New faces at Foord
Foord has always taken a forward-thinking approach to its multi-generational investment team. We are pleased to announce the appointment of two senior portfolio managers in Rashaad Tayob and Farzana Bayat. We expect them to contribute meaningfully to the success of the investment boutique’s various investment strategies and to thereby add value to investors.
Rashaad is a leading light in the asset management sector. He joins Foord as a macro strategist, head of fixed income and multiple-counsellor portfolio manager on stable fund portfolios. He will also be actively involved in global fixed interest and credit research, as well as contribute to the management of Foord’s conservative US dollar-denominated flagship fund, Foord International Fund.
Having previously worked together as fund management colleagues at Prescient Investment Management earlier in their careers, Rashaad handpicked Farzana Bayat to join him at Foord. Together, they will develop a fixed income product offering covering South African and global income funds, bond funds and sophisticated tailor-made solutions for the institutional market.
Rashaad has two decades of investment experience covering the gamut of low-risk multi-asset solutions and macro research. He holds a B.Bus.Sci (Finance) (Hons) degree from UCT and is a CFA charter holder.
Rashaad started his career at Prescient Investment Management in 2002, where he progressed to portfolio manager on domestic and global fixed income funds. In 2009 he moved to Aeon Investment Management, where he was a director and portfolio manager. At Aeon, Rashaad launched and managed income, absolute return and balanced funds, which were transferred to ABAX Investments when he joined as a portfolio manager in 2012.
At ABAX, Rashaad was head of fixed interest investments and the portfolio manager on the R18-billion Nedgroup Investments Flexible Income Fund, which he helped build to its current prominence. Rashaad left ABAX in March 2021 to take a sabbatical while considering new opportunities.
Farzana has a Bachelor of Business Science (Actuarial Science) from UCT and is a CFA charter holder. Her principal career experience was at Prescient (2003 – 2018), where she managed fixed income portfolios. The past four years were a period of entrepreneurship for her with the founding of Ngwedi Investment Managers. Farzana was the CIO of Ngwedi and started a range of fixed income and multi asset funds which delivered excellent return for clients. Farzana helped grow the business into R10bn asset manager before it recently merged with Taquanta Asset Managers for reasons of scale.
Rashaad and Farzana were a formidable duo at Prescient until 2008, and then continued to have successful careers independently. They have always wanted to work together again and Foord has presented them with the ideal opportunity. For Farzana the decision to upend her career at this junction was not easy, but she believes that together they will make a powerful team and should achieve good traction in the fixed income investor market.
Foord is delighted to welcome Rashaad and Farzana to the team and look forward to benefiting from their energy and expertise.