The Team
The investment talent of OMIGSA’s Macro Strategy Investment (MSI) team combines to over 120 years of experience with in the financial services arena.
Peter Brooke
B Bu Sc Finance (Hons)
Position: Boutique Head: Macro Strategy Investments Role
Peter joined Old Mutual Investment Group (SA) in May 2005 and is the head of the Macro Strategy boutique. The team manages or advises on more than R200bn of multi-asset class portfolios across the risk return spectrum.
Peter has specific responsibility for third party funds including the Profile range. He also manages a number of unit trusts including the Flexible fund, the Balanced fund and the Stable Growth fund. Having analysed countries and companies, Peter can integrate top-down and bottom-up drivers and valuations to create an optimal portfolio.
Previous Experience
Peter worked at a stockbroker for 10 years as an analyst and equity strategist. He was the Head of Research and Head of Equities for Cazenove South Africa.
Sathyen Mahabeer
BSc Honours (Math. Stats); Fellow of Actuarial Society of South Africa (FASSA)
Position: Chief Operating Officer and Head: Marketing and Distribution Role
Sathyen joined MSI in September 2010 where he is responsible for the operational and product-related aspects of the business, managing internal and external relationships, as well as developing and driving MSI’s marketing and distribution strategy.
Sathyen is both a Fellow of Institute of Actuaries (UK) and Fellow of Actuarial Society of South Africa.
Previous Experience
Sathyen joined Old Mutual in 2001. He held the position of Head of Smoothed Bonus Portfolios in Old Mutual Corporate. In 2006 he was appointed as Group Assurance Actuary in Old Mutual.
In 2008 Sathyen joined Old Mutual Investment Group (SA) as Product Actuary in a central team within OMIGSA’s boutique structure. He was responsible for product development, monitoring the value propositions of OMIGSA boutiques, analysis of new opportunities and input to the strategic direction across the boutiques.
Prior to joining Old Mutual, Sathyen held a position of Associate Director at Alexander Forbes.
Denzil Burger
B. Com (Hons)
Senior Portfolio Manager Role
Denzil was appointed as portfolio manager for the investment strategy of the OMLAC (SA) portfolios (Life funds) in October 2005.
He has been a voting member of the Macro Strategy Investments boutique since the inception of the previous OMAM Asset Allocation Group in 2002. He continues to play an active role in the management of the institutional international portfolios of Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa (OMIGSA).
In 2010, he also took on responsibility for the management of the Shareholder Equity Fund.
Denzil brings with him extensive experience and a calm approach.
Previous Experience
Denzil joined Old Mutual in 1983, and has held a number of different positions in the investment area. His broad experience has given him a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of investment matters, with one of his responsibilities having been the coordination of asset swap activity.
Denzil managed the optimised portfolios of the Fairbairn Capital range and the PP Select Life portfolios since inception until September 2005. He has also managed pooled and segregated portfolios for SA and Namibian clients for many years.
Anil Thakersee
CFA, B. Com
Portfolio Manager Role
Anil joined the Macro Strategy Investments boutique in August 2008, and is responsible for the balanced funds. His investment experience prior to joining the boutique was in the fixed income and multi-management areas. He brings this experience in portfolio construction and bond and money markets to the team.
Previous Experience
Anil has seven years investment experience covering fixed income markets and multi-asset class funds. Prior to joining Old Mutual, Anil was a fund manager at Appleton Asset Management and analyst at BoE Private Bank.
Urvesh Desai
B.Sc. (Hons); FIA
Portfolio Manager Role
Urvesh is a strategist and portfolio manager within the MSI team. His primary focus is Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa (OMIGSA)’s institutional international offering. In addition, Urvesh manages specific portfolios and contributes to MSI’s overall investment strategy.
Previous Experience
Prior to joining OMIGSA in May 2007, Urvesh spent more than four years with the Old Mutual Life Assurance Company South Africa (OMLACSA), where he was an Actuarial Analyst in the Product Development team and Mandate Manager, contributing to the investment strategy of the Life Company funds.
Alida Jordaan
CFA, MBA (Cum Laude)
Equity Portfolio Manager Role
Alida joined Old Mutual Investment Group (SA) in August 2007 as an equity portfolio manager in the Macro Strategy Investments team. She is responsible for ensuring that the team’s macro views are fully reflected throughout the multi-asset class portfolios they manage. Alida also brings a bottom-up perspective to a largely top down boutique.
Previous Experience
Prior to joining OMIGSA, Alida was a senior portfolio manager at Metropolitan Asset Managers. Here she managed the Metropolitan Industrial Fund, Metropolitan General Equity Fund, as well as the Small Cap Fund.
Alida was also the head of equity research at Metropolitan Asset Managers for six years. Some of her responsibilities included overseeing the equity investment process, management of equity analysts, monitoring equity performance, managing the growth model portfolio and conducting presentations to clients, consultants, and intermediaries.
She started her investment career at Allan Gray Limited in 1994 as a quantitative analyst and then equity analyst.
Graham Tucker
CFA, B.Sc. (Hons) (Actuarial Science)
Quantitative Strategist Role
Graham’s primary role is the development and maintenance of the quantitative asset allocation models. He also heads up the research capability of the Macro Strategy Investments (MSI) boutique.
His other responsibilities include ensuring that the MSI view is consistently implemented across all portfolios and that their risks are within acceptable limits. He also monitors the boutique’s derivative structures. Graham also manages the tactical asset allocation portfolio within the team.
He is quantitatively driven and adds value to the boutique through his ability to develop systems/models that distinguish the noise from the statistically significant relationships. This means that ideas are tested thoroughly prior to any implementation in the funds.
Previous Experience
Prior to joining the MSI boutique, Graham was a Quantitative Analyst in the Quantitative Research Unit (QRU), now Investment Risk and Quantitative Analysis (IRQA). There he gained experience in the various risk and data systems within OMIGSA and assisted the team leader with the optimisation procedures for the unit’s aggressive equity offering.
In addition, Graham was responsible for developing an improved means of measuring the skill of OMIGSA’s portfolio managers as well as the running of daily hedge fund risk reports.
Warren van der Westhuizen
CFA, B.Com (Hons)
Analyst Role
Warren joined Old Mutual Investment Group’s (previously OMAM) Macro Strategy Investments (MSI) boutique in April 2005. He is responsible for maintaining and enhancing OMIGSA’s internal systems, as well as analysing the data and compiling a report on his findings.
In addition, Warren is a back-up and research analyst for MSI Equity. He is a trainee portfolio manager for the MSI Hedge Fund and monitors the equity in the Flexible Unit Trust.
He also performs ad hoc analytical research requests. Warren is integral to the functioning of the team, in terms of systems and portfolio management support.
Previous Experience
He was a performance analyst at Old Mutual Investment Group for approximately four years, prior to joining the boutique.
Vanessa Eckles
B.Com (Hons)
Research Assistant Role
Vanessa’s main focus is managing MSI’s broker systems and other information systems used by the team. She is responsible for collating the data, updating the systems and distributing all the relevant reports and information to the team.
Previous Experience
Before joining the MSI boutique Vanessa worked as a Research Assistant at Metropolitan Asset Managers and as a Librarian at BoE Asset Managers.
Merrelyn Diale
B.Com: Financial Management; National Diploma: Building
Business Development Executive Role
Merrelyn is one of two Business Development Executives and is responsible for supporting institutional clients, client reporting and new business development.
Previous Experience
Merrelyn has been with OMIGSA for 11 years and started as a property analyst before moving into Institutional Fund Management where she was responsible for a portfolio of clients that included parastatals, municipalities, government institutions, companies and their consultants. Prior to this she practiced as a Quantity Surveyor.
Dharmesh Dayal
CFMI and Programme in Portfolio Management and Investment Analysis
Business Development Executive Role
Dharmesh joined OMIGSA in July 2009 as a Business Development Executive in the Macro Strategy Investments Boutique. He is responsible for servicing and retention of an existing book of institutional clients and to identify opportunities, develop and implement strategies to procure new business.
Dharmesh brings years of valuable practical experience and investment knowledge together with the meaningful relationships built during this time to the advantage of all clients in his portfolio and OMIGSA.
Previous Experience
Prior to joining the OMIGSA Institutional Business Development team, he was an Investment Specialist with Old Mutual Corporate Investment Team for just over three years where he was responsible for managing an existing book of institutional clients invested in smooth bonus portfolios.
Prior to working at Old Mutual, Dharmesh has well over eight years of work experience working on some of the largest funds in the industry as an asset consultant with Alexander Forbes.