PAC Capital’s new chairman shuffles board portfolio

afr.com:

The former boss of Equity Trustees’s trustee business, Harvey Kalman, seems to be shuffling his board portfolio as he prepares to take over as the executive chairman of troubled fund manager PAC Capital.

Harvey Kalman is headed to PAC Capital.  

Street Talk understands Kalman stepped down from his position as the chairman of Melbourne’s MSC Trustees on Wednesday morning, but was expected to keep his chairmanship at special situations’ debt investor Arbitrium Capital Partners. His board position at Raiz was one to watch; in an ASX statement on Wednesday afternoon, Raiz said Kalman had resigned. MSC Trustees named long-standing director Michael Fleming ato chair, while Raiz began a search for a replacement director.

He is expected to takeover day-to-day operations as PAC Capital’s executive chairman, while its embattled founder Clayton Larcombe resigns as the chief investment officer and a director but remains the owner.

The hire may be just what PAC needs. Kalman spent two decades building Equity Trustees’ trustee business, which oversaw governance for hundreds of fund managers including most of the big ones. The unit provided governance services to nearly a $100 billion in funds under management, and saw Kalman sign off on high-stakes fund changes, including windups, fee cuts, portfolio manager changes, and changes to redemption terms.

Interestingly, Kalman’s old employer also recently gated four PAC’s funds after a wave of redemptions – so there’s the first task the new chair’s to-do list. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him start reaching out to PAC’s stakeholders in the coming weeks.

It’s a brave choice for the former executive given the media scrutiny surrounding PAC Capital and its founder. But it marks Kalman’s