Australia's IFM poaches Future Fund CEO

He will depart at the end of the month, according to a statement. Cameron Price, the sovereign wealth fund’s general counsel and chief risk officer, will serve as interim CEO while a search for a permanent replacement is carried out.

Neal joined Future Fund in 2007 as its first CIO, recruiting investment personnel and designing the investment model, including the “one team, one purpose” approach that promotes collaborative thinking. He became CEO in 2014, with infrastructure and timberland head Raphael Arndt promoted into the CIO role. Neal began his career with Willis Towers Watson.

His appointment by IFM was triggered by the impending retirement of Himbury, who has led the organization for a decade. During this period, IFM – which is owned by 27 superannuation shareholders – has seen its assets under management grow from A$20 billion ($13.5 billion) to A$160 billion. The bulk of this is in infrastructure, debt and listed equities, but the group is trying to reinvigorate its private equity business with a focus on direct investment rather than fund-of-funds.

“We have an ambitious agenda going forward – to maintain strong investment performance across our asset classes and products, continue to grow and evolve as an organization, and to be leaders in responsible investment,” said Greg Combett, chair of IFM, in a separate statement. “The industry super funds movement has now clearly reached a scale where we can attract the very best corporate leaders in the world.”

Future Fund had A$168 billion in assets as of year-end 2019, with a 14.9% allocation to private equity. The organization credits carefully cultivated private markets exposure with helping it achieve an annualized return of 9.9% over the last 10 years, beating the 6.6% benchmark. Last year, Alicia Gregory was recruited from MLC to lead the private equity team.

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• Topics
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• Future Fund