John Pearce, who was appointed chief executive of Colonial First State, Australia’s Commonwealth Bank's wealth management arm in January 2003, is to leave to join an unnamed overseas financial institution on 1 December, according to reports in the local media. Commonwealth's head of wealth management chief, Grahame Petersen, described Mr Pearce's contribution as "significant" and said he developed a strong management team around him. It is likely Mr Pearce's successor will come from within the bank according to Mr Petersen. Eighteen months ago Colonial's operations were split into two operations, asset management and distribution, in an effort to boost its performance.