The Future Fund has appointed Gordon McKellar as its head of operations, and he will leave his equivalent position at BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP PSS) at the end of this month.
Any ‘key man risk’ created by McKellar’s departure has been greatly reduced by reforms which McKellar himself introduced during his four year stay at BNP PSS, according to the custodian’s head of sales and relationship management, Chris Briant. “;Gordon restructured operations so that he was down to only five direct reports, while Sue Jorgenson as joint head of ops is in charge of our change programs, so we don’t expect any impact on ‘business as usual’,”; he said. BNP PSS’ Australasian chief executive, Jean-Marc Pasquet, will play a greater operational role while a search for Mckellar’s replacement gets underway. McKellar will become a key decision-maker on the Future Fund’s backoffice arrangements, which are currently the subject of a market tender being run by consultancy Thomas Murray. General manager Paul Costello has stated he would like the Future Fund’s backoffice in place during the first half of this year, so that market investment of Future Fund assets, currently in the form of $40 billion Reserve Bank short term deposits, can begin. As reported last week, the Future Fund has also appointed Paul Mann, a former National Custodian Services executive, as head of finance.
The brunt of losses from the LA wildfires are expected to be borne by primary insurers and high-risk reinsurance programs, but super funds are nevertheless closely monitoring the possible impact of the fires on catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities exposures.
Simon HoyleJanuary 17, 2025
