Ex-M&A banker gets amazing investment job, lasts 15 months

If you thought the buy-side was a cosier place to work than the sell-side, you were wrong. All indications are that asset managers need to cut costs just as badly as investment banks. What were once jobs for life are now exposed to the same hostile forces as jobs on the trading floor.

This might be why Vidur Bahree, group investment director at Aviva, the insurance, savings and investments company, has left after just 15 months. Aviva declined to comment on the exit and Bahree may have left entirely voluntarily, but insiders say Aviva has reorganised its investment function and Martin Muir, a former Goldman Sachs MD and head of Aviva's group capital division and asset liability management, has assumed Bahree's responsibilities.

Bahree's next move is unclear. Originally an M&A and corporate finance banker at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, he quit the sell-side in 2005 and has had a succession of investment jobs relating to the insurance industry. Before joining Aviva in November 2015, he spent nearly five years at The Phoenix Group, an insurance provider, as head of capital strategy and financial management.

Aviva has been busy cutting costs since at least 2012 and is expected to continue doing so in 2017. There are no safe places in financial services, and senior investment positions in the insurance sector appear to be no exception.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit:anti-perfection protesters running away from perfection by paolobarzman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.