{"id":15158,"date":"2019-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen.ap.applyflow.com\/leaders-in-funds-management-jeremy-duffield\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T07:33:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T07:33:35","slug":"leaders-in-funds-management-jeremy-duffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/leaders-in-funds-management-jeremy-duffield\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaders in Funds Management \u2013 Jeremy Duffield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview of your career to date. <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I left Australia for the US at 20 in 1974, three days after marrying my American-born wife, and with the intention to continue my studies there.\u00a0 Joined Vanguard outside Philadelphia by accident in the fledgling days of the company (1980) and was lucky enough to work for industry great, Jack Bogle, Vanguard\u2019s founder.\u00a0 Headed Planning and Development (which included a couple of investment functions (including indexing)) throughout most of the 1980s and first half of the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Returned home to Australia in 1996 to start Vanguard Australia, the first international office.\u00a0 Retired as Chairman at end of 2010.\u00a0 Took on Board responsibilities at MLC and Australian Centre for Financial Studies and co-founded digital advice company SuperEd in 2012.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

How did you get your first position in the industry in the U.S?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Strange things happen.\u00a0 I was working at the Federal Reserve in research prior to a planned PhD in economics.\u00a0 We wrote papers on Money Market Funds (CMTs) when they were new and hot in the days of interest rates in the teens.\u00a0 I was asked to give a speech on them at a mutual fund conference in New York in 1979, I met Jack Bogle and he invited me to visit Vanguard.\u00a0 Six months later I was working as Jack\u2019s assistant and attending the \u201cBogle School of Business.\u201d<\/p>\n

You spent a number of years with Vanguard in the U.S before arriving back to Melbourne in 1995 to launch Vanguard\u2019s business in Australia. <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes, I ran Planning and Development in the US in the high growth years from 1982-1995.<\/p>\n

I became passionate about Vanguard going international when Vanguard sent me to Harvard Business School for a 3-month management program in 1988.\u00a0 Surrounded by a bunch of international students from multinationals, I was convinced finance would go global and that Vanguard had something very special to offer.<\/p>\n

Our subsequent business plans for entering foreign markets were all rejected on the basis of \u201cwe\u2019re growing so fast\u201d and \u201cwho would we send?\u201d until 1995 when I came back from a holiday in Australia with excitement about compulsory superannuation.\u00a0 Finally, I could recommend Australia and I saw a \u201ctwofer\u201d opportunity to bring my family home to Australia and achieve my business dream.\u00a0 \u201cWho are we going to send?\u201d \u201c Send me.\u201d\u00a0 And to my pleasant surprise, the CEO and Chair said \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

You had a suitcase and a mobile phone, what was your strategic plan to grow the business?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was really very simple.\u00a0 The market was destined to grow with super contributions.\u00a0 Indexing was hardly heard of but, in my opinion, destined to grow and become mainstream.\u00a0 Vanguard Investments Australia (VIA) would catch the super wave and build a leading brand in a growing segment of a growing market. Start with institutional and build out into retail\u2026and later into Asia.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n

The industry landscape was very different back then. Can you recall your first 12 months setting up the business?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sure, it was a fun and challenging time, coming back to Australia after 21 years away.\u00a0 Leaving the comfort of Vanguard 4500 (staff) to be initially Vanguard Australia 1.\u00a0 And I had to go from being a largely \u201cinside\u201d guy to being a largely \u201coutside\u201d guy.\u00a0 But building a great team was the best thing I did to get VIA started well.\u00a0 That itself was a challenge as many people thought indexing would never amount to anything in Australia.<\/p>\n

You have led and managed large teams at Vanguard. What was your approach to attracting, and developing talent?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I put a lot of stress on values, making sure individuals would understand Vanguard\u2019s client-first approach and then focused on talent, energy and drive, looking at both the basic \u201cclay\u201d and then the experience that came with it.\u00a0 It was very important that people could be team players \u2013 because I wanted a high performing team.<\/p>\n

What do you believe are the attributes that make a successful leader?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I think there are many ways to be a great leader.\u00a0 I most admire leaders who are passionate about a worthwhile mission and build teams to accomplish shared goals.\u00a0 Our second HR head, Wendy Hanrahan, described our employee value proposition in a way that really resonated with me: Believe, Belong, Build.\u00a0 We needed people, and leaders at all levels, who could make that proposition a reality.<\/p>\n

Vanguard recently celebrated its 20th year in the Australian market and is now the largest Fund Manager in Melbourne.\u00a0 Looking back on this remarkable success story is there any particular event or milestone that you are most proud of?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The proudest moments are definitely people stories and client stories.\u00a0 I\u2019m proudest of the enduring successful relationships we had with clients and with crewmembers who built great careers at Vanguard.\u00a0 I think Vanguard Australia has made a difference for investors in the marketplace, and I\u2019m very proud of that.<\/p>\n

You are the Co-Founder of SuperEd, a digital advice business. Can you tell me about this business and your plans for 2016?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Coming out of Vanguard and thinking about the future, I became fascinated with \u201cbetter decision-making\u201d as the next wave which could make a difference to consumers.\u00a0 I thought digital advice was the best way to enable that.<\/p>\n

So, with a brilliant partner, in Hugh Morrow (our CEO), and a terrific team, we\u2019re building SuperEd to be a leading provider of digital advice for superannuation members.\u00a0 Another fascinating challenge.\u00a0 Something I really believe in.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re focused on coaching and advising members through their journey to retirement adequacy and sustainability.\u00a0 This year, we\u2019re rolling out our capabilities with seed clients.\u00a0 A very exciting time.<\/p>\n

If you could give 1 piece of advice about developing a career within the Funds Management Industry what would it be?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Find a great mentor in a company you can believe in.<\/p>\n

What are some of the main opportunities and challenges you see for the industry over the coming year?<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are always lots of both.\u00a0 Right now, I\u2019m looking forward to the Federal budget to see what the pollies have in store for superannuation.\u00a0 Governments pulling the levers and changing operating conditions for the industry has been the one constant of the industry over the 20 years I\u2019ve been back.\u00a0 Keeps it interesting but the cost is high and the uncertainty for members enormous.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kaizen Recruitment specialises financial services recruitment across funds management, wealth management, superannuation, investment consulting and insurance. We are based in Melbourne and Sydney.\u00a0<\/span>For assistance or further information please telephone our office at\u00a0+61 3 9095 7157<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>submit an online form<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like what you see?<\/p>\n

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Overview of your career to date. I left Australia for the US at 20 in 1974, three days after marrying my American-born wife, and with the intention to continue my studies there.\u00a0 Joined Vanguard outside Philadelphia by accident in the fledgling days of the company (1980) and was lucky enough to work for industry great,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[139,542,63,501],"class_list":["post-15158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-q-and-as","tag-funds-management","tag-jerry-duffield","tag-kaizen-recruitment","tag-vanguard"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15964,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15158\/revisions\/15964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/15161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaizenrecruitment.com.au\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}