Cbus, Australia’s Construction and Building Unions Superannuation fund, has named a new deputy CIO to replace Alexandra Campbell, who vacated the role last July after four years.
Leigh Gavin was promoted to deputy CIO after serving as head of portfolio strategies since October 2023. Gavin oversaw the super fund’s strategy to internalize more than half its assets under management and look after global partnerships to access new investments.
Gavin previously worked as head of investment model design at AustralianSuper. Prior to that, Gavin spent five years as CIO of LUCRF Super, the labor union superannuation fund acquired by AustralianSuper, following a long career advising super funds at Frontier Advisors.
Cbus CIO Brett Chatfield said the appointment of Gavin reflects the fund’s growth ambitions to build out internal strategies.
“Leigh has done an exceptional job continuing the build out of internal equity strategies, and enhanced key strategic portfolio initiatives and business management activities,” Chatfield said in a statement. “We are very well placed to continue the successful build out of our internal capabilities under Leigh.”
The super fund expects its internal investment capabilities to grow to manage about 50% of the portfolio within three years.
“Leigh will continue to look at ways we can bring further strategies in-house as part of Cbus’ five-year investment strategy,” Chatfield added.
Gavin commented in the statement that Cbus is “entering a ‘Goldilocks period’ where we are small enough to take advantage of a range of opportunities and large enough to be achieving real economies of scale for members.”
He added: “We see plenty of scope to roll out new internal strategies, our portfolio construction and [defensive asset allocation] programs are really taking shape and we are well placed to take advantage of private markets opportunities. I’m excited to be assisting Brett to deliver on our current strategy and turning an eye to what the next 10 or 20 years will look like.”
This article originally appeared in our sister publication, Financial Standard, which, like CIO, is owned by ISS STOXX.