Franklin Templeton shuffles regional heads
Franklin Templeton has reshuffled the heads of its Australia and Central & Eastern Europe/Middle East businesses, following the promotion of Andrew Ashton to a newly created role.
Ashton started on August 1 as head of the international consultant and research group based in San Mateo, California, having previously been senior director of Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East (CEEME).
Ashton will focus on Franklin Templeton’s global consulting partners and cross-border financial institutions outside North America, working with the firm’s distribution teams across its international offices.
He will report to Jed Plafker, president of Franklin Templeton International and head of international advisory services, and will work closely with Dennis Rothe, head of consultant and research group for North America.
Adam Quaife will replace Ashton in Dubai as of August 1, reporting to Vivek Kudva, managing director for India and CEEME and Africa.
Running the retail and institutional businesses, Quaife will focus on emerging and frontier regions, including Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, as well as some European countries. He says these countries “will have the potential to grow at a relatively faster pace than most developed economies”.
This Thursday (July 19) will be his last day as head of institutional sales in Sydney, an office he helped set up in 2004. He joined Franklin Templeton in London in 2002 and before that worked at France’s Axa and Australian fund house Colonial First State.
Keri Pratt will take up Quaife’s seat as head of institutional sales for Australia and New Zealand, effective immediately. She reports to Maria Wilton, managing director of the group’s Australian subsidiary. Pratt previously worked as a consultant to the Australian institutional sales team for the past six months.
With 25 years’ industry experience, she has worked for GMO Australia, National Corporate Investment Services, Lend Lease Investment Services and MLC Corporate Employee Benefits, according to her Linkedin profile.
Pratt’s new role will see her work with large superannuation fund clients, including pension funds, industry superannuation funds and government funds. The group had an AUM of A$15.3 billion ($15.7 billion) as of end June.
As of 30 June, Franklin Templeton had over $706 billion in AUM.