Stephen Roberts will join Mercer as regional business leader for investment management in the Asia/Pacific region, effective 19 April. Roberts will be responsible for leading the growth and development of Mercer's investment management business in the Asia/Pacific region.

“We see a significant opportunity and client benefit from extending Mercer’s global investment management expertise into Asia under Stephen’s leadership,” said Rich Nuzum, global business leader for Mercer’s investment management business. “Trustees and other fiduciary decision-makers for large institutional investment pools in Asia are becoming more interested in considering the discretionary manager-of-managers model, as a result of governance challenges that became apparent during the global financial crisis. Use of a discretionary multi-manager may be attractive to clients who wish to free up internal decision-making time and expertise to focus on the most important strategic investment decisions. And, some clients see an opportunity to improve the day-to-day oversight of their investment programs by utilizing a partner that provides full-time, real time monitoring of investment programs as a core competency.”

“Mercer has invested continuously since the late 1980s, building strong investment consulting capabilities on the ground across Asia,” said Peter Promnitz, Asia/Pacific Region Leader for Mercer. “For more than ten years, Mercer has worked to build strong discretionary manager-of-managers capabilities in Australia, New Zealand, the US, UK, Canada and Ireland. The time has now come for Mercer to bring those capabilities to Asia. Asia has already accumulated exceptionally large asset pools, and the rate of asset growth amongst Asian institutional investors appears likely to remain high for the foreseeable future This appointment reflects an investment commitment by Mercer to serve the growing Asian market and to take our global investment management business to the next level.”

“Our investment consultants across Asia look forward to now also being able to bring Mercer’s discretionary multi-manager investment management capabilities to our Asian clients,” said Simon Eagleton, regional business leader for Mercer investment consulting. “Working with Stephen and his team, Mercer will now be able to provide investors with a complete range of investment advisory services – from tailored consulting advice through to complete implemented solutions. With this full range of solutions, we can fit Mercer capabilities to client need.”

Stephen Roberts has more than 20 years’ investment experience. Previously he worked for more than seven years in senior executive roles with Russell Investment Group, including as Managing Director, Institutional Investment Services, Australasia. He earned a Bachelor of Business with majors in accounting and finance from the University of Technology, Sydney.