Industry fund CARE Super has changed its chairman, appointing an employer director for his third stint in the position during his ten years on the fund’s Board.
The constitution of the $3.6 billion fund has two-year terms for the chair, elected by the nine-member Board – four employer directors, four member directors and one independent director – on a rotational basis. Barry Watchorn has been a employer director of CARE Super since 1998, elected by Australian Industry Group. In 2000 he was elected to chair the fund, then again in 2004, and now in 2008. Outgoing chair Michael O’Sullivan remains on the board as deputy chair. Watchorn is also a director of AustralianSuper, but will step down from this role at the end of the month. It is not because of his most recent appointment as chair as he has held both roles in his previous two tenures as CARE chair. Watchorn was a director of the Australian Retirement Fund from 1997 before it merged with Superannuation Trustees Australia to form Australian Super in 2006. Watchorn said the board was “obviously going to focus very closely on markets and the volatility we’ve seen in recent times”. However, he was confident CARE would fare relatively well as it had had an eye on a robust investment strategy to weather volatility for the last few years. CARE Super uses JANA as an asset consultant. CARE has also recently reviewed its member administrator arrangements. It will renew its contract with the administration provider AAS from July 1, following a review conducted by SuperRatings.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
