Sunsuper appoints more independent directors

Sunsuper has ensured it has at least one-third independent directors on its board, announcing this week the appointment of former Queensland Treasurer, Andrew Fraser, and company director and private equity specialist, Michael Traill.

The super fund made the point that Fraser and Traill were the second and third directors to be appointed in recent months who are not direct appointments of Sunsuper's shareholder bodies with the first having been Jenni Mack who was appointed in July.

It said the appointments bring the number of directors on the Sunsuper board to nine.

The announcement said all the appointees were unanimously selected by the Sunsuper board following an external recruitment process involving global executive search firm, Egon Zehnder.

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Commenting on the appointments, Sunsuper chief executive officer, Scott Hartley said they ensured the business was perfectly positioned to support Sunsuper's significant and growing scale, the organisation's scope as a full-service super and retirement business, and its ambitious strategic goals.

"With an increasing number of infrastructure assets available in the market, it is our view that private capital will hold an increasingly important place in Sunsuper's investment portfolios," Hartley said.

"These assets are highly valuable as part of a diversified portfolio in terms of maximising retirement savings, but they are by their nature large single, illiquid investments that are very complex and require specialist investment skills and governance oversight to ensure members' best interests are served."

"Michael and Andrew's appointments are not only critical to enhance the good governance of our holdings in private equity, but their extensive experience in this field, as well as strong expertise across a broad range of commercial capabilities will support the ongoing development of the business," Hartley said.