The Board of Eight Investment Partners Pty Limited is composed of senior executives from Eight Investment Partners and Sanlam Limited. Members include:
- Robert Roux (Chairman), Sanlam Limited
- Johan van der Merwe, Sanlam Limited
- Kerry Series, Eight Investment Partners
- Rick Steele, Eight Investment Partners
Robert Roux (Chairman)
Robert is the Chief Operating Officer of the Sanlam Investment Cluster. In addition to his role as COO, Robert heads up the International sub-cluster businesses, including Sanlam International Investments, Sanlam Asset Management Ireland, Sanlam UK and SIM Global.
Robert commenced his career at Salam as an accountant in the investment division, before moving to a consumer business for five years as a financial manager. In 1999 he joined Gensec Asset Management where he was initially responsible for management information, IT and procedures and controls in the investment process. During 2002 he was appointed as the head of Investment Operations for Sanlam Investment Management with responsibility for all of the operational aspects of the asset management house.
Robert has a B.Accountancy from the University of Stellenbosch and an Hons B.Compt from Unisa. He is also a Chartered Accountant having completed his articles at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Johan van der Merwe
Johan joined Sanlam Investment Management in 2002 as CEO. In 2003, he was appointed CEO of the Investment Cluster responsible for all the Investment businesses in the Sanlam Group. In 2007, he became Head of the Institutional Cluster.
Johan started his career at Deloitte and Touche and also lectured Accounting and Auditing at the University of Pretoria. He passed his qualifying examination for the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board the following year. He completed his M.Com (Tax) at the University of Pretoria in 1990 and his M.Phil Finance at Cambridge in 1991.
In 1991 he moved to Gencor`s Corporate Finance division. He was one of the core team members who helped to finalise the Billiton transaction and after its completion he became responsible for Corporate Finance and Tax at Billiton.
He joined Investec Asset Management in 1997 as Sector Head of SA Resources, became Head of Equities in 1999 and was promoted to Global Sector Head of Resources in April 2000. He was assigned responsibility for the Botswana Office and for Private Equity, and was a director and executive committee member of Investec Asset Management.
Johan completed his B.Com. degree in accounting cum laude from the University of Pretoria. In 1987 he completed his B.Com. (Hons) degree in accounting.
Kerry Series
Kerry has advised or invested in Asia Pacific equities since 1992. He established 8IP in order to provide investors with access to differentiated Asian investment products.
Kerry`s investment experience includes a number of senior roles. In 1999 he co-founded Perennial Investment Partners which achieved strong investment performance and reached $20 billion in assets within eight years. The Asian equity fund managed by Kerry at Perennial was consistently ranked highly.
Most recently he was the Head of Asia Pacific Equities at AMP Capital where he was responsible for three investment teams which managed approximately $5 billion of assets. Kerry also spent time in Hong Kong where he was an Investment Director for HSBC Asset Management.
Kerry is a significant shareholder in 8IP and investor in the Fund. He has a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from Birkbeck College, University of London; is a Certified Investment Manager; and holds a UK Securities Industry Diploma.
Rick Steele
Drawing on more than 30 years in funds management and government, Rick is responsible for the business management of 8IP.
After a successful career in the Australian Treasury, Rick entered the financial markets as the Chief Economist at Prudential Assurance (Prudential). He then moved into investment management as a portfolio manager at Prudential, specialising in fixed income and foreign exchange. Rick went on to hold similar positions at BT Funds Management (BT) and Morgan Grenfell Australia.
Most recently, Rick has focused on the management of funds management businesses serving as the CEO of TechInvest, a specialist global equity manager. Prior to that he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the institutional asset management business at BT.
Rick holds a Bachelor of Economics with Honours from the University of Tasmania; a Master of Economics from the Australian National University; and is a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.