HESTA has lost its third C-suite executive in the past 12 months with chief operating officer Stephen Reilly announcing he will step down in June.

On Thursday the $100 billion profit-to-member fund said Reilly is leaving “to pursue external opportunities”. He joined the fund in 2015 and his responsibilities included insurance, investment operations, digital technology, information security and strategy. A replacement has not yet been named.

HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey, who herself announced in February she will be leaving the fund in the second half of this year – also with no replacement yet named –said the “foundations, platforms and capabilities [Reilly] has helped build have had an immense impact on our organisation and on the experience of our members”.

“He has always provided a long-term vision that supports us in improving services for members into the future,” Blakey said.

In June last year the fund announced chief risk officer Andrew Major would move into an advisory role to “work closely with HESTA’s investments leaders and advise on the fund’s investment strategy”.

He was replaced temporarily by Ruvimbo Tagwira as executive – risk, and a global search to find a permanent successor resulted in the appointment of Natalie Alford in November last year.

The departures of Blakey and Reilly follow HESTA’s troubled transition from MUFG to Grow Inc as the fund’s administrator, which saw member services limited for seven weeks and claims that the transition was poorly communicated to members, and resulted in APRA imposing additional licence conditions on the fund over concerns about its risk management and board governance.

APRA said in December 2025 that the transition “resulted in a severe, prolonged disruption to member services and caused direct harm to members” and that it had “identified deficiencies in HESTA’s board governance and management of risks which rendered HESTA inadequately prepared to effectively oversee and manage the transition”.

The following month, HESTA emerged as an investor in Grow, reportedly contributing $20 million of a $40 million capital raising by the administrator. At the time a HESTA spokesperson said the fund had exercised an option to purchase a stake in Grow “to support and enhance the administration services provided to our members, including the development of more personalised experiences.”

Announcing her departure in February, Blakey suggested 10 years was “a very good, sweet spot” for a CEO. Her departure, and now Reilly’s, are part of a wider upheaval in the senior ranks of Australia’s largest super funds, particularly the role of CIO.

AustralianSuper chief investment officer and deputy chief executive Mark Delaney announced in December last year that he will leave the $410 billion fund in. This came a month after AustralianSuper chief operating officer Peter Curtis moved into the newly created role of chief transformation officer; and before that chief financial officer Matt Harrington stepped down, with his LinkedIn profile recording the date as April 2025. 

This was the same month Cbus announced its CIO Brett Chatfield would step down. He was replaced by deputy CIO Leigh Gavin. The fund’s deputy CEO, Marianne Walker left the fund in July last year, reportedly for personal reasons.

The $210 billion Aware announced in May last year that CIO Damien Graham was leaving the fund and in October he was replaced by Simon Warner. Graham originally was earmarked to lead the fund’s London office as part of a professional transition to retirement, but in November joined Challenger instead, as group CIO.

And in August 2025 Michael Clancy joined Rest as CIO from Qantas Super, where he’d been chief executive. Clancy’s appointment ended the joint-CIO roles held by Simon Esposito and Kiran Singh, with Esposito subsequently leaving the fund.