Former Pengana executive appointed head of sales at Pella

Former Pengana executive Joy Yacoub is now running head of distribution at the newly-minted boutique Pella Funds Management.

Yacoub is a founding partner of Pella joining four other former Pangana colleagues who left to set up the new business. These include Jordon Cyetanovski, who is chair of the new firm, and Steven Glass who is managing director and investment head.

Ryan Fisher and Ronald Yu followed the three executives to Pella as investment analysts.

Yacoub has spent 15 years in funds management. Before joining Pella, she was the executive director of Pengana's international equities division. She has worked in relationship management for Allan Gray and Orbis and as an investment analyst for State Street Bank. Yacoub has also done a stint in sales for Dimensional Fund advisers.

She pointed out that the boutique is a founder-led and employee-owned company in which staff invests alongside clients." It means we will only do well when our clients do well."

"I think we are offering a product that our clients need and want at an accessible and competitive price.

For his part, Cvetanovski said Yacoub is not only an experienced and talented business manager, but she is also passionate about building long-term client relationships.

"Joy is an integral part of the team and brings a leadership style that is strongly aligned with Pella's client-focused culture," he added.

On the launch of the Pella Global Generations Fund, Cvetanovski said the fund invests in companies from around the globe. "We have long-term aims of beating the benchmark, doing it with low volatility, and doing so in a sustainable fashion. There may be some managers that focus on one or two of these aspects.

"We think we are different in that having an equal focus on these three objectives.