Matthew Pohlen
Philosophy graduate from Victoria University, with MBA from Melbourne Business School. Last worked as Head of Investment Services at National Custodian Services, National Australia Bank.
| Headline: | Innocent Bystander |
| Skills: | Business |
| Groups: | MBSEC - Melbourne Business School Entrepreneurship Club, MUEC |
| Interested in: | Helping friends, Meeting new people, Professional opportunities |
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | National Custodian Services, National Australia Bank |
| Position: | Head of Investment Services – Delivery Services |
| Time period: | December 2005 - December 2007 |
| Description: | National Custodian Services (NCS) is Australia’s premier custodian with over 450 billion dollars in assets under custody and over 600 employees.
The Head of Investment Services has a significant external focus encompassing current and prospective clients, vendors, 3rd party suppliers, and regulatory bodies. Investment Services’ comprises four departments with 75 employees: • Investment Compliance: mandate monitoring and exposure reporting. • Performance & Analytics: performance analysis, attribution and risk reporting • Unit Pricing: calculation of trust prices for retail, wholesale and superannuation clients • Projects: productivity and process improvement There is involvement in several formal committees with regular sessions: • Technical Management Committee • Client Issues Meeting • Delivery Services Management Team • Risk Management Committee • IT Business Review Group In addition, the role involves working closely with other senior NCS staff (such as Marketing, Client Relationships, IT) both on tactical issues as they arise and proactively to better position NCS with clients and the market. Significant Achievements in this Role The majority of NCS’ clients are on bundled fee agreements and as such fee income is not able to be allocated across business units. KPI’s are focused on productivity, quality, new product development and cost control. • Implemented an end to end review (Six Sigma based) of the Unit Pricing Department, processes, procedures and dependencies which identified and resolved both internal efficiency issues and significant upstream quality issues. • Devised a monthly system of management statistics including productivity measures, quality metrics, timeliness measures and multiple staff related statistics to enable better planning and control. • Formalised an internal query, response and escalation process/procedure across multiple business areas within NCS that increases communication, clarity and pre-emptively highlights potential issues. • Reviewed current market alternatives and initiated a project to replace the Unit Pricing System so as to enable higher productivity and further expansion beyond current limits. |
| Employer: | National Custodian Services, National Australia Bank |
| Position: | Manager – Performance & Analytics Department |
| Time period: | May 2002 - November 2006 |
| Description: | The Performance Department comprised a team of 11 analysts who compiled the reporting for 75 clients encompassing over 1,500 investment portfolios and approximately 250 billion dollars in assets. The discipline of performance analytics is a specialised role that requires a large body of finance and technical knowledge, an eye for detail and a strong emphasis on quality.
As Manager the core responsibilities were to ensure the smooth running of the department and that client service levels were achieved. The responsibilities of the position covered such duties as: • Operational risk responsibilities: Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery. • Participation in Requests For Proposals and Service Level Agreements. • Liaisons with clients, asset consultants and internal service providers. • Management to a budget, performance reporting (KRA, KPI) and general resource planning. • Quarterly staff appraisals, training, coaching and personal development plans. • New product development. • Project work. Significant Achievements in this Role • Managed the growth in client numbers from 55 to 75. • Successful implementation of a new performance system and report writing software that enabled new product development and meeting client’s specialised requirements. • Development of new products that expanded the department’s scope into security level analysis and financial risk metrics. |
| Employer: | National Custodian Services, National Australia Bank |
| Position: | Analyst & Team Leader – Performance & Analytics Department |
| Time period: | October 1998 - April 2002 |
| Employer: | Norwich Investment Management Limited |
| Position: | Y2K Analyst – Front Office |
| Time period: | August 1998 - September 1998 |
| Employer: | Tower Asset Management (Wellington, NZ) |
| Position: | Performance Analyst – Performance Department |
| Time period: | April 1997 - May 1998 |
| Employer: | JP Morgan (London) |
| Position: | Clerk – Morgan Guarantee Trust |
| Time period: | May 1995 - January 1997 |
| Employer: | Far North Queensland Institute of TAFE |
| Position: | Manager – Enrolments Department |
| Time period: | December 1992 - October 1994 |
INFORMATION
| Memberships: | Investment and Financial Services Association of Australia (IFSA)
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Limited (ASFA) |
