Health Super’s chief investment officer of five years, Brendon Shepherd, will leave the fund at the end of this year.

Health Super chief executive Chris Clausen said that Shepherd had decided to finish his tenure on December 31, to take some "well deserved time off".

Clausen said he did not know whether Shepherd planned to return to the industry.  Prior to Health Super, Shepherd was a senior investment analyst at Towers Perrin and UniSuper, and a fund investment analyst at BHP Billiton.

The CIO vacancy was advertised for the first time on Friday in the Australian Financial Review. Clausen said that the recruiter for the position, Thomas Hancock Associates, had already received a large number of expressions of interest from some promising candidates.