The $300 billion profit-to-member fund has linked up with Oxford Properties for a portfolio of high-quality European industrial and logistics assets that it wants to expand significantly over the next three to five years.
Australia’s megafunds are looking to international asset owners for ideas on how to invest what will soon be trillions in retirement savings. But banks – with their sharp focus on efficient implementation and balance sheet management – could also be a source of inspiration.
… and the Hartley link in domino appointments
Scott Hartley
The interconnectivity of the investment world was well displayed last week with three separate announcements – the new CEO of Qantas Super, the new CIO of Sunsuper and the new CEO of JANA. The link is Scott Hartley.
Hartley, the CEO of Sunsuper, appointed Ian Patrick, the CEO of JANA, one of its four asset consultants, to replace David Hartley (no relation), who has retired as the fund’s CIO. JANA, very quickly, appointed Jim Lamborn, an executive director and head of implemented consulting, as CEO.
And earlier in the week, Michael Clancy, who has been doing a range of consulting roles plus helping to develop a fintech startup, Big Future, for the past couple of years, was announced as the new CEO of Qantas Super, replacing the retiring Jane Perry.
The Hartley link is that both Clancy and Patrick reported to him until April, 2013 when he was a senior executive at NAB, overseeing both the MLC ‘platform’ business, then run by Clancy, and the JANA business, owned by NAB and integrated into MLC around that time, and run by Patrick.
Scott Hartley and Clancy, who is also a former CIO at MLC, were victims of a NAB purge in early 2013 – two of several senior executives made redundant in one of those occasional bank ‘restructurings’ for which this industry is infamous. Hartley was appointed CEO of Sunsuper in January 2014, after the resignation of Tony Lally.
Patrick joins Sunsuper at a time of big changes in its investment strategy (see separate report). But he is not unfamiliar with the fund. Apart from his personal association with Scott Hartley, JANA is an advisor to Sunsuper and well aware of the investment strategies of the fund and acquainted with its senior staff.
For Clancy, the Qantas appointment is being transitioned over the next few weeks. He starts on November 16 while Jane Perry retires on December 11. He intends to remain active with Big Future, an online investment education startup, of which he is a founding director and shareholder, in his spare time.
