UniSuper’s well-known head of strategic tilting has retired from his post but not severed ties with the fund, according to chief investment officer David St John.
Paul Laband, who has been with at the $24 billion fund since 2005, has semi-retired after 13 years in Australia highlighted by stints running National Australia Asset Management and Towers Perrin. St John said Laband would continue to have an advisory role to the fund. “Paul has kind of retired, but we are looking to have an ongoing relationship on a consultancy basis,” St John said. UniSuper knew of Laband’s wishes to retire “for some time”. It was one of the reasons for the restructure the investment team went through over a year ago as Laband started stepping back from the job. Adam Merrington has replaced Laband as head of strategic tilting, reporting to David Schneider, head of research and risk management. Merrington worked with Laband in strategic tilting after the specialisation was created in June last year. At that time, Laband was head of public markets, but went into the strategic tilting role as he cut back on his working week. Strategic tilting focuses on conducting tilts away from the fund’s asset class benchmarks in accordance with independently calculated valuations of those asset classes.
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
