Aware Super bolsters strategy team

Aware Super has expanded its investment strategy team with the hire of four new specialists and has set up a new investment risk division.

Two new hires will play a founding role in a new investment risk team, with the other two supplementing the macro strategies team.

The superannuation's head of investment strategy Michael Winchester said expanding the investment strategy team will help drive Aware Super's growth story to become a top-five performing super fund and global institutional investor operating at scale.

"The strategy team will play a vital role in supporting the fund's ambitions to be a $250 billion superannuation giant by 2026," he said.

First up, Mine Super head of investment strategy Sean Anthonisz has joined up along with his senior quant Wei-Ting Pan.

Anthonisz's new role will be portfolio manager, investment risk reporting to Michael Winchester.

Pan has been hired as an investment risk analyst.

Before being appointed head of investment strategy at Mine Super - a role he has held for three years - Anthonisz was a senior quantitative analyst working on asset allocation.

He previously managed quant trading and research programs in investment banking and hedge fund environments and has a strong relationship with academia.

Until last December, Anthonisz was a resident practitioner at the University of Sydney and, along with leading practitioners from other super funds, was involved in the Super Quant Forum.

For her part, Pan has worked at Mine Super for more than four years and spent two years at EquipSuper before that.

Winchester also welcomed two recruits to the macro strategies team.

Christopher Ellis has been hired as senior portfolio manager of macro strategy and Nathan Peters has come across as a senior investment analyst.

Winchester said the team would benefit from their pair's expertise and manage the fund's approach to active asset allocation.

"This team of seven investment professionals have a flexible mandate to actively trade macro markets across interest rates, FX, and equities to generate returns," he added.

Ellis has a 16-year track record managing alpha strategies and a 25-year career in financial markets.

Most recently, he was a portfolio manager at the Singapore-based hedge fund Rhicon. Before that, he spent ten years at Macquarie Investment Management.

For his part, Peters has spent 20 years covering global hedge funds, most recently with Fulcrum Asset Management in London.

He lands at the macro strategies team focussing on working with our established partnership program of external investment managers.