Graeme Devlin and Simba Mamboininga have recently launched a new consulting firm in Edinburgh to support the funds and asset management industry.
Devlin and Mamboininga, who founded Devlin Mambo at the end of 2019, said they are looking to distinguish themselves in the market by bringing a level of knowledge, experience, and expertise which they feel is often missing from traditional asset manager/consultant engagements.
Product offerings
The practice is managed as three offerings: transformation, headed up by Mamboininga; compliance and governance; and product and distribution which are run by Devlin.
The compliance and governance pillars of the business are established with the firm already supporting existing client engagements.
Devlin Mambo offers a retained service for compliance and finance including general compliance advisory and assurance, financial controls, corporate structure simplification, and financial and regulatory reporting.
For product and distribution, Devlin Mambo helps clients with the creation of compliant distribution strategies under Brexit, global marketing compliance, and coaching members of fund boards.
Within transformation, the consultancy firm is currently launching several products supporting mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and integration, supplier selection, and the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) transition.
Devlin Mambo noted that its team will help assist clients in developing an implementation strategy that considers all vertical and lateral touch points of their LIBOR exposure.
This will be both internally and externally to clients’ organisations with an offering of advisory and assurance to planning, education and implementation services.
In terms of selecting suppliers covering securities services and other third parties, Devlin Mambo explained that its approach captures clients’ requirements to ensure the request for proposal process identifies the best fit partner.
The team has experience in supplier selection of fund accounts, custodian banks, transfer agencies, and technology platforms.
M&A integration
M&A integration will be led by Mamboininga with the support of Devlin. Both are supported by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in distribution, client and product, operations, IT, finance, risk, compliance and governance.
There is also a wide variety of experience in the team from the sell side with many years of experience at custodians, fund administrators and transfer agencies, according to Devlin Mambo.
Core team
Devlin, who works as managing partner at Devlin Mambo, has previously worked at RBS and Aberdeen Standard Investments, and more recently, he consulted at Aegon Asset Management.
During his career, he has maintained a strong focus on global compliance and governance and remains an active industry participant within the UK and Europe. He also chairs the Scottish Product Forum.
Mamboininga also takes on the position of managing partner at Devlin Mambo and brings significant operational experience to the role.
This stretches from his time in the securities services sector at HSBC and Citi to providing specialist consultancy to Standard Life Investments and Aberdeen Standard Investments in transformation strategy and implementation.
His expertise covers M&A at corporate level, fund and entity rationalisations, migrations and outsourcing.
Meanwhile, Stuart Gordon, former director of HSBC Securities Services, specialising in client management, has also joined the core team. He brings over 25 years of experience in the investment industry to the role.
Gordon has worked in asset management, stock brokers and several global custodian banks. It was noted that Gordon reinforces the Devlin Mambo offering with a deep understanding of contract execution, operational governance and successfully delivering large-scale client on-boarding programmes.
Additionally, Cathy Husband, previously the head of financial reporting for Aberdeen Standard Investments, has joined the core team with significant experience in all aspects of financial and regulatory reporting.
Tom Stanley has joined the team and brings with him 21 years of experience of facilitating collaborative working with clients by connecting people, technology, process and ideas to deliver innovative solutions to meet desired business outcomes.
Also joining the core team is Trevor Keay who has more than 35 years in asset management spread across various risk, finance and fund accounting roles.
Lastly, Martin Holt has joined Devlin Mambo with previous experience as integration director at Standard Life Investments working on both the Ignis acquisition and the merger with Aberdeen Asset Managers.
Devlin Mambo commented: “All our core team have the support of the rest of our team with additional expertise from our multi-discipline associate pool.”
