Vanguard revamps sales team

Vanguard Australia's distribution head Matthew Lumsden will leave the firm as it walks away from institutional mandates ahead of launching its own super fund.

Commenting on the departure, the firm's managing director Daniel Shrimski thanked Lumsden for his significant contributions to Vanguard's adviser and institutional businesses during his 12-year career with the asset manager.

"Under Matthew's leadership, Vanguard's distribution business has gone from strength to strength.... I thank him for his many contributions to Vanguard, and wish him well with his future endeavours."

As part of Vanguard's new retail strategy, Rebecca Pope, head of intermediary, will take on the newly created head of retail transformation role.
In this role, she will report directly to Shrimski.

Lastly, Rachel White, the current head of product enablement, will head up financial adviser services and join the executive team.

Shrimski called it an exciting time for Vanguard in Australia.

"These new appointments bring significant expertise and experience in overseeing areas of strategic growth and change as we continue to build out our service offering for individual investors and the financial advisers who serve them," he said.

Ahead of declaring the new fund open for business later this year, Vanguard has withdrawn from mandates from pension funds.

"We have intentionally walked away from a significant amount of business - we made a very conscious decision to pivot towards communicating directly with members, investors, and advisers who are aligned with members," he added.