FEATURES | PROFILE
From accountant to fund manager Milford Asset Management CEO Mark Ryland’s constant focus on improvement has always been a driving force.
F
rom a high-rise boardroom inside Milford Asset Management, CEO Mark Ryland gazes out at the Waitemata Harbour. Observing the calm, there is a quiet restlessness in his eyes. This restlessness is what Ryland credits as the driving force behind his career success and is closely tied to what he tries to impart to the company he leads, “A restlessness to improve.” Ryland’s career in finance began through a keen interest in mathematics leading him to become an accountant in the UK. Although he began in the banking sector Ryland quickly saw himself drawn in by the excitement of investment. “I was working as an accountant for a large insurance company called Eagle Star which had a sister company called Allied Dunbar. Both companies had 12 | ASSET 01 | 2021
BY DANIEL SMITH
substantial investment wings and shortly after I joined, they decided to create a new business that could run all of the asset management functions for all of the group [of] companies.” That company would become Threadneedle Asset Management, and it took over the care of the combined investment assets of Eagle Star and Allied Dunbar. Soon after Threadneedle was formed, Ryland had an opportunity to come on board the fledgling investment group. “I was still using my accounting skills, but more in the space of the general operations of an investment manager. They were looking for somebody who knew Eagle Star, but who could go and work in Threadneedle and oversee the transitions. “What I ended up doing in this period of my career was shifting from a pure
technical accountant to branching out into broader fund management activities. Unit pricing, fund accounting, performance attribution. Slowly but surely I was getting deeper and deeper into how a fund management business actually runs. I began to develop much broader business and operational skills in a very fast growing company.” As Ryland grew deeper into this role, the numbers-focused accountant became an intensely driven fund manager. When Ryland decided to make the move to this part of the globe he brought with him years of fund management and executive experience. He says, “Initially I joined a company called Guardian Trust. It was a more junior role than I had had at Threadneedle but it was a foot in the door in financial services in this part of the world.”
