REST is on the hunt for a new chief investment officer after announcing Andrew Lill, who has been in the position since 2020, will step down in November.  

Lill came into the role after an independent governance review in 2019 recommended REST install a single investment leader to oversee strategy, implementation and operations, making him the fund’s first CIO. 

REST chief executive Vicki Doyle said Lill has created a strong foundation for the investment team aligning with REST’s member profiles.  

“His accomplishments include improved performance, strong team diversity and industry leadership in responsible investing,” Doyle said in a media statement on Thursday.  

“I am very grateful for this opportunity to be REST’s first CIO, which has stretched me and challenged me in very positive ways,” Lill said in the statement. 

“I am very proud of our team’s achievements in this time.” 

Lill will depart REST next month and spend time with the family before taking up his next role. The fund has begun searching for a new chief investment officer and said it will confirm an interim CIO arrangement in the near future.  

He was at AMP Capital and Morningstar prior to joining REST and served as the latter’s CIO, America through a two-year stint in Chicago.  

During Lill’s time, REST’s assets have surged from $53 billion to $86 billion and is now one of the ten largest industry funds. At the end of last year, it had a 20 per cent investment internalisation rate.  

Lill’s five-year tenure is relatively short compared to current CIOs in other major super funds, with only a handful of the current crop having been in the CIO role for less time. However, in some cases, these individuals were with the fund for a period predating their appointment as CIO. 

In 2021 interview with Investment Magazine upon joining the industry fund, Lill said the things he believes will define his tenure at REST are how he manages the ESG challenge, and how successful he is getting the fund’s talent to become “system thinkers”.  

REST has a goal of achieving a net zero carbon footprint by 2050 and will invest at least $2 billion in renewable energy and low-carbon solutions before 2026. It has also this year made a slew of impact investments, including in listed equities and industrial property.  

“The whole world of climate change… is probably the biggest challenge that we as investors have experienced in our lifetimes, because the framework is still developing,” Lill said at the time. 

“It’s critical to have collaboration across super funds to build that new framework because climate change is actually a collective action problem. We do need the scale of lots and lots of asset owners around the world doing similar things to actually see the impact.”