Changes inside Pie Funds

Pie Funds founder and chief executive Mike Taylor has rejoined the firm's investment team on a full-time basis.

Monday, March 14th 2022, 11:55AM

Taylor says while he remains the CEO, he will become the acting chief investment officer to allow Mark Devcich to focus on portfolio management and stock selection – in particular for the Australasian Funds.

He says recently there has been inconsistent performance across some of the Pie funds.

"As the “guardian” of Pie’s investment strategy, it is my role to make sure that our performance is continuously evaluated and fine-tuned in reaction to market dynamics," Taylor says in a recent newsletter.

"With global markets shifting into a period of heightened volatility, I believe I can add the most value to investors at present by dedicating my energy and experience as a full-time member of the investment team.

He says Pie have a three-pronged plan to address the performance inconsistency covering strategy, process and people.

Chris Bainbridge is leaving Pie this month to pursue business opportunities. He has been with the firm for nearly 10 years.

Amongst other changes at the firm Peter Simpson has been appointed general manager after working with the board for several months on strategy.

His senior leadership experience includes trading and investing globally. He has had previous roles with BHP in Australia and the Hague, including Regional Head of Trading for EU/LatAM and he spent eight years with Duferco International Trading in Switzerland, where he held senior trading and executive positions including most recently as Group Officer for business development and strategy.

Duferco is an international commodity trading firm with US$8 billion in annual revenue.

Sydney-based Michael Goltsman is taking over the management of Australasian Growth fund as portfolio manager and senior investment analyst.

Goltsman joined Pie at the end of 2021. His previous roles include investment analyst/portfolio manager at Sydney-based small cap manager Ophir Asset Management. He has also had roles at Citibank as an investment analyst in Sydney and London.

In the UK, Pie have hired Andrew Heap to join the team as an investment analyst, to cover US small and mid-caps.

He has worked as an investment analyst for Berenberg and more recently at RWC Capital partners in London covering small caps.

Pie has experienced growth and has a recruitment process under way for a number of new roles to further extend the performance capability of the investment team. It be looking to add additional resource to its Australasian Equities team in Sydney and/or Auckland.

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