Brokerage comes in for infusion of fresh 'positive' blood

Frank Aldridge has been appointed chief executive of ABN Amro Craigs, as the firm's founder Neil Craig steps back from day-to-day operations.

Craig, who is managing principal as well as chairman, will remain with the brokerage as executive chairman and head of investment banking.

"I retain the governance and am in charge of strategy and investment banking. But rather than him being at my shoulder, I'm at his," Craig said.

Before joining ABN Amro Craigs in 1997, Aldridge was an analyst at the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Craig said the company had grown strongly since it was founded in 1984 and had reached a stage where an infusion of fresh blood would be positive.

The Tauranga-based brokerage has also made several new senior appointments in the shake-up. Bill Cunninghame has left Goldman Sachs JBWere and will join ABN AMRO Craigs as director of asset management and a senior adviser on November 7, and former Aon Consulting principal of investment consulting, Graham Evans, has been appointed head of asset management.