Exclusive interview with Andrew Whittaker, Head of Strategy & Implementation, QIC State Investments
Super Investor
with Andrew Whittaker, Head of Strategy & Implementation, QIC State Investments
I was initially attracted to working at QIC because they were an innovative fund manager with leading domestic capabilities in Real Estate, Infrastructure, Private Equity and Fixed Income.
Given my passion for Macroeconomics, I had my heart set on a career in financial markets, so it was an easy choice to join the Fixed Income team given their innovative usage of derivatives and absolute return capability.
I started with the company in 2007 and have stayed because QIC really encourages you to gain experience in a role, get out of your comfort zone and take that knowledge and apply it to other parts of the business where you can add value. There are not many firms where I would have had the opportunity to obtain such diverse career experience.
I have also been lucky enough to have mentors - people who believed in me and furnished me with opportunities along the way. My current boss Allison Hill, QIC’s State Chief Investment Officer, took a chance on me despite my lack of multi asset class experience. I endeavour to pay it forward and encourage junior team members to take both career and investment risk.
QIC is somewhat of a unique organisation in that it has both asset management and asset ownership capabilities in-house. In my current role, I work on the asset ownership side and we operate essentially as a sovereign wealth fund entity, managing ~A$70 billion on behalf of Queensland Government clients. It is a privileged fiduciary responsibility and one we take very seriously given our ultimate underlying clients and beneficiaries are the people of Queensland.
In my current role, I reside in the top-down team and our role is to work collaboratively together with our bottom-up colleagues to facilitate total portfolio construction and management. More specifically, my role entails elements of portfolio construction, client interaction and risk tolerance setting as well as leading and collaborating on short-term portfolio tilts, portfolio resilience strategies and implementation optimisation.
During my tenure at QIC, my greatest achievement has been making the transition from ‘on the tools’ as an analyst to now helping to empower amazing people to do great things. I’m proud of the returns generated for clients in my time in a fixed income portfolio management and alpha generating seat, but more recently, I have derived immense satisfaction from giving very talented people the opportunity to run with the ball.
We recently built out a tilting program and whilst there were plenty of learnings along the way, in the end, thanks to the collective effort of a number of very talented individuals, we built out a high-quality process. Fingers crossed now that the returns are forthcoming.
Over my career, some of the biggest change I’ve witnessed in the investment landscape that has had a meaningful impact on returns has been post-GFC extraordinary policy settings becoming expedited standard operating procedure for fiscal and monetary authorities. The run up in asset prices and volatility suppression has been truly incredible.
As market participants have aptly judged thus far, The Authorities Always Chicken Out and any hint of a volatility spike is quickly put back in the bottle by explicit, or tacit QE, or more recently, the pumping of Fiscal spigots.
Other notable mentions include the general increase in sophistication of the industry. Long gone are the days where you can get away with generating listed market beta and charging alpha like fees. Likewise, portfolio construction, governance and ESG practices have increased in sophistication considerably.
Despite the threat of AI and the retooling of the global financial transaction infrastructure via the incorporation of blockchain, at its core, investing remains underpinned by human psychology and is all about the simple, yet incredibly difficult task of making consequential, equanimous decisions under pressure.
I think in the next 12 months the famous James Carville (Bill Clinton’s advisor) quote is going to ring true, “I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”
We are seeing it in the back end of Japanese 30-year bond yields which are now through 3 per cent and we saw a little wobble in the back end of UK rates recently. While there are many ways authorities can amend and extend and create alternative demand for short-dated treasury assets (hey Stablecoins… I am looking at you) the fiscal path of many developed economies is not sustainable over the medium term and perhaps at some point, term premia assumptions for long end rates may undergo some form of ‘price discovery’.
My aspirations for my career are to be the best I can be, but also to get the best out of those around me. Harnessing and leveraging those around you in pursuit of a higher purpose is the ultimate force multiplier, and if we can do that successfully, then hopefully our client portfolios are the ultimate beneficiary.
Investing is such a privileged and stimulating career path, but with it comes great responsibility. Clients entrust us their capital and it is incumbent upon us to treat it as if it were our own. Ultimately, the management of that capital comprises a series of micro and more macro decisions, and each decision has a compounding impact over time.
My aspiration is to try and make as many optimal decisions as possible, to continue to remain humble, to continually evolve and to lean into the wisdom of others in order to try and be “less” wrong.
To create a great team culture, it’s important to give people clearly delineated autonomy, responsibility and enough rope to fail. It is however incumbent on the leader to measure out just how much rope is enough, such that it is them ultimately taking responsibility, leading by example and swinging from the gallows if required. By creating the space, safety and opportunity to thrive but to also be supported in failure is what I believe creates high performing teams.
The workplace has evolved; having a higher purpose, tailoring tasks and roles to bespoke skill sets and ultimately having the trust in your team to work autonomously in whatever way gets the best out of them is paramount.
I can often be heard telling my team, “You know far more about this topic than me - what is your considered opinion? Please explain it to me in simple terms as complexity is often used to obscure the heart of the issue and obfuscate decision making.”
A book I often recommend is Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy. We are all (very loosely) athletes in some form or another and are just trying to be the best we can be, so who couldn’t use a tip or two.
A podcast I often listen to is Invest like the best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy.
The person that inspires me the most is my twin sister. She has found her calling as a palliative care physician. It is an incredibly complicated science to give people a high quality of life at their end of days, but she does it with dignity, compassion, humour and selflessness.
When I am not working you can find me spending time with my wife and three boys – hopefully at a beach somewhere or hurtling down the trails on a mountain bike trying to keep up with my twin boys.
Andrew Whittaker, Head of Strategy & Implementation, QIC State Investments
Andrew has responsibility for several portfolios managed on behalf of the State of Queensland in conjunction with a whole of portfolio remit spanning Strategic Tilting, Portfolio Resilience and Portfolio Implementation strategies.
Andrew has 17 years’ experience in investment management and financial markets. Prior to joining the State Investments team, Andrew spent 13 years within the QIC Liquid Markets Group. His most recent role was as a Senior Portfolio Manager of Fixed Income, Credit and Inflation, with active portfolio management responsibility across Insurance and Australian Fixed Income Funds.
As well as prior portfolio management roles, Andrew has worked as a Macroeconomic Strategist, Credit Research Analyst, Money Market Portfolio Analyst and has had extensive trading experience across Asian, European and US interest rate, credit, inflation and currency markets.
Global Investment Institute is Australia’s leading provider of conferences for capital allocators.
We connect institutional investors, family office and private wealth investment leaders with peers and global investment experts to share knowledge and thought leadership in a private, collegiate and discussion-focussed setting, conducted under Chatham House Rule.
Our upcoming events include:
If you have enjoyed reading this article, please subscribe to GII Insights, delivered monthly, direct to your inbox and it is FREE!
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the individual contributors and their respective organisations at the time of publishing. They do not necessarily reflect those of Global Investment Institute (GII). These views are not intended to be, and should not be construed as, investment advice or research. They are subject to change without notice, and no representation is made as to their ongoing accuracy or reliability. Forecasts, forward-looking statements, or opinions are inherently uncertain and based on assumptions, risks, and external factors which may change over time. The individuals interviewed have no obligation to update any statements made.
International investments carry additional risks, including potential loss of capital, currency fluctuations, differences in accounting standards, and economic or political instability.
All information contained in this publication is general in nature and does not take into account the financial objectives, situation, or needs of any individual or organisation. It should not be used as the sole basis for making investment decisions. GII strongly recommends seeking independent, fee-for-service financial advice before acting on any information contained herein.
Contributors, guest writers or interviewees may hold personal or professional financial interests in the investments discussed. The editorial team has assessed that these interests have not influenced the content of this publication.
All content featured in this publication is protected by copyright. No part may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from the Global Investment Institute.