Cocks leaves Tower to build own business

National trustee company Tower Trust senior executive Peter Cocks left the group last Friday to establish his own consultancy after a career of 15 years.

Cocks says he has already received a great deal of interest in his new business from asset managers and fund managers looking to improve distribution to dealer groups.

Based in South Australia, the boutique consultancy business, to be named Peter Cocks Strategic Solutions, will consult to the industry on a broad range of areas including relationship management, distribution, platform assessment and dealer strategic issues.

Cocks says there is an increasing need for industry relationship building between both platform and product providers and dealerships at senior management levels.

“The market is changing, and while there are a lot of business development managers running around, there’s not enough people looking after relationships at the top end,” Cocks says.

“Too much attention is being paid to sales but not at the bigger picture and strategic relationships.”

During his tenure at Tower Trust, Cocks helped build the company into a major wrap and smallAustralian Prudential Regulation Authorityfunds provider, as well as establishing its national distribution network in every capital city.

Cocks held a variety of roles with the group, including general manager, distribution and marketing, and was also responsible for national sales and dealership relationships with the larger user groups. He also acted as chief executive officer of Tower Distribution Management for a period last year.

Tower Trust national sales manager David Rowell says Cocks’ last role as national key account manager has now been rolled into the national sales manager role and he will be assuming Cocks’ former responsibilities.