Meet George Crosby – ANZ Investments’ CIO

We’re delighted to have recently welcomed George Crosby as our new Chief Investment Officer for ANZ Investments. We thought you may be interested to learn a bit more about him, his experience in the industry and what makes him tick. George sat down with us to answer a few questions.

I was born and raised in Blenheim, Marlborough, which was an amazing place to grow up. I studied at the University of Canterbury and attained a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce. During this period competitive squash was also a big focus. 

My career started in the investment industry in Wellington over 20 years ago, then I moved to London, working for BNP Paribas and Toronto Dominion Bank. My wife and I moved back to New Zealand 15 years ago to start our family. At that time, I joined the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation Fund where I had a number of roles that included managing portfolios, balance sheets and liquidity. I joined ANZ Investments as CIO in March this year.

Working with incredibly passionate people that are deeply focussed on delivering for our customers.

It’s a privilege to be looking after the investments of so many Kiwi investors. I’m excited about the opportunity to further enhance the investment approach, while maintaining our long-term focus. The scale of ANZ Investments gives us opportunities to explore interesting investment opportunities for our customers.

In the New Zealand investments industry there are more people that are generalists that work across a wide range of asset classes. Whereas in overseas markets roles are very specialised, due to their scale. There are of course pros and cons of both.

The CIO role has overall investment responsibility for ANZ Investments across all asset classes. There are lots of different aspects to the role including investment management, risk management, strategy development, and implementation, responsible investment and of course managing our extremely talented investment management team.

ANZ Investments is the biggest KiwiSaver provider and manages over $30bn for more than 650,000 customers throughout New Zealand. This provides us with the opportunity to leverage our scale, which customers benefit from. An example of this is having access to investment options that might not be available to other investment managers due to our size.

Technology advancements have had a major impact on how investment management teams access different markets and execute their investment strategies. The speed of change and disruption has only increased. Particularly in the gathering and use of data to inform investment decision making.

The other major change is the industry’s awareness and consideration of non-financial measures when considering different investment opportunities. I’m proud to have joined an organisation that is considered a Responsible Investment Leader by RIAA.

Similar to ANZ Investments’, my investment focus is very much around long term value, rather than following the latest fad or trend.

I constantly try and challenge myself, whether it’s in my home, sporting or work life. For example, our family are currently attempting to complete all the DoC great walks.

My three daughters aged, 12, 13 and 15 certainly keep me on my toes. Our weeknights and weekends are filled with lots of activities. I enjoy sporting pursuits, though I’m not so competitive these days. I enjoy cycling, tennis and tramping.