The Queensland Investment Corporation is seeking a head of funds management, who will nurture the 10 or so internal boutiques being created under the post-QSuper transformation agenda known as ‘Project Galaxy’.
QIC’s chief executive, Doug McTaggart, stressed the newly-created position was "nothing like a chief investment officer role", but instead a "business nurturer who will help each of the boutiques develop and grow".
The role, reporting directly to McTaggart, will assist in the difficult task of structuring the businesses such that a "boutique culture" can flourish within a government-owned funds manager.
"Obviously we can’t reward people with equity in the QIC business, but we can align their rewards based on the performance of their own team, and give that team the autonomy it needs to achieve that performance," McTaggart said.
However, the extent of business risks that each business can take will be managed centrally, while the amount of ancillary services they draw from their institutional backer will also be monitored.
As QIC’s major client, QSuper, progressively assumes more responsibility for its own investment policy and implementation in the wake of receiving its APRA licence, McTaggart said the internal boutiques would be encouraged to find their own new clients.
Where existing or new clients continued to use a variety of QIC investment services, the relationship would be co-ordinated by the strategy team, itself now designated a boutique under the leadership of Adriaan Ryder.
The other boutiques listed in QIC’s new org chart, which McTaggart said had just been signed off by the board but are subject to minor change, are as follows: Capital Markets (lead by Troy Rieck); Alpha & Implemented (under acting leadership of Jim Christensen); Global Fixed Interest (Susan Buckley); Australian Equities (Simon Hudson); Asian Equities & Quant (Michael Swaak); GTAA (Bruce White); Global Real Estate (Rob Carter); Global Infrastructure (Ross Israel); Private Equity (Marcus Simpson).
The Queensland biotech fund run by Cherrell Hirst has a separate board and could not quite be categorised as an internal boutique, McTaggart said.
Other big changes in the new org chart are the creation of a ‘QSuper taskforce’, to which head of investment services Margaret Sugden has been seconded to oversee the "multi-year process" of helping QSuper bed down new arrangements, in everything from investment policy to custodianship.
Meanwhile, four direct reports to McTaggart have been turned into one with the appointment of Robert Hines, former CFO of Bank Of Queensland, as chief operating and finance officer.
