Home / Cristina Cifuentes bows out of super for ACCC role

Cristina Cifuentes bows out of super for ACCC role

Long-time NSW State Government super fund trustee and former bank economist Cristina Cifuentes is resigning all her board positions to take up a five-year job as full-time commissioner of the federal Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Her main remaining super position, which she resigned this month, was that of trustee of the AUD$38 billion First State Super (FSS) of NSW. She left her trustee spot at NSW Treasury Corporation last year.

This coincided with the announcement of the retirement, from management, of the CIO of FSS, Mark Sainsbury. FSS announced the previous week the appointment of a “director of investment services”, Richard Brandweiner, above Sainsbury.

  • The federal Government’s announcement regarding the ACCC said: “Ms Cifuentes’ appointment…will mean that the ACCC will continue to have deep energy networks and market regulation knowledge and experience. Ms Cifuentes is eminently suitable to take up the role of full-time commissioner, following her roles at the Australian Energy Regulator and the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.”

    She replaces Ed Willett, from the end of May. He has been a commissioner for 10 years.

    Sainsbury joined FSS as CIO in 2005 from a position running investments at three related funds: NSW Local Government Superannuation Scheme, the Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme, and the Chifley Investment Fund.

    He was the inaugural winner of the AIST’s CIO of the Year Award and well-known as a hands-on CIO with a special interest in active currency management.

    He was also known to keep odd working hours, often starting early and working late after others had gone, sometimes smoking in his office. Michael Dwyer, the fund’s chief executive who hired Sainsbury, is said to have given him a fire extinguisher for his office as a present.

    Brandweiner joins FSS from Perpetual, where he was group executive of income and multi-sector products.

    He left Perpetual at the end of March and will start at FSS on April 29.

     

    Investor Strategy News




    Print Article

    Related
    ‘Bubble thinking’: Howard Marks on market blow-ups

    Higher starting valuations usually lead to lower returns, but the most important part of a bubble is “highly skewed psychology” – and investors remain anchored to sanity.

    David Chaplin | 10th Jan 2025 | More
    ‘Martian real estate’ and bittersweet farewells: ISN’s top 10 stories of 2024

    This year’s top 10 stories included a peek into AustralianSuper’s international equities build out in London, AMP’s move to slash employee benefits, and plenty of hard-hitting analysis of the issues that matter in institutional investment. But the real story is how readers helped shape all of that coverage.

    Lachlan Maddock | 18th Dec 2024 | More
    ‘Nothing will stop me’: Stuart Place rides 15,451 km for son’s rare disease

    Orbis’ Stuart Place is riding from Melbourne to the Moon and Back to fund a treatment for the “monster of a disease” that his youngest son was born with. The investment industry is rallying behind him.

    Lachlan Maddock | 18th Dec 2024 | More
    Popular