Bennett jets in from Singapore to take NZX top job
Singapore based New Zealander Tim Bennett is heading home to be the new NZX chief executive, effective May 7.
Mr Bennett has almost 20 years’ financial services consulting experience, mostly in Asia where he is currently a partner in Oliver Wyman’s Retail and Business Banking practice.
NZX says he has advised a broad range of financial institutions on topics from strategy and organisational transformation through mergers and acquisitions.
“A particular area of focus has been financial markets, where [he] has worked with a number of different exchanges, governments and private companies in expanding domestic capital markets and developing new asset classes,” NZX says in a statement announcing Mr Bennett's appointment.
“It is particularly pleasing to attract a top expat Kiwi home to invest his considerable skills and experience, gained offshore, back in New Zealand,” NZX chairman Andrew Harmos says.
Mr Bennett holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in Strategy and Finance and a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University of Wellington.
“The next few years provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to accelerate the development of NZX’s markets and I’m excited to be able to contribute to this development not only for the benefit of NZX’s shareholders, but for the country as a whole. New Zealand plays a key role in agricultural commodities globally and I’m looking to combining my experience with the foundation NZX has established in dairy futures to grow this area of the business," Mr Bennett says.
NZX shares were unchanged at $2.63 each in early trading today.
The stock exchange operator provided the following profile of its incoming chief executive:
Tim Bennett – Summary of qualifications and relevant experience
Tim Bennett holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (Computer Science and Business Administration) from Victoria University of Wellington and an MBA (Strategy and Finance) from the
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
He is currently a partner with the international consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, Tim was a Partner with the Boston Consulting Group, where he held various roles including Leader of the Strategy Practice for Asia-Pacific (2006-2009) and Leader of
the Financial Services Practice, South East Asia (2002 - 2006).
Tim has advised a number of exchanges in Asia and the Middle East on topics covering
• Business strategy and broader capital market development
• Diversification of exchange revenue streams beyond core equity markets
• Organisation redesign to refocus on market development and non-trading related revenue streams
• Acquisitions, alliances and partnerships
Tim’s experience in commodity market development includes
• Supporting the development of the iron ore swaps market
• Working with a combination of private and quasi-private industry participants to develop and implement a range of actions to further expand gold as a traded financial asset class.
• Review of the potential for derivative market development in other metals
• Assessing the potential for the development of a commodity financial centre for an Asian government
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Comments and questions16
Did Mark Wheldon choose his successor?? Looks like it
Lets hope the Job Description outlined the need to build relationships internal and external. Background looks interesting. Now time to make changes to the board.
Ahh the knockers just can't wait can they!!!
Looks like an excellent appointment.
Business banking to CEO of the NZX? Looks like he'll be doing as he's told.
What the heck has he done to get the job? 20 years in retail banking consulting? Are you kidding
It's the "iron ore swaps". There's gold there somewhere. Help build ex & in relationships!
Great - another Mark Waldon clone. Knows all about telling people what time of the day it is by looking at their watches.
Let's see how much further Tim will destroy the capital markets of NZ as Mark has successfully downsized the NZX in every way possible (no of stocks, no of participants, volume of trades etc) yet boosted NZX's profits (and his pockets) by abusing the monopoly positioning of NZX.
The blue-eye wonder poster-boy of the Wellington old boys' club (and John Key) leaves with a grin on his face - he sure showed them how it is done - sacrifice the long term future of NZ for his own short term gains.
Your children and grandchildren will suffer for his tenure but Mark has already taken care of himself and his future brood.
Good one, Mark!
Another bunch of crappy low brow comments, which is becoming depressingly common on these posts on NBR. If you don't have anything worthwhile and intelligent to say, don't bother.
Unfortunately for NZ Lindsay, most of the comments made are true.
No point whinging unless you can disprove the points made. You always come across as truly loyal and patriotic but never with any substance or counter argument
So says Mr Fergusson - he of Magnum Corp fame (hundreds of millions lost) and supporter of Don Brash's high interest rates policy during the Asian financial crisis.
Who is the one really making all the crappy decisions and comments?
Anyone that knows BCG or OW will be familiar with the level of quality this guy will be, give him a chance, and judge him in 2 years...
The capital markets looked pretty healthy last time I checked. Volumes up through the roof, we have a derivatives market - we never had that before, some good listings last year, SOEs on the horizon, Kiwisaver growing, etc. Reality is, the US listed markets have falled number of companies by 2/3rds since year 2000, NZX has held pretty steady. Also helped a number of Kiwi companies raise capital in the GFC and stay alive. All looks pretty good to me - and the health of the markets ultimately drives the stock price - and as a day trader I am pretty happy about the whole thing at the moment
Volumes up through the roof? Big joke. Try comparing with what the NZSE used to do on a reasonable day - over $100m easy.
Derivatives market? Another big joke.
Good listings? Mad, Mykris, Summerset eh what else?
No wonder the NZ economy is stuffed with no way to grow if the above are held up as examples of the healthy state of the capital markets.
Are you aware that the inflation adjusted NZX is down more than 60% from its 1987 all-time high? We have been in a secular bear market since that time. Any rallies during the past quarter century have been short to medium term and because the bearish long term sentiment of the market is well founded I cannot see how Kiwisaver will be a great success. The only way to make money investing in the NZX is to be an insider with stock options, a fee-charging member of the financial services community or to go short.
I say we give him a chance.
Getting into Wharton no mean feat, let alone making partner at BCG.