NICK BALKIN APPOINTED FOORD SA CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER

Dave Foord, eponymous co-founder of investment boutique Foord Asset Management, has been Chief Investment Officer since its founding in 1981. Managing director PAUL CLUER writes that, after 41 years in the role, it was time for a new generation to take the reins.

Dave Foord must surely be the longest serving Chief Investment Officer (CIO) in South Africa. During his 41 years at the helm of Foord’s investment team, he has surely also accumulated the best investment performance record of any CIO in the country. Given these factors and his continued passion investments, handing the CIO role to the next generation was not an easy decision for him.

While the decision to appoint a new CIO was in many ways an inevitability, its timing was not. However, having co-founded Foord at the age of 29, Dave felt that it was timely to hand over the reins to the next generation as he approached his 70th birthday. Moreover, the investment team was senior and stable and Foord’s investment performance in 2022 was excellent.

Nick Balkin (43) was Dave’s natural successor as CIO, given his 18 years tenure with the firm. He formally took over the mantle on 1 January 2023. Nick joined Foord as an equity analyst in 2005 and was promoted to multiple-counsellor portfolio manager on the Foord Equity Fund unit trust and other SA equity strategies in 2010. Accordingly, he has a 12-year track record in these investment strategies.

Over the years Nick has also managed private client portfolios, SA multi-asset funds (which include the low-equity Nedgroup Investments Stable Fund, the medium-equity Foord Conservative Fund and the high-equity Foord Balanced Fund), long-short SA equity hedge funds, as well as managing a slice of the Foord Global Equity Fund for a time. He has covered the full SA market from a research perspective and has also been Head of Research.

Dave Foord continues in the role of CIO of Foord Asset Management Singapore, which covers the suite of Foord global funds, including the Foord International Fund and Foord Global Equity Funds. He will continue to offer valuable investment counsel to the broader investment team as needed and he remains a multiple-counsellor portfolio manager on Foord’s multi-asset portfolios in South Africa and globally.

Over the decades Foord has built a robust and diverse investment team in South Africa and Singapore. Nick’s appointment as CIO of the South African investment team is a timely and positive transition for the firm, cementing Foord’s commitment to safety-first investment stewardship for decades to come.