As well as having the depth of global experience at our disposal, we have a dedicated team, in South Africa, which manages your money. This team provides strategic and operational input to ensure consistently prudent performance which translates into constant growth of your fund. With a combined 161 years experience in managing your money, our team operates within stringent group guidelines.

In addition to managing your money, the South African team provides critical input to Prudential’s Portfolio Management Group in the UK, which in turn, provides assistance to the Group’s other regional offices.

So you have, at your disposal, experts placed in every major financial market whose sole aim is to ensure exceptional money management and growth.

John Kinsley is the managing director of Prudential Unit Trusts and Hamilton van Breda heads up the Sales division.

Bernard Fick

Chief Executive Officer

In December 2009, Bernard Fick was promoted to CEO. Bernard joined Prudential, from Alexander Forbes Financial Services, in February 2008 as Head of Institutional Business. Since July 2003 Bernard was head of the Asset Consulting Division at Alexander Forbes, where he consulted to numerous retirement funds across the country and the rest of Southern Africa. Bernard started his career with Alexander Forbes in January 1993 and in 1996 relocated to Windhoek, Namibia, where he was responsible for the management of the Alexander Forbes’ Namibian operation. Bernard holds a B. Comm. degree from the University of Stellenbosch, majoring in Mathematics and Actuarial Science, and is a qualified actuary. He is also an Associate Member of the Financial Planning Institute.

John Kinsley

Managing Director

In 2001 John accepted the position as MD of Prudential Portfolio Managers Unit Trusts, a position which was later extended to include the role of Chief Operating Officer for Prudential in SA. John began his career as a legal adviser at Old Mutual in 1986. In 1991 he moved into the merchant banking arena where he was part of the team that pioneered the development of linked products in SA. Deciding to move his family to Cape Town in 1995, he accepted a position at Syfrets where he ultimately headed up the unitized and structured product division. Leaving Syfrets as a result of the NIB merger in 1998, he began working on a project which culminated in him joining ipac, a company responsible for introducing a particular approach to financial planning for IFAs and their clients. John has a B.Comm LLB degree.

Cromwell Mashengete

Portfolio Manager

Cromwell joined Prudential Portfolio Managers in November 2005. Prior to Prudential he worked for OMAM as a Portfolio Manager for the Community Growth Fund and assumed management responsibility for third party institutional funds. Cromwell is a member of the JSE Advisory Committee on SRI [Socially Responsible Investing]. Prior to OMAM, he spent five years at Franklin Templeton NIB Investments where he was the member of the Executive Committee and Portfolio Manager for the Community Growth Fund, a Socially Responsible Investing Unit Trust. Cromwell started his career as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of the North in 1983. In 1990, he joined the Development Bank of Southern Africa, where he fulfilled the role of Project Leader for two years. Towards the end of 1991, he took on the position of Economist at Standard Bank of South Africa. Thereafter, he joined Deloitte & Touche as Management Consultant for three years. He joined Syfrets Limited, a division of Nedcor, as a Marketing Analyst in 1995. Cromwell has a B.A [Hons] [Economics] degree from the University of the North; an M.A [Development Economics] from Stanford University; and an MBA from Brunel University.

Marc Beckenstrater

Chief Investment Officer

Marc Beckenstrater is the Chief Investment Officer. Marc is responsible for equity research, decision-making and performance. He also heads the process of the balanced mandates and concentrates his research on the Financial sector. Marc joined Prudential in 1999 from RMB Asset Management in Cape Town where he had responsibility for Segregated Pension Funds, including the PIC fund, as well as for one of the Satellite Funds. At the time Marc had direct portfolio management responsibility for R9bn. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities at Prudential, Marc currently covers the Financial sector and selected Industrials. Marc holds a B.Sc degree in electrical engineering from the University of Witwatersrand, and an MBA from the University of Cape Town.

Gary Quinn

Head of Equity & Portfolio Manager

Gary Quinn is the portfolio manager of the Prudential Equity Fund. His responsibilities include research in the resource and retail sectors. Gary is also the portfolio manager for the core equity mandate and the resource mandates. Gary has been in the asset management industry for 16 years and at Prudential Portfolio Managers for 10 years. Gary started his career in the mining industry, where he worked for Impala Platinum mine. He then moved into the asset management industry where his focus was fixed income and derivatives. Prior to joining Prudential, Gary was a senior portfolio manager at both RMB Asset Management and Norwich Asset Management. Gary holds a B.Sc degree in mining engineering from The University of Witwatersrand, and an MBA from the University of Cape Town.

Ross Biggs

Portfolio Manager

Ross joined Prudential in 2001 as an equity analyst after having completed his articles to become a chartered accountant while working for Arthur Andersen in SA and the USA. Ross focuses on research in the industrials sector as well as steel and paper companies. He is joint-portfolio manager of the Prudential Maximiser Fund as well as some institutional mandates. After completing his Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) in Finance degree, he also obtained his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting, both from the University of Cape Town. Ross has been awarded the CA (SA) and CFA designations.

Chris Wood

Portfolio Manager

Chris joined Prudential as an Industrial equity analyst, responsible for the Food, Beverages and Telecom sectors. Soon thereafter he was appointed joint-portfolio manager for the Prudential Equity Fund. He started his career in Civil Engineering and after having worked both locally and overseas elected to return to South Africa to complete an MBA at UCT's Graduate School of Business in 1999. After completing his MBA he joined the Financial Services Industry in 2000 as a Quantitative Analyst at BoE Asset Management [which later became Quaystone]. In 2001, he assumed the role of equity analyst and was responsible for the following sectors: Platinum, Iron Ore, Steel, Oil, Food and Beverages. Chris has a B.Sc Eng, MBA and has been awarded the CFA designation.

Gareth Bern

Portfolio Manager

Gareth completed a B.Bus Sc [Finance] degree in 1999 at UCT and went on to complete a B. Com [Hons] degree in accounting in 2000, also at UCT. He then spent 3 years completing his articles at Ernst & Young, qualifying as a CA[SA] in 2003. After spending the early part of 2004 working in the asset management division of Ernst & Young’s New York office, he returned to South Africa, joining Prudential. Gareth has the following degrees, B.Bus Sc [Finance], B.Com [Hons] Acc. Gareth holds both the CA [SA] and CFA designations.

Nick Pinder

Dealer

Nick is in charge of the execution of institutional and retail orders on the JSE. Nick’s previous experience at Prudential as fund accountant and later as Head of Operations helps him with his duties as dealer which include report backs to the front-office team, analysis of the market behaviour of the JSE, allocating trades amongst brokers and controlling the execution process. Nick also acts as the back-up trader for the money market and bond trades, and as the Forex trader when the need arises. Prior to joining Prudential Nick worked at BOE as a product controller in the area of Linked Products platforms and at Metropolitan Life.

Clive Aarons

Portfolio Construction

Clive joined Prudential Portfolio Managers from FinSource where he was part of their unit trust pricing team. Prior to this he was a pricing specialist at Old Mutual for 5 years where he was involved in a project to develop the automation of pricing onto Hiport for the South African market. He joined our back-office in mid-2003 and was a member of our portfolio administration for 2 years before moving over to join the portfolio construction team in early 2006. He is also the back up equity trader for Nick Pinder.

Hamilton van Breda	Head of Sales and Distribution
Hamilton is responsible for all sales and distribution. He joined Prudential in 2001. Hamilton started his career with Old Mutual as a legal advisor. He has 15 years experience in the financial services industry having worked at Lisps and Asset Managers in a legal advisory and sales position. Qualifications: B. Soc Sc; LLB; Post Grad Dip Tax; CFP. Hamilton is currently reading towards his MBA.

Michael Moyle	Portfolio Manager
Michael joined Prudential in May 2007 as a real return portfolio manager. Prior to Prudential he worked for Allan Gray where he was the manager for portfolio risk and portfolio construction. Michael studied engineering at the University of Cape Town before completing a master’s degree in engineering mechanics at the University of Texas. Michael has the CFA designation.

Albert Arntz	Portfolio Manager
Albert joined Prudential in May 2007 as a property fund manager and analyst. Prior to joining Prudential, he worked as an analyst at Deutsche Bank. He has been rated in the property and construction sectors through the Financial Mail analyst survey. Albert holds a B.Sc degree in civil engineering and has been awarded the CA (SA) and CFA designations.

Clare Johnson	Quantitative Analyst
Clare Johnson joined Prudential in May 2007 as a quantitative analyst in the equity team. Clare has a B.Sc. [Hons] and a M.Sc. [with distinction] in financial mathematics from the University of Cape Town. Clare has also been awarded the CFA designation. Clare joined us from Peregrine Quants Asset Management where she was a quantitative analyst for five years.

Heidi Dreyer

Head of Corporate Sales

Heidi joined Prudential in August 2007 as Head of Corporate Sales for Prudential Portfolio Managers Unit Trust. Heidi is responsible for sales and distribution within the corporate retail market. Prior to joining Prudential, Heidi was Manager Investment Marketing and Sales for the Old Mutual Investment Group (SA). Heidi holds the SAIFM RPE Equities and has a Diploma in Marketing Management from UCT GSB. She is also Member of South African Institute of Financial Markets.

David Knee

Head of Fixed Income and Head of TAA

David joined Prudential Portfolio Managers SA, as Head of Fixed Income in January 2009. Prior to Prudential, he was the senior fixed interest portfolio manager in the London office of M&G Investments. David worked at Prudential in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, and was responsible for establishing our current fixed interest process. Before joining M&G, David worked for Hill Samuel Asset Management as a fixed income fund manager, managing both life and pension funds for a variety of clients. David graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc in Economics and from Birkbeck College with an MSc in Economics. He is an Associate of the Institute of Investment Management and Research.

Marc Hoeks

Head of operations for the Management Company

In 2006, Marc joined Prudential Portfolio Managers as head of operations for the Management Company where he is responsible for the administration of Prudential’s unit trust management company. Prior to this Marc worked at Fairheads. Marc has 11 years experience in the financial services industry. He holds the following qualifications, B. Com and Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting from UCT, as well as the CA [SA] designation. He completed his articles at BDO in Cape Town.

Winston Africa

Finance Director

In December 2008, Winston was promoted to Financial Director. Prior to that, Winston was responsible for analysing Industrial shares, focusing on the Transport sector. Winston has a B. Sc. in Chemical Engineering from UCT. After working as an engineer for four years, he completed the Accounting conversion course [B.Com] at UCT, followed by the PGDA and after serving articles at Ernst and Young qualified as a CA[SA]. Winston spent two years working for Ernst & Young in Bermuda. Winston was also been awarded tthe CFA designation.