Spotlight on Qiao Ma, Partner and Portfolio Manager, Munro Partners

“Small and mid-cap stocks tend to have limited analyst coverage, making them an under-explored and overlooked part of the market. This lack of attention often means there is less public information and fewer research reports, which can complicate the process of evaluating their potential. However, it also creates the opportunity to identify undervalued stocks before they gain widespread recognition.”

- Qiao Ma is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Munro Partners, where she is the lead Portfolio Manager of the Munro Global Small and Mid-Cap Fund. She is also responsible for championing stock ideas and managing these positions within each of Munro's investment strategies - Munro Global Growth (absolute return), Munro Concentrated (long only) and Munro Climate Change Leaders Fund.

Qiao will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Family Office Investment Forum, taking place on Wednesday, 7 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on Varun Khanna, Partner & Co-Head of Asset Based Finance, KKR

“Incorporating Asset-Based Finance into a private credit allocation enhances diversification both at the asset level, since investments are backed by diverse and granular pools of assets, and at the portfolio level, through non-corporate exposure.”

- Varun Khanna is Partner & Co-Head of Asset Based Finance at KKR where he oversees the asset-based finance investment team as well as KKR’s asset-based finance funds and accounts. Additionally, he sits on KKR’s Global Asset-Based Finance Investment Committees and also serves on the Board of Directors for several Asset-Based Finance portfolio companies including Activate Capital, Pepper, Kilter Finance, and Oodle.

Varun will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Investment Forum, taking place on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

ART investment leadership team restructure announced

April 2025

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) is one of Australia’s largest super funds, formed through the merger of Sunsuper and QSuper. They have more than A$330 billion in assets under management and over 2.4 million members.

ART has restructured its investment team, naming new leaders for its equities, fixed-income, private debt, and capital markets divisions. The new structure and investment leadership team will report into Ian Patrick, Chief Executive Officer, ART.

Michael Stavropoulos appointed as Senior Portfolio Manager at Aware Super

April 2025

Global Investment Institute congratulates Michael Stavropoulos on his appointment to the role of Senior Portfolio Manager at Aware Super.

Aware Super manages a A$190 billion portfolio on behalf of the Fund’s 1.15 million members.

In his new role, Michael joins the team responsible for capital allocation, portfolio construction, manager research, and risk oversight within the equity asset class, managing A$100 billion and reporting to Agnes Hong, Head of Public Market Equities.

Michael recently served as Head of Portfolio Construction and Strategy – Equities at AustralianSuper.

We wish Michael all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at Aware Super.

Spotlight on Syed Zamil, Senior Investment Strategist, Insight Investment

“Against a backdrop of ‘tariff tantrum’, and a slowing economic backdrop, fallen angels, bonds downgraded from investment grade to high yield, offer diversification benefits to stocks.”

- Syed Zamil is the Senior Investment Strategist at Insight Investment where he is responsible for working with clients to bring them innovative fixed income solutions to their portfolios, drawing upon 30+ years of experience across equity, multi-asset and fixed income markets. Within public fixed income, utilising a quantitative framework, Syed is focussed on markets that are more difficult to access, such as fallen angels, high yield, and emerging markets debt, where relatively high t-costs and low liquidity can prevent investors from attaining the full credit premium.

Syed will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Family Office Investment Forum, taking place on Wednesday, 7 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on Kevin Marchetti, Co-Head of Direct Lending & Chief Credit Officer, Man Varagon

“Investors continue to allocate heavily to private credit, signalling an enduring commitment to integrating private credit as a core allocation, as they seek diversification, attractive risk-adjusted yields, and low correlation with public market volatility. The nature of today’s market and economy has shown some signs of potential stresses in credit portfolios. We believe that today it is particularly important for investors to focus on income, risk management, and capital preservation.”

- Kevin Marchetti is the Co-Head of Direct Lending and Chief Credit Officer at Man Varagon where he oversees the Leading the Underwriting and Portfolio Management teams, leveraging his extensive experience in risk management and middle market lending. He also serves on the Investment Committee, responsible for final approval of new and additional investments in the portfolio.

Kevin will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Investment Forum, taking place on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on Gareth Abley, Co-Head of Alternative Strategies, MLC Asset Management

"In nearly 20 years of researching alternatives, we have found very few genuinely uncorrelated asset classes that have a fundamental economic reason as to why they should deliver attractive long-term returns. Natural catastrophe reinsurance or Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) is one of the most attractive. This does not mean that it has been easy for people to capture the ‘beta’ – which in practice is a much more nuanced concept than is initially apparent.”

- Gareth Abley is the Co-Head of Alternative Strategies at MLC Asset Management where he is responsible for identifying strategies with two key characteristics. Firstly, attractive risk-adjusted returns on a stand-alone basis. Secondly, as uncorrelated as possible to broader markets – in particular the ability to still make money when equities don’t, or when the economy is weaker.

Gareth and his team manage two portfolios worth a combined A$6.75 billion. Of this A$3.25 billion is in natural catastrophe reinsurance. The remaining A$3.5 billion is in the MLC Opportunistic Capital Solutions portfolio, which consists of niche private credit, legal finance and opportunistic investments.

Gareth will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Investment Forum, taking place on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on Leander Christofides, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Global Special Situations, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

“With limited supply of new credit issuance and tightly priced spreads, investors should seek differentiated deal flow to diversify their allocations and focus on bespoke financings that offer a complexity premium and higher total lender returns. It is important to focus on managers that are not chasing crowded transactions so they can maintain high returns for low risk.”

- Leander Christofides is the Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Global Special Situations (GSS) team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he oversees GSS's investments in distressed and special situations private credit assets.

In the special situations and distressed asset class, several key themes are driving both risks and opportunities, these include:
- Convergence of private and public credit markets
- Uncovering hidden leverage and operating performance adjustments in private credit
- Understanding what the true default and recovery rates are for private credit
- How to assess the problems private equity have in exiting companies

Leander will be presenting at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Investment Forum, taking place on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria. To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan@globalii.com.au.

Sue Brake joins Aware Super's Investment Committee

April 2025

Global Investment Institute congratulates Sue Brake on joining Aware Super as a member of the Investment Committee.

Aware Super manages a A$190 billion portfolio on behalf of the Fund’s 1.15 million members.

Sue brings over 25 years of leadership experience and serves as a trusted advisor to some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investment institutions, offering expertise in portfolio strategy, and organisational strategy and governance. Most recently, Sue held the role of Chief Investment Officer at the Future Fund, until 2022.

We wish Sue all the best in her new role and continued success to the team at Aware Super.

HESTA appoints Michael Blayney as General Manager, Dynamic Asset Allocation

April 2025

Global Investment Institute congratulates Michael Blayney on his appointment to the role of General Manager, Dynamic Asset Allocation at HESTA.

HESTA is an Australian industry superannuation fund with A$93 billion in assets under management and over 1.05 million members.

Michael brings over 27 years of expertise in investment management, consulting, and superannuation, working with some of the world’s leading institutions. In his new role, he will lead the dynamic asset allocation team and report to Dianne Sandoval, HESTA’s Head of Portfolio Design.

We wish Michael all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at HESTA.

Yile Chen promoted to Chief Investment Officer at Zurich Financial Services Australia

April 2025

Global Investment Institute congratulates Yile Chen on his promotion to the Chief Investment Officer role at Zurich Financial Services Australia Limited.

Zurich Financial Services Australia Limited (Zurich) is the local arm of the Zurich Insurance Group Ltd, a global insurance and financial services company. Zurich have approximately A$9 billion in assets under management and are headquartered in Sydney.

Yile has been with Zurich for nearly six years, and until his promotion to CIO, he was the Deputy Chief Investment Officer.

We wish Yile all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at Zurich.

Brian To promoted to Senior Manager, Infrastructure, Real Assets & Private Markets at TCorp

March 2025

Global Investment Institute congratulates Brian To on his promotion to Senior Manager, Infrastructure, Real Assets & Private Markets at TCorp.

TCorp is the financial services partner to the NSW public sector, providing investment management, financial management solutions and advice. With A$116 billion of assets under management, TCorp is a top 10 Australian institutional investor and is the central borrowing authority of the state of New South Wales.

Prior to his promotion, Brian was the Manager, Infrastructure, Real Assets & Private Markets at TCorp for almost four years.

We wish Brian all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at TCorp.

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