IRELAND – The chairman of the Irish Stock Exchange has launched a new investment consultancy called Acuvest.

David Kingston, who is a former chief executive of insurer and pensions provider Irish Life, says: “We have set up Acuvest specifically to meet the issues that company directors now face regarding pensions, investment policies, corporate governance, etc.

“Directors need help in understanding and managing risk and bringing increased clarity to the investment process. Current market conditions have exposed a lot of underlying issues that were masked by the strong investment markets of the 1980s and 1990s.”

Acuvest Investment Advisers, which is based in Dublin, “will provide unbiased strategic investment advice to larger organisations”, and target boards of directors, chief executives and finance directors who are responsible for overseeing the quality of their company’s investment process.

Pramit Ghose, who retains his role as head of investment strategy at Bloxham Stockbrokers, will head up a panel of external experts and will be joined by statistician Shane Whelan, who is a at University College Dublin.

Gordon Bagot, former research director at the WM Co., and Monty Hilkowitz, former chief executive of Liberty Life, Westpac Life and MLC, also join the panel. John Tuohy, who has run an investment advisory operation in the US, will be chief operating officer, responsible for the day-to-day running of the business.

The firm received its authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland this week.

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