MEASURED GROWTH

Second time was the charm for Simon Glazier in his bid for the managing director role at Fidelity International's Australian outfit. Now in the top job, he isn't banking on the investment giant's past glories to keep it firing. Andrew McKean writes.

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Simon Glazier grew up in Emu Plains, Western Sydney, where he’d tear around on his BMX and tried his hand at just about every sport under the sun. Life was peachy back then, he says, with nothing taken too seriously, his schooling included.

As such, Glazier left high school without a clear game plan. He initially took a stab at graphic design, but landing a job proved to be about as easy as trying to nail jelly to a wall.

Glazier chipped away at unpaid briefs for around a year and a half in the hope of cobbling together a portfolio that might open a door. In the end, his labour — not to mention the actual labouring gigs he grafted at on the side to keep afloat — bore no fruit.

In hindsight, though, Glazier’s grateful those doors never budged. That’s because he scored a job in the Mercantile Mutual mail room. It wasn’t exactly a gold-plated dream job, scanning and sorting papers, but eventually nabbing the chance to lead the team gave him his first glimpse behind the curtain of “the wonderful world of funds management.”

From there, Glazier moved from the firm’s mail room to its bustling call centre. He says it was a “great experience,” engaging with investors and advisers, adding that he came away wiser from learning “who’s ringing, why they’re ringing, and what they're ringing about.”

Despite learning a lot, the job was far from a cakewalk, especially while balancing marriage, kids, and an accounting and finance degree at Charles Sturt University, which he undertook as the realisation grew that the industry held the promise of a lasting career.

After Mercantile Mutual’s integration into ING and its subsequent joint venture with ANZ, Glazier moved to beverage giant Lion Nathan for a brief tenure and later joined Perpetual.

Glazier started in client services at the wealth firm before stepping into distribution as a business development manager, working on the investments side of the business.