Aware Super makes investment team changes

Aware Super has announced the appointment of Damien Webb as deputy chief investment officer, who will be responsible for supporting the implementation of its recently approved $250 billion five-year investment strategy.

Webb had been head of income and real assets of Aware Super since 2014, spearheading the fund’s investment strategy in the infrastructure, property, credit income and agriculture asset classes.

Webb would work closely with chief investment officer, Damian Graham, and would continue to lead the real assets team, bringing more investment management in house.

As well as Webb’s appointment, Aware Super announced the appointment of Caroline Saunders as the fund’s new head of investment governance and communications and the promotion of James Osborn to the new role of deputy chief financial officer.

VIEW ALL

View all

And, according to Graham, Aware Super had recently commenced recruitment for two new senior roles.

The first new role would be head of direct asset oversight and enhancement which would report to Webb and focus on the effective governance, operational due diligence, and enhanced direct asset oversight of the portfolio.

The second would be the sector head of internal equities which would be responsible for the continued development of the fund’s internal equities capabilities including potential global opportunities and uplifting the role of the strategic equities program.

Graham said: “Aware Super’s investment pool has doubled in size over the past five years, and we expect to be managing more than $250 billion by 2025.

“To prepare for this growth, we have reviewed our investment strategy and are putting plans in place now to ensure we can successfully deploy our members savings at this scale.

“Over the next five years we expect to double the size of our investment team and continue to build out our internal capability as well as consider new off-shore expansion.”