Mason Stevens drives equity business

In his new role, Chemello will oversee all aspects of the further development of Mason Stevens’ equities businesses, working closely with the investment team led by chief investment officer Vincent Hua.

“My view, and certainly the view of the guys [at Mason Stevens], is that we’ve seen some real structural change in investments and returns,” Chemello said. “A lot of those traditional strategies today are failing to deliver the returns that investors in the asset class need.”

Mr Chemello plans to build the company’s domestic equities business using fundamental stock and research but with a more “contemporary” strategy.

“We’ll be focusing on absolute return as a key strategy rather than relative return,” he said.

“It won’t be a traditional strategy because we don’t think that is appropriate for the years ahead, given what the structural changes of the GFC represented, and the sort of returns that will be available for traditional strategies looking ahead,” Chemello said.

“There is an enormous opportunity to build on this strong base to create an industry-leading equities capability, with products relevant to today’s volatile environment and the changing preferences of investors,” he added.

Prior to his recent appointment, Chemello held a range of senior positions at BT, including portfolio manager of the BT Imputation Fund.