that he found unsatisfying.

"I'm a bit corporate. Consulting is not a long term goal, it was more an opportunity to reflect on what I really want to do," he says.

"I prefer to build things rather than manage things."

Bates spent six years at Macquarie prior to his venture into consulting in May last year. As head of private equity, 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. Before this he worked in funds management and stockbroking for the bank. Prior to his career with Macquarie, Bates was a tax adviser for a Perth accounting firm.