Iress expands APAC wealth team with senior appointments

Iress has appointed Callum Masson as executive general manager for product and technology, while Martin Johnson joins as general manager for technology.

Masson’s role, which is a newly created one, will be responsible for driving the vision, strategy and delivery of Iress’ APAC Wealth product portfolio and technology infrastructure. He joins from Team Super (formerly Mine Super), where he led the super fund’s technology and project delivery teams for seven years.

Meanwhile, Johnson will focus on the delivery and management of the technology products, systems and services. Previously, he worked at Xero as its head of engineering.

Iress CEO – wealth APAC, Kelli Willmer, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Callum and Martin to Iress. They both have extensive global leadership experience in product engineering and software architecture, with impressive track records in delivering innovative and scaleable technology solutions.

“Callum and Martin will play a key role in aligning and evolving Iress’ product and technology capabilities as we continue to focus on driving growth in our core wealth management business and delivering exceptional value to our clients through world-class advice technology.”

Speaking last month at the company’s full-year results, Iress chief executive Marcus Price said the firm sees “massive tailwinds” for the wealth management industry, partly from the advent of digital advice from superannuation funds.

“Don’t underestimate the effort we are putting into wealth management,” he said. “I can’t think of an industry that has gone through more change. Now we are at the bottom of the cycle and people are trying to get back into advice, it’s far from how it was a few years ago.

“There is a need for advice, and firms can’t meet demand. I wouldn’t say ‘crisis’, but it is getting to the point where we need solutions and to work with the industry to expand the availability of advice.

“Digital advice is a very active landscape and one model that no one has managed to crack yet. It’s a new frontier of advice, a new class of advice, and it’s got issues and opportunities associated with that. It’s not a replica of traditional advice, it’s a new class, and we are at the forefront of that and it is an area of focus for us.”

The tech firm has made a spate of hirings over the last few months, including Adam Webb in the newly created role of executive general manager, customer in February.

In this role, Webb will lead the firm’s customer-facing teams for the wealth APAC division, taking on the responsibility for delivering increased value to Iress’ existing customers, in addition to meeting the increasing demand for the full spectrum of advice technology among new customers.

Earlier in the year, Iress confirmed it had created a number of new roles focusing on executing its growth strategies across digital advice, Xplan and strategic partnerships.

“This team plays an important role in providing solutions to new and existing Xplan customers, which will help them thrive in a growing client landscape,” Iress stated at the time.

The team includes:

• Tanya Martin, general manager of wealth propositions.
• Tom Cochran, head of partnerships.
• David Collins, head of digital advice.
• James Blanton, head of Xplan sales.
• Thomas Cunich, Xplan sales associate.