Former Architas investment chief Richard Philbin and ex-Skandia chief investment officer Alan Durrant have joined Harwood Capital to launch a fund of funds range.
Mr Philbin joins the London-based boutique from Hasley Investment Management, in a departure that comes in the same month in which the firm launched a range of three extra funds for him to manage.
Mr Philbin said he and Mr Durrant had joined Harwood as he felt that they would benefit from the full backing of its chief executive officer Christopher Mills and because their “long-term objectives would not fit in with Hasley”.
Hasley is set to outsource the management of all of Mr Philbin’s funds to Harwood so that he can continue to run them, according to a statement released by Harwood this morning.
Mr Philbin will act as chief investment officer at Harwood and will be leaving his role as partner of Hasley in the coming months.
Mr Durrant will take on the role of chief executive officer of the Harwood Multi-Manager range, having until recently worked in the Middle East at The National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Gulf Finance House.
The statement said the Hasley Multi-Manager launch would fill a gap that they see amongst current multi-manager offerings “for a suite of funds that defines the volatility risk budget and then sticks to it”.
Mr Philbin had a tricky time when he joined Hasley in 2012, following an extended period out of work after leaving Axa’s multi-manager Architas, as the firm’s funds had a large legacy exposure to illiquid life settlement funds.
He has long argued that a focus on volatility as opposed to risk is a key differentiator for the firm.