Morningstar Investment Management has appointed Sean Neethling as head of investments for South Africa, effective from last month.

In a statement, the firm said that Neethling is now ‘responsible for Morningstar South Africa’s domestic and global portfolios and oversees the firm’s entire investment capability and strategy. While based in the Cape Town office, he is part of the Global Investment team and is responsible for bringing best practice investment ideas to the South African business and its clients.’

He will report to Mike Coop, Morningstar’s chief investment officer for EMEA, and Dan Kemp, chief research and investment officer for Morningstar Wealth.

Neethling (pictured above) joined Morningstar as a portfolio manager in July 2021. In his previous role, he managed impact and private equity investments at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Before that, he served as executive director and fund manager of Perspective Investment Management, which he co-founded in 2017.

He also held roles at RECM, Absa Wealth and FirstRand.

‘Sean holds undergraduate degrees in economics and information systems, as well as postgraduate finance honours and masters degrees from UCT,’ Morningstar said in a statement. ‘He is currently a PhD candidate at UCT researching fundamental investment strategies across global bond and equity markets.’