The shortlist for the chief investment officer of the year has been released in advance of the Conexus Financial Superannuation Awards at the Ivy Ballroom, Sydney on May 20.

The shortlist for the top four large funds, top four medium-sized funds and the top four small funds, best MySuper defaults, the best member engaged services, the best pension funds and those that have created the most far reaching innovation in the past year were announced last week.

Chief investment officer of the year shortlist: Richard Brandweiner (First State Super), Jim Christensen (Telstra Super), Mark Delaney (AustralianSuper), Susan Gosling (MLC) and Paul Kessell (Kinetic Super).

The shortlist has been drawn up by a quantitative assessment of each fund by RiceWarner, upon which the nomination committee placed relative weights on the criteria they thought most important.

Long term performance (5 years) formed the majority weighting for chief investment officer of the year, with leadership, contribution to industry, complexity of fund, managing an internal team, ability to run an investment business and ability to implement strategy also factored into the decision.

The selection committee was chosen for its broad range of stakeholders, with consumer groups, industry knowledge and industry analysts all represented.

The members of the selection committee were:

Nick Sherry (chair) – senior adviser, superannuation and pensions, Citi; chairman, FNZ; former Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law; former Senator for Tasmania.

Jocelyn Furlan – former chair, Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.

Tom Garcia – chief executive, Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.

Jenni Mack – chair, Superannuation Consumers Centre.

Michael Rice – chief executive officer, Rice Warner.

Colin Tate – chief executive, Conexus Financial.

David Wright – managing director, Zenith Investment Partners

There are a limited number of seats for the awards ceremony. To book either a table or a single seat click here.