Daintree Capital Manager Mark Mitchell tells Industry Moves why culture is integral to the success of the business and about his goal of creating a workplace that is dynamic, innovative and collaborative. He also tells us a little about his partnership with Perennial, names the person who has had the greatest influence on his life, and the importance of ‘living by your values’.
What lead you to start your own boutique firm?
There were quite a few reasons but the key driver was culture. The goal at Daintree is to create a dynamic, innovative and collaborative culture that allows everyone opportunities to grow, be challenged, financially rewarded, enjoy coming to work and be actively involved in the evolution of the business. That is the type of environment we will work to create. That is the sort of culture I want to be a part of and I suspect a lot of other people do as well. I spend more time at work than I do with my family, so I need to enjoy what I do and who I do it with. At all times our primary focus, will be to deliver good investment outcomes for our clients, but the people you partner with and the culture you create play a critical role in that process. We have given considerable thought as to how to attract, retain, and incentivise people who can contribute to the culture that we want to create at Daintree. The great thing about a smaller boutique firm is that it is genuinely possible to create that type of culture. It can be done at larger firms as well but is considerably more challenging.
As your new firm will be specialising in fixed income, what was the strategy behind partnering with a company that focusses on active equities?
At present Perennial is an equity focused organisation, but they have a long history with fixed income. They have only been out of the asset class for a couple of years so there is still significant knowledge of fixed income within the organisation. Perhaps as important as asset class knowledge is finding like-minded people to create the right partnership. We feel like Daintree has a very strong partner in Perennial. As mentioned, culture is extremely important to us and we have been very pleased to find a partner with a similar focus. READ IN FULL
