Damian Moloney has been named deputy chief investment officer (CIO) of Australia’s largest superannuation fund.
Based in London, he has been directly responsible for the build out of AustralianSuper’s US and European offices for the last five years and would continue to hold these responsibilities alongside the new role.
Prior to joining the super fund in 2018, Moloney had been chief executive of Frontier Advisors for over six and a half years. He also spent 14 years as CEO of IFM Investors.
According to CIO Mark Delaney, who has led AustralianSuper’s investment strategies since 2006, the new appointment would support the fund’s growth ambitions from its current $300 billion in member assets under management to more than $500 billion in the next five years.
“Damian’s appointment as deputy CIO is an important step that positions us to deliver simplicity and quality at global scale,” Delaney explained.
“As we seek to drive long-term performance for members, the fund is increasingly focused on building its global operations and in-house investment capability, with around 75 per cent of member’s money expected to be managed by internal teams within a decade.
“Damian will play a pivotal role in developing and implementing our model for investing and operating globally in an integrated and efficient way.”
Delaney forecast the global team to grow from the current 100 staff to some 300 by 2026.
Commenting on his appointment, Moloney said it was a “great privilege.”
“With more and more of AustralianSuper’s assets managed internally and invested overseas, I am looking forward to working with our team across the globe in this new role to efficiently grow our investment footprint and operations,” he said.
“We have already made great progress in building our investment platform and now is an opportune time to improve global coordination.
“AustralianSuper has generated a lot of interest since becoming the first Australian superannuation fund to open global offices and the fund continues to look for the best talent internationally to join our team investing across some of the world’s most important capital markets.”
Presently, it has around half of its around $300 billion invested outside Australia, with around $85 billion invested in the US and almost $40 billion invested in the UK and Europe.
