Carlyle poaches Morrison's Australia, New Zealand co-head

He succeeds David Bluff, who stepped down in the summer after 14 years with the firm. Bluff became head of the Australia and New Zealand buyout team in 2016 and was promoted to partner two years later.

Hutchinson (pictured) joined PEP in 2008 from Bain & Company and went on to lead transactions across the consumer, healthcare, education, and business services sectors. Previous board memberships include Veda, Spotless Group, ACG Education, UP Education, and Life Healthcare.

In late 2021, Hutchinson was recruited by infrastructure and real estate manager Morrison to serve as co-head of Australia and New Zealand alongside Peter Coman. This coincided with an increasing tilt among infrastructure investors towards core-plus assets that typically require a higher level of operational involvement and represent a different risk-return proposition.

At Carlyle, Hutchinson will take charge of an investment team that primarily focuses on consumer, healthcare, technology, and financial services deals. As of June 2022, the firm had deployed more than USD 1.7bn in equity across six deals in Australia and New Zealand. Recent activity includes the sale of iNova Pharmaceuticals – a joint investment with PEP – to TPG Capital for USD 1.38bn.

“Geoff will play an important role in further strengthening our investment advisory platform and steering our continued growth in Australia and New Zealand, which continue to be important markets for us where we see attractive opportunities to invest in what we consider to be high-quality businesses,” said X.D. Yang, managing director and Asia chairman at Carlyle, in a statement.

Hutchinson is the second PEP alumnus in a fortnight to take up a senior role with a global firm covering Australia and New Zealand. David Grayce, who left PEP several years ago, was hired by Goldman Sachs as a managing director in its growth and corporate equity team.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• People
• GPs
• Australia
• New Zealand
• The Carlyle Group
• Pacific Equity Partners
• HRL Morrison