Mutual Trust hires portfolio manager

One of Australia's oldest and most prestigious family offices has tapped veteran investor Mark Skocic to manage its Australian equities portfolio.

Mutual Trust, the wealth management firm backed by Victoria's Myer and Baillieu families, said Skocic has an extensive 24-year investment background and ethos that aligns with the Mutual Trust philosophy.

"Mark's passion for investing is complemented by a disciplined approach to portfolio construction and company selection, along with a strong performance track record," the Melbourne-based firm said.

"Welcome to Mutual Trust Mark, we are thrilled to have you join our team."

Skocic joins from Kinetic Investment Partners where he has served as a portfolio manager since 2015.

Before joining Kinetic, he gained broad equities experience as a research analyst, worked as an equity strategist for five years and was a portfolio manager for seven years.

Skocic was formerly the institutional portfolio manager at MFS Investment Management.

Earlier, he worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Management Australia as a portfolio manager for  Australian and Asian ex-Japan equities - and later as an Australian equity strategist, responsible for constructing model portfolios.

He joined Morgan Stanley in 2005.

As a research analyst and strategist, he consistently achieved top rankings in key client surveys including three separate years as the number two-rated analyst in the Greenwich Survey.

The fund he co-managed at Morgan Stanley consistently generated top-quartile returns and was the top-performing fund in the Mercer Survey in 2008.

Prior to his investment career, he worked at KPMG where he specialised in banking and finance.