The position is a new one, and reflects the growing demand by advisers for help with the portfolios they manage on the Praemium platform.
Separately, the company announced that its UK managing director, John Martin, had resigned after six years “to pursue new challenges”, although he will “continue to be involved” with Praemium until the end of January.
He will not be replaced, and instead, his duties will be assumed by Murphy and Jon Farmer, who had been institutional business development manager, and who has now been named head of platform distribution, Praemium chief executive Michael Ohanessian said.
Martin oversaw the building of Praemium’s UK and international businesses, including the launch, in 2011, of its Jersey-based international operation. Last year, Sarah Jouhal, a portfolio specialist who most recently had been associate director of IFM Trust Ltd, a Jersey-based trust provider, was named to head up that business.
In a statement, Ohanessian said Martin had been a “key driver” in building Praemium’s UK business, during challenging times.
“Our initial launch [in the UK market] was late 2008, in the midst of a global financial crisis, and John was instrumental in building the service proposition and securing our first clients in very difficult circumstances.”
Ohanessian noted that Martin had recently secured “some important new customers” for Praemium, and leaves the company “in the best shape it has ever been”.
Martin said his long-term plans had not been finalised, and that initially, he would work with a charity supported by Praemium, the Milestone Foundation’s Passion Project, which helps match up the inherent interests and enthusiasms of young people with training and vocational opportunities.
I have enjoyed my time at Praemium enormously, and I remain a big supporter of the business," he added.
Founded in 2001
Præmium was founded in 2001 by Arthur Naoumidis, and listed on the ASX in May 2006. It opened the London office a month later. It has been increasing its range of services available to clients with international clients, including those with American expatriates on their books.
In September, it reported its first after-tax profit of A$4.4mn on sales of A$14.1mn, compared with an after-tax loss the year before of A$3.9mn. However, write-downs of accumulated losses were behind those results, meaning that operating profit across the group had yet to be achieved.
