Future Fund appoints two new board members

Contango Asset Management investment services director, Carol Austin, and managing director of Goldman Sachs & Partners Australia, Stephen Fitzgerald, have been appointed to the Future Fund Board of Guardians.

The Future Fund was established in 2006 and manages $90 billion on behalf of the Commonwealth. Austin and Fitzgerald replace outgoing board members Jeffrey Browne and Trevor Rowe. Austin has over 30 years of experience in the investment industry and also sits on HSBC Bank Australia's board, while Fitzgerald has extensive experience having worked in asset management in Australia and internationally.

Current chair of the board, David Murray, has agreed to extend his term for a further year to maintain the fund’s post-global financial crisis returns and complete the development of its corporate governance model, Treasury stated.

“In the space of five years the Board, led by Mr Murray, has created an organisation that is highly regarded both in Australia and around the world as skilled, well governed and transparent,” it stated.

John Mulcahy, who along with Murray has been a member of the board since the fund’s inception, has also agreed to stay on for a further four years to maintain continuity and retention of corporate knowledge, Treasury said.