In late 2002 the jet-lagged Australian was offered the coveted post, which would have expanded his territory from the Americas to the world and put $650 billion in assets under his wing.

He turned it down. Not only that, but he quit J.P. Morgan Fleming. The decision to leave was wrenching, Dewhurst admits, but he felt obligated to return home to Melbourne to take care of his ailing father-in-law. Besides, he says, it was a chance to realign his personal priorities. "My plan was to take some directorships, get involved with some charities and other things and manage my own portfolio of interests," the 51-year-old confides.

But he couldn't shake his desire to run a business. "I didn't have a need to work in a financial sense," he says, "but I found I had a need to work in an emotional sense." (His father-in-law's health, meanwhile, has improved.) So in April, Dewhurst accepted an offer to run Melbourne asset manager IOOF Holdings, which traces its roots to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The fraternal society founded the money manager to look after its health plan assets.

Today the firm is entirely independent of the Odd Fellows. In December, IOOF Holdings was demutualized and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Dewhurst will oversee a staff of 300 and 14 billion Australian dollars ($9.9 billion) in assets. "Some of our major competitors are multifaceted institutions like banks and insurance companies," he says. "We don't have that distraction or conflict, which those businesses must battle all the time."

Dewhurst confesses that he's received a number of e-mails from old colleagues saying he's found his calling at last: running the firm created by the Odd Fellows.