Jobs coming at SWFs
Gulf sovereign wealth funds are rediscovering their appetite for hiring, as they look to internal expertise to carry out their investments.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Company is the latest to announce new appointments to its investment team, having hired Anders Ljungqvist to lead its proprietary investments and Thierry Gimonet from Goldman Sachs.
Nazem Fawwaz Al Kudsi, chief executive of ADIC says that now more than ever it needs top talent to "navigate a tough investment climate".
Abu-Dhabi Investment Authority also hired Bill Schwab as global head of real estate from JPMorgan in January.
And SWFs are more likely to focus on managing their own investments, rather than rely on the services of external asset managers, according to speakers at the Financial News Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum, which could create more vacancies.
Kevin Lu, director at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a part of the World Bank, said: "There will not be a dramatic, sudden shift, but the changeover is already happening, mainly for the plain vanilla investments where there is little scope for exercising skill, to reduce costs."
In the past few months SWFs such as Dubai International Capital and Istithmar World have actually been downsizing their investment teams as they feel the pinch of soured international investments.
However, things are beginning to look positive again, says Elizabeth Hackford, vice president at executive search firm Sheffield Haworth.
"I do anticipate further hiring amongst SWFs in the Gulf, mainly in the investment research field," she says, citing the move towards domestic investments as the impetus for this. "In this case SWFs prefer to manage their own assets as they feel they have a better handle on local research."
