Australia’s Future Fund Names David Bluff Head of Private Equity

The Future Fund, Australia’s A$196.1 billion ($132.4 billion) sovereign wealth fund, has named David Bluff as its head of private equity.

Bluff, who will report to Alicia Gregory, one of the fund’s three deputy CIOs, was most recently a partner and managing director at investment firm The Carlyle Group before retiring in June 2022. He spent 14 years at Carlyle, where he was head of Australia and New Zealand and a member of the firm’s Asia Pacific leadership team.

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“We are delighted to appoint David to the role of Head of Private Equity,” Gregory said in a release. “He has deep investment experience across private markets globally and is a well-respected leader in our industry. David joins an experienced team overseeing a significant, global portfolio of private equity investments.”

Prior to joining Carlyle, Bluff worked at U.K.-based brewing company SABMiller, where he was responsible for acquisitions in Europe and the Americas. Before that, he was an analyst with J.P. Morgan’s mergers and acquisitions teams in Australia and the U.K. He earned a degree in commerce and law from the University of Queensland.

“It’s a privilege to join the Future Fund team and to participate in such a large and diverse portfolio at a time of significant change in global financial markets,” Bluff said in the release.

The Future Fund also hired Sarah Azzi to join its private equity team as a director. Azzi previously was an investment director at Anacacia Capital and was a member of Mercer’s private markets team covering global managers.