Conversations with Institutional Investors

After posting an archived conversation with JANA Investment Advisers' Executive Director John Coombe, our listeners requested that we ask him back on the show to see if his views have changed since the 2019 interview. This time, we discuss geopolitical chaos, the impact on markets and why John sees today's AI boom as fundamentally different from the dot-com bubble.

John also shares some frank views on active management, which he argues has faced an unprecedented decline as shrinking investor time horizons push money toward passive strategies, though he sees it surviving with a different clientele of longer-term, mum-and-dad...

Welcome to the i3 podcast. Today, we're revisiting a conversation from 2021 with John Pearce, Chief Investment Officer at UniSuper. From the humble beginnings at the back office of Westpac, John went on to become one of the most influential CIOs of Australia, leadings one of the biggest in-house investment programs, built on what he calls "logical incrementalism." We talked about his best and worst trades, why he doesn't believe in tidy asset class buckets, and his early doubts about China. We also cover the APRA performance test and UniSuper's decision to open up to the public. Here's my conversation...

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Michael Kollo, who's the author of the book Future Ready with Generative AI: Skills, Mindsets, and Stories in the Age of AI, about the Hugging Face incident, where a cybersecurity experiment went wrong and AI agents found a way to communicate with each other, escape onto the internet and hack the company Hugging Face. What does this incident mean for controlling agentic AI and how would design a governance framework around it? What are the key risks for investment organisations? Should they run autonomous systems at all? In this discussion, we delve...

In this From the Archives episode, we revisit a conversation with Tanya Branwhite, former Head of Portfolio Construction at TCorp, which was originally released in March 2023. Tanya takes us through her unconventional path into investing, from her early days as a credit analyst in the "whiz-bang" late 1980s, through more than a decade at Macquarie, to her move into asset owner organisations at the Future Fund and, eventually, TCorp.

In early 2023, TCorp was already wrestling with questions around how to best shape the total portfolio approach for the organisation, as well as how to deal with higher...

In episode 142, we take a look at AI disruption among listed Australian companies and their response to the risks arising from this new technology. Fidelity International surveyed 31 ASX-listed companies during the 2025 AGM season to find out how boards are really handling artificial intelligence, beyond the headlines. Portfolio Manager Sam Heithersay and Associate Director Sue Lyn Stubbs of Fidelity join host Wouter Klijn to unpack what they found and discuss several red flags, including CEOs and chairs talking past each other and a lack of focus leading to 100s of AI projects running simultaneously. From "shadow AI" and workforce polarisation...

In this interview from November 2023, we speak with Matt Whineray, then CEO of New Zealand Super, to celebrate the fund's 20th anniversary. Established in 2003, with an initial contribution of NZ$2.4 billion, the fund has achieved an impressive average annual return of 9.5 per cent over this 20-year period, adding NZ$40 billion in value. We delve deep into the fund's strategic tilting program, which has been a significant contributor to its success, and this interview contains the startling admission that NZ Super once held a short position in the NZ dollar that grew to 40 per cent of the net asset value...

In episode 140 of the [i3] Podcast, Conversations with Institutional Investors, we speak with Charles Wu, Director of Investment, and Elie Saikaly, Head of Liability-driven and Government Investors at Frontier Advisors about the recently launched Independent CIO service, not to be confused with outsourced CIO services. We delve into the background of establishing the new service, the backing by State Super, the potential market size and why this services is needed now. Enjoy the show!

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In this episode of the [i3] Podcast, Conversations with Institutional Investors, we speak with Steve Meier, who is the Vice Chairman of Neuberger's Institutional Client Group. Before joining Neuberger, Steve was the Chief Investment Officer for the New York City Retirement Systems, the third largest public pension plan in the US, consisting of five different plans. There, he implemented the total portfolio approach (TPA). Steve recently published a paper about the lessons he learned from implementing TPA at the fund, titled 'Case Study: Implementing Total Portfolio Thinking at NYC Retirement Systems', which we will explore in this conversation.

In this episode, we're revisiting a conversation originally published on 6 March 2019, with John Coombe, one of the true veterans of investment consulting in Australia.

John joined John A. Nolan and Associates – now known as JANA Investment Advisors – back in 1988, as the firm's very first employee. Over three decades, he helped grow JANA from a single client into a business advising on hundreds of billions of dollars for institutional investors across the country.

Investment specialist Daniel Grioli sits down with John to talk about the early days of investment consulting, the art of backing fund managers befo...

In this episode of the I3 Podcast, Aware Super CIO Simon Warner joins us to discuss how his unusually broad background across fixed income, equities, public and private markets shapes his approach to investing. Simon explains the realities of implementing a total portfolio approach within Australia's DC superannuation system, balancing risk, liquidity and cost while empowering specialist teams rather than imposing top‑down macro calls. He also talks about Aware Super's evolving organisational structure, its global expansion via London, and the changing role of CIO in today's superannuation industry.

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In this special episode of the [i3] Podcast, we're partnering with the University of Technology Sydney for the Circle the Square roundtable discussion. Today's topic focuses on environmental risk and the repricing of stability. For most of financial history, the environment was treated pretty much as a given, stable enough to model around, reliable enough to insure against, and predictable enough to build on, but that assumption is now under pressure.

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In this episode of the [i3] Podcast, Conversations with Institutional Investors, we speak with Con Michalakis, Chief Investment Officer of Funds SA, which is a $50 billion investment manager for South Australian public sector superannuation funds and other approved state authorities. Con is well-known in the Australian investment industry, not in the least, for his outspoken views on a variety of investment topics, including gold, crypto and asset allocation, much of which has historically been disseminated through his notorious Twitter or X feed.

We trace back to Con's roots as a quant and value investor, and discuss how...

In this episode of the [i3] Podcast, I'm speaking with Jo Leaper, who is the Head of Operational Consulting at asset consultant JANA. We talk about the next evolution of risk management, where risk doesn't reside just with a dedicated team, but is addressed by all functions, including the investment team. When implemented well this form of holistic risk management is not simply a cost, but can lead to operational efficiencies and even alpha. Afterall, investors need risk to produce returns, but how you manage that risk is the key.

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In this episode of the From the Archive series, we look at a 2019 interview with Gus Sauter, the former Chief Investment Officer of Vanguard, who worked for more than 25 years at the company. Sauter is also an adviser to the Australian Retirement Trust, then Sunsuper.

Index and passive investing have gained momentum in recent years and it is estimated that about 60 per cent of investments follow passive strategies today. Considering this sheer weight of money and the move of more Australian superannuation funds to passive investing in recent years, it is easy to forget that index tracking...

In this episode, I speak with Michael Kollo, a return guest to the [i3] Podcast. Michael has recently published a book on artificial intelligence, called: Future-ready with Generative AI Skills, Mindsets, and Stories in the Age of AI

We speak with Michael about how he build an equity analyst AI agent in a weekend, how AI helps review your work and how you can get it to find solutions that are tailored to your style of working.

We also delve into deeper philosophical questions around the nature of language, how AI changes people's interaction with...

Greg Cooper is Chair of financial services giants Perpetual and Colonial First State, but is perhaps best known for his role as the Chief Executive Officer for Schroder Investment Management in Australia. In this interview from late 2019, only weeks before COVID-19 broke out, we spoke with Greg about whether public markets are broken, the state of active management and his interest in the venture capital space, topics that are still very much alive today. Enjoy the show!

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In this episode, I'm speaking with David Walsh, who is the Head of Investments of RQI Investors, a First Sentier fund manager. And we delve into the concept of a Quant Winter.

Some market participants argue a new Quant Winter is in the making, since growth and momentum factors are compounding with limited breadth, driven partly by the promise of AI. This can lead to distortions in the market and the collapse of quantitative models.

David has tackled this topic in a recent paper, called 'Lessons from the Quant Winter' and we discussed what it...

In this episode, we go into our archive to October 2019, when we interviewed Fiona Trafford-Walker. Fiona was one of the key consultants behind the success of Frontier Advisors and spent 25 years with the asset consultant, advising many of the largest funds in Australia.

She has been named several times among the most influential consultants in the world and was a driving force behind the fight for equitable fees in the industry.

In this interview, we delved into the changing role of asset consultants, questioned whether too much time is spent on manager selection and examined...

In this episode, I'm speaking with Dan farmer, who is the Chief Investment Officer of MLC Asset Management. We talk about Dan's early days managing an internal Australian equity portfolio and getting involved with derivatives at Telstra Super, almost straight out of university. We talk about some of his mentors, including Steve Merlicek, and the influence they've had on Dan's investment philosophy. We also touch on the merger between IOOF and MLC and the new capabilities this has brought to his team.

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In this podcast, I'm speaking with Kim Bowater, who is the Director of Consulting at Frontier Advisors. Kim has spent 23 years at the firm and saw the asset consultant grow from a small advisory firm with just 13 people when she started in 2002 to the leading asset consultant it is today. She is one of the driving forces behind a number of key initiatives that have supported Frontier's growth, including the establishment of a technology platform that allows clients to access research online and the initial set up of the retirement business. In this episode, we discuss how the continuously...

In episode 126, Scott Donald, Professor at the Faculty of Law and Justice of the University of New South Wales, breaks down how artificial intelligence is reshaping the work of superannuation trustees. Efficiency is the big draw, but legal and ethical risks mean trustees are moving carefully. AI is already embedded in parts of the finance sector, from document summarisation to risk management, yet its tendency to hallucinate and behave inconsistently remain serious hurdles.

Scott explores where AI can genuinely add value and discusses its application to investment strategy, compliance and even private-market valuations, while stressing the need...

In this special edition of the [i3] Podcast, in collaboration with the UTS Finance Department, we explore how the neoliberal model of economics, which largely ignored politics and focused on financial metrics, has eroded over time and made way for the rise of populism, which has exerted its influence on economies around the world. Why did the guardrails that neoliberalism provided slowly disappear and what are the consequences of this? Is there any model that will replace it? Political Economist Elizabeth Humphrys, Geopolitical Specialist Philipp Ivanov and UTS Industry Lecturer Rob Prugue delve deep into this fascinating topic as...

In this episode, I'm speaking with James Richards, Co-portfolio Manager of Fidelity International's Transition Materials Strategy. James runs a strategy that invests in stocks of companies that are exposed to materials that will play a crucial role in the energy transition. And it's not all about copper or lithium. James keeps his investment universe wide and includes commodities, such as animal fats and wood chips. We discussed the spike in rare earth materials earlier this year. We also look at why this is a super-cycle, but unlike the previous, China-led one. And finally, we explore whether this strategy correlates...

Note: This episode was recorded before the release of ASIC's Private Credit Surveillance Report 820. The ASIC report mentioned in the podcast relates to the Private Credit in Australia Report 814, released in September 2025.

In this episode of The [i3] podcast, I'm speaking with Linda Cunningham, who is the Head of Debt and Alternatives for Cbus Super. We talk about some of Linda's core beliefs when it comes to debt investing, including the banking 101, to be very careful when borrowing short and lending long at the same time. We discuss the importance of cash flows and ensuring the ability...

In Episode 122 of the [i3] Podcast, Conversations with Institutional Investors, we speak with Maroun Younes and James Abela, co-portfolio managers of the Fidelity Global Future Leaders strategy, about the attractiveness of small and mid-cap investments, a $12 trillion market with significant growth potential.

They acknowledge the recent underperformance of small caps due to market concentration in large caps, particularly in US tech, but point out that people are starting to wake up to the risks associated with those concentrations. Are we in an AI bubble, driven by these large caps?

The conversation starts at a high...

In this episode of the [i3] podcast, I'm speaking with Mary Power, who is the Head of Property Research at asset consultant Jana. We cover the struggles of the property market in the early 90s, when Mary started out in the industry, and the learnings from that time. We take a look at how investors have dealt with 13 consecutive rate rises, starting in 2022 and we cover portfolio construction issues, including blending listed and unlisted property assets, the convergence of real estate and infrastructure, while Mary also predicts that up to 50% of Australian property money might be reallocated to international...

In this episode, I speak with Ashby Monk, who is Executive & Research Director at Stanford Long-term Investing, a part of Stanford University in California. Ashby has been advising most of the large superannuation funds in Australia on governance, organisational efficiency and knowledge management. He is a regular visitor to our country, and has been here 55 times. We discuss the future of the superannuation industry and the role of innovation. Unsurprisingly, this means that we spend a fair amount of time talking about artificial intelligence and the changes it might bring to the industry. Ashby is of the opinion that...

In this episode of the [i3] Podcast, I'm speaking with Richard Brown, who is a Client Portfolio Manager with Janus Henderson Investors. And today we are going to talk about global small caps. We look at whether small caps are affected by the increasing concentration of the equity markets, particularly in the US, where technology stocks have dominated returns in recent years. We talk about catalysts for unlocking the current small cap discount versus large caps, including the rate environment and the current business cycle. And we take a look at a few case studies of where to invest...

In this episode of the [i3] podcast, "Conversations with Institutional Investors", we speak with Mary Manning, Chief Investment Officer of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, a recently established $15 billion fund that has been set up to promote the manufacturing industry in Australia. We speak with Mary about the investment objectives and how to balance investing in innovative new technologies, such as the fund's investment in quantum diamonds, that is industrial diamonds, not the fancy ones, with the risk profile of the fund, Mary reveals that they have over 900 applications for funding and are now looking for the best opportunities...

In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr Alan Dupont, who is the founder and CEO of Cognoscenti Group. Alan is a highly respected geopolitical strategist and has advised a wide range of governmental and commercial organisations, including the Northern Territory Government, Asia Society, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Outcomes Australia.

He has advised several Australian ministers of defence and foreign affairs, and in 2013 established and led the Abbott government's defence white paper team. Alan started his career in government, including as an Army officer, intelligence analyst and diplomat.

In this episode, we take a...

In this episode of the [i3] podcast, Conversations with Institutional Investors, we speak with Danny Latham, Partner and Head of Australia and New Zealand for Igneo Infrastructure Partners. We discuss the evolution of infrastructure assets, termed "Infrastructure 2.0," which includes renewable energy, digitalisation, and waste management. Danny highlights the shift from traditional infrastructure to more dynamic, B2B-focused assets, emphasising the importance of cash flow predictability and regulatory risks. He also touches on the role of gas as a transition fuel, the potential of hydrogen, and the integration of water management in infrastructure projects. Finally, Danny explains his investment strategy...

Ben Darwin is the Co-founder and General Manager of Corporate at Gain Line Analytics and in this episode we're going to take a look at what makes teams successful and stay successful.

Ben is a former Wallaby player, having played 28 test matches for Australia. He's a former coach and a performance analyst, having worked with a number of rugby teams, including a Japanese team, the NTT Shining Arcs and Suntory Sungoliath, he started Gain Line in 2013 out of a desire to introduce a greater degree of empirical analysis into professional sports.

But his research goes...

Michael Block is Chief Investment Officer of Bellmont Securities and Adjunct Industry Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he helped establish the UTS Anchor Fund. The UTS Anchor Fund is a live investment portfolio managed by students to give them hands on experience with managing portfolios.

In this episode, we take a look at Michael's extensive career in investing, spanning roles with Future Plus, Nambawan Super, Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund and now Bellmont Securities, and discuss the lessons learned during this time and how you can condense this experience in a course for...

Eduard van Gelderen is Head of Research for Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLT), an organisation that was established in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, or Great Recession as it is known in the US, to move away from a so-called "quarterly capitalism", which arguably contributed to the crisis, and towards a true long-term mind-set.

Van Gelderen joined FCLT in 2024, after spending over six years as the Chief Investment Officer of pension fund PSP in Montreal, Canada. He is also well-known for his role as CEO of APG Asset Management, the investment arm of...

In honour of Gilmour Space Technologies obtaining regulatory approval from the Australian Space Agency to launch its very first home-grown rocket into space, we bring you an interview with Adam Gilmour from January 2022. The Eris rocket is due to take off on Thursday morning. In Episode 66, we spoke with Adam Gilmour, who is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Australian rocket company Gilmour Space Technologies. His business is backed by some of the largest institutional investors in Australia, including Hostplus, HESTA and NGS Super, as well as several venture capital firms, including Blackbird. In this interview, we talk about...

Suhail Shaikh is Chief Investment Officer of Fulcrum Asset Management and is the portfolio manager of Fulcrum's Discretionary Macro and Diversified Absolute Return strategies. In today's incredibly volatile environment of tariff wars and deglobalisation, investors tend to be more sensitive about the level of their absolute returns, than their performance against the benchmark. In this episode, we delve into the philosophy of absolute return investing, we talk about the role of skill versus luck, the use of Nowcasting, learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever controversial topic of market timing. Enjoy the show!

02:00 Started off working...

In episode 111 of the [i3] Podcast, we speak with Michael Weaver, who is the Head of Global Real Assets with the Australian Retirement Trust.

We discussed the role of real assets in the context of a multi-asset, pension portfolio, the ever-lurking threat of inflation, the return of office property and more.

Please enjoy the show!

Overview of Podcast with Michael Weaver, Head of Global Real Assets, ART

02:00 Role of real assets in a multi-asset portfolio

03:30 We don't call them mid-risk, but it is a similar philosophy

06:30 Inflation...

In episode 110 of the [i3] Podcast, we speak with Jamie Newton, Head of Global Fixed Income Research and Deputy Head of Sustainability at Allspring Global Investments. We discuss why now is a good time to add duration to fixed income portfolios, concerns over the lack of experience with high default rates in private credit and opportunities in data centres and other digital assets. Enjoy the Show!

Overview of Podcast with Jamie Newton:

02:00 I was not going to spend 16 weeks looking through a microscope

04:00 I grew up in the go-go days of the internet<...

In episode 109, we are back with Will Liang, Executive Director at MA Financial, to discuss the introduction of DeepSeek and the impact on the future development of artificial intelligence and the global economy. Are tech firms going to scale back their investments due to this low cost model, or is it all a bit of a hype? Enjoy the Show!

Overview of Podcast with Will Liang on DeepSeek

01:00 First impressions of DeepSeek

03:00 Is DeepSeek really a revolution?

04:00 OpenAI did not spend billions of dollars developing one model

04:30 DeepSeek and...

Private credit has evolved significantly since the global financial crisis, and Brendan Carroll, Senior Partner at Victory Park Capital, has been at the forefront of that transformation.

In this episode, we explore how private credit investments are adapting to meet the needs of insurers, the growing role of asset-backed lending, and why insurance companies are becoming the fastest-growing investor base in the space.

Brendan also shares insights on navigating competitive market dynamics, the resilience of private credit through economic cycles, and the implications of Victory Park Capital's acquisition by Janus Henderson Investors. Plus, a look...