Super moves: QIC, VFMC, ESSSuper, Aware Super

Vivian Xu has joined Victorian Fund Management Corporation to work on quant strategies across global markets.

Xu arrived from Frontier Advisers, where she was promoted to the new quantitative research consultant within the capital markets and asset allocation team, just 12 months ago.

The quant has focused on macroeconomic analysis, quantitative research and modelling since being promoted to quant analyst in April 2024. Xu took up a permanent role with the asset consultant after completing a PhD internship with Frontier in July 2022.

Also, swapping an asset owner for a super fund is Marie Cardac, who is leaving Frontier for a job as an investment manager at EISS Super, the not-for-profit fund for Victorian emergency services and state employees.

Cardaci was a senior consultant at Frontier and the deputy head of responsible investments.

Previously a member of the equities research team, she joined Frontier in 2017, having previously worked within finance operations at the University of Melbourne and taxation services at Deloitte.

Frontier has a long-standing reputation for finding and developing people. More senior people in the industry have worked at Frontier than at any other firm, fund or consultant.

In essence, Cardaci is reuniting with Dan Selioutine and Martin Thompson, both investment managers at ESSSuper who started their careers at Frontier.

Meanwhile, a local property expert has left the United Arab Emirates to take up a role at QIC as a director of real estate funds management.

Declan Walsh is currently a senior investment manager at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority

He brings experience from previous roles at Lend Lease, Jones Lang LaSalle and Property Council of Australia.

As a transactions analyst within the capital transactions team at Lend Lease, he hunted for deals and managed the due diligence process for acquisitions. At JLL, Walsh sat with the valuations and advisory team.

After four years at Aware Super, ESG manager Louise Bradshaw has switched superannuation funds. She has joined CareSuper, where she will serve as a responsible investment manager within the investment team.

"I am excited to join Claire Molinari and the RI team working within the investment team headed up by investment chief Suzanne Branton to help build and enhance the Fund's ESG capability as part of its broader investment approach," Bradshaw stated on LinkedIn.

The ESG specialist moved to Aware Super from the Australian Catholic Super and Retirement Fund as a senior analyst, but most recently held the role of responsible investment manager - a title she now has at Care Super.

At ACRF, she led the fund's socially responsible investment fund and ESG initiatives.

Bradshaw spent more than six years in institutional business at Eaton Vance Australia.

Earlier in her career, she was head of client and consultant relations for T. Rowe Price in Australia and New Zealand, transferring to Australia from the firm's London office.

While in London, she did short stints at First Sentier Investment and AllianceBernstein on the client services side of the funds management business.

Bradshaw is a former member of a PRI advisory committee tasked with designing a stewardship initiative for nature. Last November, CareSuper merged with Spirit Super to form a fund with $53 billion in assets under management.