Aware Super revamps investment team

Aware Super has announced a team restructure designed to support the $150 billion super fund's growth to $250 billion by 2026.

The super fund joins the likes of Australian Super and Australian Retirement Trust in reshaping its investment team as it grows its international asset presence.

As part of the restructuring, Aware has advertised for a new senior role, the head of portfolio management to oversee public and private markets, property and infrastructure.

Meantime, the restructure has seen the promotion of three senior portfolio managers - Jenny Newmarch, Alek Misev, and Mark Hector - to head up private equity, property and infrastructure respectively - and the appointment of a portfolio manager of income and markets.

Before joining more than six years ago, Newmarch worked as an investment director at ROC Capital and an associate director at Macquarie Bank.

Previous roles include a consultant at Mercer and an analyst at Towers Perrin.

Misev - who has worked at Aware Super for eight years - is responsible for the fund's property strategy locally and globally. His main focus is on direct operating platform investments in Australia, North America, Asia, Continental Europe and the UK.

He is also a director on the board of Oak Tree Group in Brisbane, City ID in Amsterdam, Vivenio Residencial in Madrid and a former board member of Bankstown and Camden Airports in Sydney.

For his part, Hector oversees Aware Super's global infrastructure and real assets portfolio and team.

Before his eight years with the fund, he did stints at ABN AMRO and Leightons.

Aware Super chief investment officer Damian Graham said: "These direct appointments are in recognition of the depth of talent we have in our in-house investment teams, the individuals' leadership in the industry, and their ability to create and execute on leading, innovative investment strategies which drive strong risk-adjusted returns for our members' retirement income streams."

As for the income and markets role, Scott Rissman joins from QIC's liquid markets group.

He had been at QIC for 19 years before resigning late last year.

The former director of QIC's overlay solutions and implementation is now responsible for Aware Super's global markets' strategies and trading capabilities.

"Rissman's appointment is yet another proof point of our commitment to internalise strategic investment capabilities to deliver the highest standard of market solutions for our members and reduce fees," said Aware Super head of income and markets Michael Clavin

"With decades of experience, Scott will add deep and strategic expertise to Aware Super's exposure management capabilities, with a particular focus on macro and hedging strategies with execution across multiple asset classes, such as equities, rates fixed income in both domestic and global markets.

"He will also be pivotal in delivering a securities finance strategy that will not only originate but structure trades to optimise collateral and liquidity to generate returns for the fund."

The income and markets team is responsible for all internal trading capabilities, including maintaining the fund's asset allocation and over $6.5 billion invested across global credit markets.