(27 June 2011 – Australia) Neville Gardiner, head of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s Australian natural resources team has left the bank.For the past five years Mr Gardiner was based at Perth, with a small team serving clients in the resource-rich Western Australia.
Perth has been a growth area for the financial services sector lately, given its proximity to the Australian resources boom, where some of the country’s most significant mining investments are transforming the nation into a regional economic powerhouse.
Sources have said he left for personal reasons but bank spokeswoman Lucinda Horne declined to comment.
It is a senior departure for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and comes at a time when many financial firms have been looking to build up Perth offices to capitalise on the glut of deal-making in the country’s booming resources sector.