Morningstar names new tech head

Research houseMorningstarhas appointed ex-Assirtexecutive John Lozano as the head of technology for its Australian business.

This represents the second major scalp Morningstar has taken from its rival Assirt this year, with former associate director Anthony Serhan defecting to Morningstar to become head of consulting at the start of this year.

Lozano held the role of head of technical services at Assirt, where he was responsible for information systems, website infrastructure management, IT project management and datawarehousing.

Morningstar Australia chief executive office Scott Cooley says, “John’s IT, website development and project management skills will add significant value to our business as we roll out more investment research solutions for investors and their investment advisers.”

Previous head of technology Gabriel Robledo left Morningstar last year in a string of departures which began with managing director Graham Rich and also saw head of publishing Deidre Keown, researcher Stelios Pavlakis, analyst Brooke Sweeney and head of research Daisy Chee leave the group.

The moves are set to continue at the end of this week with four staff to leave the group.

Senior data analyst Simon Karaban will head toBT Financial Groupwhile three other staff in the areas of sales, web development and business development will also end their time with Morningstar.

Two of the three moves are due to staff moving overseas according to Serhan who says the departures are not unusual and within expected turnover figures for the industry.