Picking investment winners is where Ashok Jacob excels, and he still has a top job with the Packer family to prove it.

The way his considerable fan club tells it, Ashok Jacob, chief executive of the Packer family's Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH), is an investment guru. He joined CPH in October 1998 and since then has played a crucial role in transforming not only CPH but the family's publicly listed Publishing & Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Their argument boils down to one word: timing.