Jeez @Squeaks Your like the kid having a temper tantrum because their parents won't buy them a sweetie. "I don't care what you say!" [stamps feet, pulls hair, throws themselves to the ground] "The share price WON'T GO UP! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
It sounds like you have done absolutely no research. You've asked:
" What strategy has Murray or Ferrari spelled out? " Obviously you haven't read the annual report. Both men outline their strategies and priorities for 2019 clearly.
" Ferrari has been hyped but there is no proof of relevant success in past.." You are clearly uninformed. Below is an article from the AFR from late last year (22nd Aug 2018) outlining De Ferrari's background. Of particular interest is his proven track record of turning around Credit Suisse's wealth management business in Asia (profitability increased by eight fold) and his transformation of the Italian business, after the GFC, using a new advice model that was not based on commissions.Who is AMP's new CEO Francesco De Ferrari?When the international recruitment firm Egon Zehnder presented AMP chairman David Murray and his board with its list of candidates for the embattled wealth manager's new chief executive, it was the atypical background of Francesco De Ferrari that prompted them to engage with the veteran Credit Suisse banker.
It was clear De Ferrari had the intellectual goods: he'd been near the top of his class at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and had risen through the ranks over 17 years at Credit Suisse to run its private bank in South East Asia, one of its fastest growth regions given the proliferation of wealth among a swelling middle class.
But it was what De Ferrari did in between university and landing the gig at Credit Suisse that initially piqued Murray's interest.After NYU, De Ferrari went to India. He ended up building homes for lepers there. He also spent a few months in Calcutta, working alongside Mother Teresa.Murray says his immediate response was: "That's a different person."
The experience had convinced De Ferrari that getting a job at Goldman Sachs on Wall Street was no longer his calling, according to a Barron's profile published in 2014.
On closer inspection of his file, Murray and the AMP board realised De Ferrari, 49, could have the goods to lead an ambitious program of change at AMP, required to restore community trust destroyed when the royal commission accused it of misleading the regulator and charging for financial advice that wasn't received.
"All of the candidates had change-agent characteristics, but he was the best of those," Murray told The Australia Financial Review on Wednesday after De Ferrari's appointment as CEO was announced to the ASX.
After his time in India, the Italian-born De Ferrari went to Switzerland, where he had spent some time growing up and is a dual citizen. He landed a job with Deloitte, after being encouraged to work with consultants to broaden out his business knowledge.
The son of a Dow Chemicals chemist then went to work with Nestle, across a range of Asian offices including Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong. He then got an MBA, from the prestigious INSEAD in Paris, and worked at McKinsey for three years in its financial institutions group.
It was then that De Ferrari made another career switch, one which would also prove interesting to the AMP board 20 years later. He went back to Italy, establishing three different start-ups over four years, including a dotcom company and sunglasses retailer."The thing that motivates me most is a new challenge," he told Barron's.
Credit Suisse experienceDe Ferrari then joined Credit Suisse in 2002. For the past 17 years, he has done various executive roles in Asia and Europe. This included almost seven years as the head of its Asia-Pacific private banking business.John Knox, CEO of Credit Suisse Australia, describes De Ferrari as a "a great business person, who is very strategic and very good with people. He loves a challenge. The nature of him is he sees opportunity out of challenge. He looks forward and tries to think about what a business is going to look like in five or 10 years."
His regional role has given De Ferrari some insight into the Australian wealth market; Credit Suisse's private bank – which does not pay staff volume-based commissions – has been a strong performer at a time many competitors have been in retreat.
During a visit to Australia last year, De Ferrari and David Murray crossed paths. Murray had worked as a senior adviser to Credit Suisse since 2011. The meeting was fleeting, but Murray was impressed with a presentation De Ferrari gave to management.When Egon Zehnder presented his name to Murray in recent months, he instinctively knew the Credit Suisse culture would be a good one for AMP.
Embarking on due diligence around De Ferrari's recent work, he and the AMP board got comfortable they'd found the right match.Murray says three items on the De Ferrari resume stood out, and ultimately got him over the line.
One was the complete transformation of the Credit Suisse Italian business after the global financial crisis, which De Ferrari oversaw, including moving advice away from a commission-based model."He had to deal with the fallout of the crisis and also commission reforms on wealth management in Europe, which required a lot of regulatory interaction," Murray says.
The second was the turnaround of Credit Suisse's wealth management business in Asia. Since taking over the bank's APAC business in 2011, revenue has more than doubled and profitability has grown by eight times.
The third item was his work resolving a major regulatory investigation conducted by the US Department of Justice, which had resulted in the bank, along with some of its competitors, being hit with hefty fines."You can't deal with those things unless you are a person who can deal with very significant complexity. But it also means you have a proper regard for regulators and their role," Murray says.
A golden hello of $11.7 million in cash and shares – plus the prospect of earning another $6 million if he drives the AMP share price above $5.25 from its current level of about $3.45 – was enough to convince him to move to Sydney from Singapore with his wife and five children.He's had a career filled with many challenges. But given the work in front of AMP to restore its reputation, this latest chapter is likely to be the biggest test yet of De Ferrari's mettle.
He takes the reins on December 1.
(20min delay)