Morten Frederiksen has worked at both boutiques and large institutions in Australia and overseas, and this month brings his experience in global portfolio management to Cbus' growing in-house investment team. As he takes up his new appointment at the $35 billion industry fund, we find out what he's most looking forward to in the role, some of the challenges ahead, and about his "interesting" introduction to the industry during the Asian Financial Crisis.
Morten Frederiksen has worked at both boutiques and large institutions in Australia and overseas, and this month brings his experience in global portfolio management to Cbus' growing in-house investment team. As he takes up his new appointment at the $35 billion industry fund, we find out what he's most looking forward to in the role, some of the challenges ahead, and about his "interesting" introduction to the industry during the Asian Financial Crisis.
I think it's an exciting time to be joining Cbus with the coming internalisation of some of the equity funds. A lot is happening across the organisation, and there is an exciting buzz and a great collection of people in place for the future.
There is a lot to do in terms of getting the internalisation going, and so far I have been very impressed with the approaches and progress to date. Our job is to deliver the best possible outcomes for our members and that's what drives us all.
We constantly review and monitor all our positions given the available information we have at any one point in time.
Clearly global equities is the strategy I am most excited about, as it's the strategy that I am directly involved with. There is a lot going on across markets, and the next few years will be very interesting.
Throughout my career I have worked across smaller boutiques as well as in large global organisations, and a significant portion of my career has involved managing portfolios for large pension funds, both in Australia and offshore, so I think my background will be quite helpful in the role.
Yes, we are adding one further member to the team this month, taking us to 5 members.
My first job in the financial industry was as an Asian equity analyst, and I started at the depth of the Asian Financial Crisis, and it presented a very interesting learning curve. I was given the job of analysing a lot of the most distressed markets and that taught me a lot about the financial markets.
An old primary school teacher once told me "if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything", and it's kind of stuck with me.
Having grown up in South Korea, I can still read and write Korean, although have long since forgotten how to speak the language.
For the past few years, I have supported Giant Steps, Giant Steps, a special needs school focusing on teaching kids on the autism spectrum in Sydney and Melbourne. I have also supported the Smith Family Appeal, as I believe in supporting children's access to education.