Australian Retirement Trust hires for new division

Australian Retirement Trust has created a brand-new division to beef up its resilience to future market volatility staffed with new hires from Morningstar, IAG Asset Management and Mine Super.

Portfolio resilience has emerged as a hot-button topic for superannuation funds as they deal with inflation and the potential for the Israel-Hamas war to escalate.

Nowadays, super funds face mounting pressure to account for ESG factors in their investment processes and to manage short, medium, and long term risks simultaneously.

The new team will ensure that investment portfolios and capabilities can mitigate short-term shocks and challenging long-term conditions.

The $260 billion superannuation giant has hired from Morningstar, IAG Investment management and Mine Super to staff the investment resilience and planning function.

As head of the new team, Jody Fitzgerald will ensure that investment portfolios and capabilities can mitigate short-term shocks and challenging long-term conditions.

She will be tasked with shaping and driving the underpinning principles of investment portfolios and capabilities, overseeing internal investment management processes and planning future needs.

ART said she is also accountable for investment risk management, investment data and modelling.

Fitzgerald joins from Morningstar Investment Management, where she was head of institutional portfolio management and solutions.

Before her five years there, the investment executive with over 20 years' experience in technical investment and business leadership served as head of investment product and strategy for Australian Unity Investment.

Earlier, she held senior management roles at UBS Wealth Management, Deutsche Asset Management, and Skandia.

In the new role, Fitzgerald is joined by IAG IM analyst Hanyu Liang.

Liang worked at IAG for ten years, analysing equity and alternative investments and carrying out ESG integration.

With a strong analytical background developed originally as an engineer and later as a quantitative stock analyst at hedge fund BCS Capital, Liang has been appointed assistant portfolio manager by ART.

She initially joined IAG IM as a senior risk and performance analyst - modelling, measuring and monitoring market risk for IAG's $14 billion book.

Also joining the team is Mine Super analyst Jack Zheng, who comes on board as an investment analyst.

ART investment chief Ian Patrick said the appointments were an integral step to set the team up for continued success in guarding and growing the retirement savings of its members.

"Australian Retirement Trust invests more than $260 billion on behalf of our more than 2.3 million members, which is a responsibility we take very seriously," he said.

"Jody brings to Australian Retirement Trust a wealth of capability and experience in investment management and business leadership roles, and we look forward to her contribution to deliver on our vision to be Australia's most chosen and trusted retirement partner."

Meantime, Morningstar said Fitzgerald will continue to manage the portfolios she is responsible for until she leaves, with investment chief Matt Wacher overseeing the management of all client portfolios.

"We will shortly be commencing a process to bring additional investment expertise into our team," he said.

"We would like to thank Jody for the valuable contribution she has made to the Morningstar investment team and wish her every success in the future."