The Big Interview: Axa Framlington's three-pronged plan

Axa Framlington’s global head Mark Beveridge is not averse to accepting a challenge. After spending 19 years running global and emerging market portfolios at Franklin Templeton, in 2004 he made a leap of faith by taking on a different kind of leadership role at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM).

The firm had haemorrhaged assets following a run of bad performance, and its offices and teams were inefficiently scattered around the world with little cohesion.

‘I joined GSAM in a “Mr Fix-it” role,’ he explains. ‘They’d had around $40 billion under management plummet to $20 billion in a few years. I came in with a task to stem losses, and turned around the performance of most funds.’

Having completed his task, Beveridge was then attracted to the global head position at Axa Framlington, as a chance to do something different.

‘This position was appealing as instead of being a major turnaround story, it was a box of puzzle pieces that needed to be put together,’ he says.

‘Before, someone was in charge of Axa Framlington UK and then someone else the Axa Framlington Paris Conviction office. So they wanted to combine these and create a new role.’

Trio of projects

Since taking on the position, there have been three major projects he has focused on. The first task was to bring all the disparate teams together across the company and work on succession plans. ‘We have had a strong UK team. We’ve been great in this area, gathering a lot of assets. But one day they are going to want to retire, so we have to think about succession planning.’

In 2010, for example, the firm’s long-standing small cap manager Brian Watson announced his retirement, which led to the firm recruiting Dan Harlow as a UK equity portfolio manager.

‘We really focus on the overall team, so as to not let the managers head into the sunset. We have been building support for the UK team.’