EXCLUSIVE
State Super CIO Richard Hedley has parted ways with the $42 billion fund after a little more than two years in the role.
This follows the September departure of Aneesa Samuel, the fund’s then general manager of vendor management, following a restructure. New roles at the fund are understood to be: deputy CIO and general manager of defined contribution investments; general manager, defined benefits (DB) and liabilities (this role will be responsible for the fund’s TCorp relationship); senior manager of responsible investing; and senior manager of investment risk.
It is understood Hedley, who took on the CIO role in October 2016 after serving as the fund’s head of unlisted assets and alternatives, accepted a redundancy following this restructure.
John Livanas, chief executive of State Super told Investment Magazine that details of the restructure and appointments will be announced early next year.
SAS Trustee Corporation is trustee for four funds that collectively go under the brand name State Super: State Authorities Superannuation Scheme (SASS), State Superannuation Scheme (SSS), Police Superannuation Scheme (PSS) and the State Authorities Non-contributory Superannuation Scheme (SANCS).
The assets of all four schemes have been combined into the STC Pooled Fund – one of the country’s largest super schemes, with more than 100,000 members.
Unlike most super funds, which have the benefit of operating a business model fuelled by mandated contributions, State Super is in managed wind-down phase, working towards turning the lights off in about 2080.
These peculiar constraints forced State Super Hedley and his five-member investment team to become trailblazers in dealing with the crop of challenges the bulk of the industry will increasingly face as the Baby Boomers retire.
In an interview with Investment Magazine in 2017, Hedley said the team was “highly cognisant of that”.
“In a sense,” Hedley said, “we’re right at the forefront of what the industry is going to face when it moves into that de-accumulation phase: How do you deal with the fact that investment horizons have shortened for an individual member, who may have only two, three, four, five years left in the fund? How do you manage the portfolio for that person?”
