Top ART executives depart in reshuffle

Australia Retirement Trust has appointed new heads for its equities, fixed-income, private debt and capital markets businesses following a revamp of its investment team.

The superannuation giant's plan to simplify the investment process has seen several key jobs change hands and the exit of two long-serving senior executives.

Greg Barnes, head of public markets, and Herbert Chang, head of capital markets, have left the fund, and their roles farmed out to other executives.

It is understood that Barnes has retired.

Amidst the shake-up, Elizabeth Kumaru, head of private equity, will take on Barnes's role, which means she is in charge of all growth assets.

The high-profile Barnes worked at ART for six years and previously spent 11 years at Sunsuper before it merged with QSuper in 2022 to create the $300 billion megafund.

He joined from RHB OSK Asset Management, a Malaysian fund manager based in Singapore, where he served as chief executive.

Barnes has also held roles at JP Morgan, AMP Capital, and NSW State Super.

For his part, Chang has been running capital markets for ART since 2022 and was with the Queensland-based legacy fund QSuper before that.

As a consequence of his departure, strategy lead Andrew Fisher will oversee the trading function. His new title is general manager of total portfolio management and resilience.

Michael Weaver, head of global real assets, will add private debt management to his remit - his new title is general manager of mid-risk assets and the UK.

Meanwhile, Jody Fitzgerald has been tapped to oversee the fixed-income unit as general manager of defensive liquid assets and portfolio intelligence.

Fitzgerald joined ART just over a year ago as head of investment resilience & planning.

This function has been rebadged as portfolio excellence and encompasses exposure management.

Fitzgerald arrived from Morningstar Investment, where she ran institutional portfolio management and solutions.

The new leads report to ART investment chief Ian Patrick who said: "To support the next phase of our development and continue delivering strong outcomes for our members, we have updated the investments operating model.

"The structure recognises core functional groupings that underpin our current activities, aligning accountabilities with our integrated approach to managing portfolios and supports the continuing evolution of our operations as we strive to deliver world-class investment capability."

Patrick thanked Barnes and Chang for their contributions.

As for the new leads, Kumaru also landed from QSuper, where she was the head of funds management.

Before that, she spent 11 years at QIC, leading an investment team responsible for over $45 billion in infrastructure and real estate investments.

Weaver was the head of private markets at Sunsuper for 15 years and earlier spent nine years at Mercer.