Nicole Kidd will join Schroder Investment Management in Sydney on Sept. 1 as head of private debt, Australia.
The position is new.
Ms. Kidd will report to Simon Doyle, Schroder Australia's head of fixed income and multiasset, and to Georg Wunderlin, the firm's London-based global head of private assets.
Mr. Doyle, in an interview Friday, said with public markets evermore influenced by central bank policies, Schroders continues to strengthen its private market offerings. With Ms. Kidd's hiring, Schroders is looking to extend the capabilities the firm already has in place in Europe to Australia, he said.
Calling private debt "a strategic initiative" for Schroders, Mr. Doyle said the firm will look to put a strong team — of about five people under current plans — behind Ms. Kidd.
As of June 30, Schroders' private assets and alternatives businesses had A$81 billion ($55.6 billion) in assets under management. A spokeswoman for the firm could not immediately break out a private debt figure from that total.
Ms. Kidd joins Schroders from the Sydney office of Royal Bank of Canada, where she was managing director and head of corporate banking Australia and institutional client management Asia-Pacific.
An RBC spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.