Investors

Three join Access Capital amidst revamp

Access Capital Advisers has assembled a non-executive board following a MBO and decision to close its Big Apple operation.

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Infrastructure investment manager Access Capital Advisers is in the midst of a companywide reorganization following a change in ownership and a decision to exit the US market.

The latest upshot of the shakeup saw Access, a 16-year-old company headquartered in Australia, name three people to a non-executive committee led by David Chessel.

Mark Snape, Damian Stanley and Janet Torney join Chessel – who founded Access – on a “new board,” the company said in a press statement. Access went on to note the “wholly non-executive” board is experienced in “infrastructure management, investment management and superannuation”.

Snape is chief executive of RiverCity Motorway Group, concessionaire for the Clem Jones Tunnel, or CLEM7, the first private toll road in Brisbane, Australia. Transportation infrastructure specialist Stanley is based in London, and has been an executive for Macquarie Group and Morgan Stanley. Torney, meanwhile, is a pension fund consultant and onetime chief executive of Qantas Super.

Snape, Stanley and Torney come aboard a week after Access underwent a significant change in leadership and a month removed from a surprising choice to give up on America for the sake of rededicating itself to Australia and Europe.

Graham Matthews and Tom Snow now co-head Access Capital Advisers as the result of a management buyout. Matthews, chief investment officer, joined Access in 1997, and will be chief executive, while Snow, a Rhodes Scholar, will head ‘Australasia’ investing. Meanwhile, Matthews and Snow will each own half of the company.

In March, Access shuttered its US effort, closing its New York office and relocating partner Tom Maher to London, where Stephen Burns is in charge of Europe for Access. 

Partner Andrew Cunanan, who headed the New York office, chose to relocate to the Philippines. Cunanan was named to lead the New York site in 2010 after AMP Capital poached Tom Majewski, Damien McDonald, Digby Beaumont and Farhad Billimoria from Access.

Access cited sluggish public-private partnership deal-flow for ending its ‘Stateside’ operation. Maher will manage its existing US portfolio.