Generation Development Group appoints former Olympian Grant Hackett as CEO
Generation Development Fund has appointed former Olympian Grant Hackett as chief executive officer.
Pooled development fund (PDF) Generation Development Group (ASX: GDG) has appointed former Australian Olympian gold winner Grant Hackett to its board as chief executive officer to steer the company’s growth in the Asia Pacific region.
Mr Hackett is best known for winning Olympic gold medals in the men’s 1,500m freestyle event in 2000 and 2004. He also scooped up numerous gold medals at World Championships over a decade.
However, Mr Hackett also possesses 12 years’ experience in senior positions across marketing, distribution and wealth management for Westpac and BT Financial Group.
He joined Generation Development Group 12 months ago and in his new role as chief executive officer, Mr Hackett will focus on the Ascalon Capital Managers business and will oversee the launch of a seeding vehicle to invest in alternative investment funds throughout the Asia Pacific.
Since Mr Hackett joined Generation Development Group, sales in the Generation Life division grew more than 70% in the 2018 financial year. As part of his role, Mr Hackett will maintain responsibility for the Generation Life business until the end of the 2019 financial year.
Mr Hackett will report to the company’s executive chairman Rob Coombe.
Additionally, there will be no significant change in Mr Hackett’s compensation arrangements in the current financial year.
However, the company stated it expected to increase his at-risk component in 2019 with the anticipated successful growth of Ascalon.
Generation Development Group announced in September it would be acquiring all the equity in Ascalon with the acquisition expected to be finalised by March 2019.
In addition to his 12 years’ experience, Mr Hackett’s qualifications include an executive Master of Business Administration, as well as diplomas in Business Law and Financial Services.
PDFs and Generation Development Group
Generation Development Group is a PDF, which raise capital and make in equity investments in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under a structure the Australian Government established in 1992 to boost the supply of capital to start-ups.
To incentivise investment in SMEs, the Australian Government introduced tax concessions to compensate organisations for the higher risk of investing in SMEs with a $50 million market capitalisation or less.
Registered PDFs, including Generation Development Group, are taxed 15% on their income and capital gains received from their investments compared to the national full company tax rate of 30%.
Additionally, shareholders are exempt from capital gains tax after selling their stock.
As well as the Generation Life unit, Generation Development Group operates Austock Financial Services which offers various services including administrative, unit pricing, fund valuation, investment and fund accounting.