Senior Vanguard portfolio manager joins Blue Orbit

Melbourne-based Blue Orbit Asset Management has appointed Shangitha Rajendran to the role of portfolio manager where she will run portfolio construction, research, and trade execution.

Rajendran joins the boutique small caps manager from Vanguard where she was most recently portfolio manager within the fund's quantitative equity group. There, she was responsible for the daily portfolio management and oversight of the group's active equity mandates operated in Australia.

She replaces Matthew Oldham, who has moved to Alexander Funds Management to head up data analytics for the firm's fixed income credit business.

Rajendran joined Vanguard in 2008 to launch Vanguard Australia's initial suite of exchange-traded funds and has worked across investments, equity trading, capital markets, and product management.

Before Vanguard, she worked at Perennial Investment Partners and the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research.

Blue Orbit Asset Management was founded in 2018 by Adam Randall, Megan Talmage, Julie Andrews, and Damien Green.