HESTA appoints portfolio design head

HESTA has appointed Dianne Sandoval as head of portfolio design. 

In the role, she will be responsible for leading the research and asset allocation processes to enhance the probability of achieving investment objectives, oversee the rebalancing and currency overlays, portfolio risk management and evaluating performance. 

She joins HESTA from a role where she led the markets, asset classes and portfolio strategy team at the Public Investment Fund in Saudi Arabia. 

Prior to that, she spent 12 years at America’s largest public pension fund, CalPERS, and in the investment teams of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and GE Capital. 

VIEW ALL

View all

Her appointment is effective from 2 October 2023. 

HESTA chief investment officer, Sonya Sawtell-Rickson, said: “Dianne’s ability to align activities across investment teams to achieve objectives, actively allocate risk budgets, and drive ongoing evaluation and assessment of investment strategies to drive performance for our members will be invaluable.”

Sandoval added: “I am delighted to be joining HESTA and having the opportunity to help grow its members’ long-term super balances while supporting them to face the future with confidence.

“I look forward to supporting HESTA’s deep commitment to diversity and inclusion in the industry and leveraging my experience and expertise to drive innovative investment strategies and deliver exceptional outcomes for HESTA’s members.”

Earlier this year, Sawtell-Rickson described to Super Review how the fund is looking to increase its proportion of internally managed assets. It currently has 10 per cent but plans to increase this to 15 per cent to take advantage of the fee savings, access to investment opportunities and the ability to move the portfolio quickly that comes from internalisation. 

In the 2022–23 financial year, HESTA’s MySuper Balanced Growth fund returned 9.5 per cent and has returned 8 per cent per annum over 10 years. 

Performance during the year was helped by returns by global and Australian equity markets, resilient company earnings and rebound in technology stocks. However, markets were hindered by the series of rate rises from the central bank that dented sectors like bonds, property and infrastructure.