NZ Super quant moves to JANA

JANA has named Chris Worthington as the new head of quant and risk as the asset consultant continues to restructure leadership.

Worthington joins from New Zealand Super where he was most recently senior investment strategist, asset allocation.

As the lead modeller for the fund's reference portfolio review, he is charged with driving JANA's research relating to quantitative approaches, techniques, risk management, and modelling.

Worthington has been appointed head of quantitative analysis and risk.

Meanwhile, JANA has announced the appointment of four other new department heads as part of the leadership revamp.

Andrew Cassar will run Australasian equities, Iain North is head of alternatives, Courtney Wilder will oversee portfolio design, and Gary Wilson has landed the role of capital markets head.

Speaking of the appointments, JANA chief executive Jim Lamborn said, institutional investors increasingly need to lean on the experience of partners that have depth and insight in changing, uncertain times,

"Our clients will be well-serviced by this combination of elevating our existing staff into new leadership roles, who have many decades worth of experience and are fully embedded into JANA's research-first philosophy," he said.

Lamborn noted that Worthington brings a new perspective to our fast-growing quantitative risk team.

Wilder, Worthington, and Wilson will report to JANA general manager of investment strategy Kirsten Temple in their new roles.

Cassar and North will report to the general manager of research Anthony Ballard.