Boutique Australian equities firm, Bellwether Partners, poached former IOOF executive director and Perennial Investment Partners founding director Tony Hodges to join its board of directors.

With more than 34 years of investment and financial service experience, Hodges joins Bellwether from IOOF where he was appointed head of investments in 1985 and oversaw the firm's funds under management grow from $450 million to $4 billion.

He was also a founding member of the Economics Savings and Tax Committee at the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA).

This announcement follows a number of changes to Bellwether Group's senior management and board including Paula Allen as chief executive and Bruce Bell as chair and chief investment officer.

Allen was previously Bellwether Group chair, and prior to that, was chief executive at LUCRF Super which doubled in funds under management during her two year tenure.

Meanwhile, Bell is a founding managing director of Bellwether Group and has held senior executive positions at HSBC.

Bellwether Partner was set up in 2004 and uses an active bottom up growth investment strategy across its Australian equities portfolios.