Morningstar names new manager research lead

Morningstar Australasia has recruited a former Insignia Financial executive to lead its manager research team and its coverage of Australian and New Zealand fund managers.

Matt Olsen - who joins Morningstar as director of manager research ratings for Australasia - replaces Annika Bradley who moved to UniSuper as an investment specialist for policy and advice.

As practice leader, Olsen will also support Morningstar's strategy to provide comprehensive superannuation fund ratings that will address fund's fees, features and performance.

The new research head brings over 10 years of strategic leadership across financial services and superannuation.

He was most recently head of research and retirement income at Insignia Financial leaving the business as part of an ongoing wider change last month.

During his six years at Insignia, he oversaw the firm's investment philosophy and the teams conducting managed funds research, portfolio construction, direct equities research, and macroeconomic research.

Before that, Olsen was chief executive of research house Lonsec for over two years.

He also spent two years in the superannuation sector as the investment chief for Energy Industries Super Scheme.

Olsen has held senior research roles at Select Investment Partners and van Eyk Research and analyst roles, including at Colonial First State.

"We are excited to have Matt join Morningstar and lead our manager research team in Australia. Working with Morningstar's regional and wider global manager research teams, Matt and his team will support advisers, investors, and superannuation funds in providing them with independent research and investment insights," Morningstar's head of manager research, Asia Pacific Wing Chan said.

For his part, Olsen said he was "excited" to be joining the Morningstar team and looking forward to driving the growth of the business and continuing to support its clients.

"I am also looking forward to working closely with our teams across the regions to deliver on our independent research and insights that deliver on investor success."

News of the appointment follows the recent hires of director of manager research Thomas Dutka and analysts Ibrahim Guled-Warfield and Liem Nguyen.

Incidentally, Dutka replaced Tim Wong who jumped ship to Genium with Justin Walsh to join Tim Murphy a few months back.

With manager research director Michael Malseed moving across to the investment management side of Morningstar, it is likely his replacement will be announced shortly.