NZ Super Picks Internal Candidates as New Co-CIOs

Will Goodwin

Brad Dunstan

The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, the entity which manages the NZ$80.1 billion ($48.49 billion) New Zealand sovereign wealth fund, announced Tuesday the promotions of Brad Dunstan and Will Goodwin to co-CIO, effective December 2.

The duo succeeds Stephen Gilmore, who left the fund in June to take on the role of CIO at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Alex Bacchus, previously head of strategic tilting, will remain acting CIO until the appointments of Dunstan and Goodwin are effective.

Dunstan joined the fund in 2013 as head of portfolio completion and is currently the funds acting general manager of portfolio completion. Goodwin is currently head of direct investments and was previously head of the fund’s New Zealand direct investments.

“Taking into account the projected future growth of the Fund and the increasingly complex and challenging investment environment in which we are operating, it makes sense to combine the functions of the CIO and the GM Portfolio Completion and create a co-CIO model,” said Jo Townsend, NZ Super’s CEO, in a statement.

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Dunstan earned a bachelor of commerce degree in management, accounting and finance from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was previously co-head of European equity derivates at Collins Stewart.

Goodwin earned a bachelor of commerce and administration and a master of applied finance degree from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Goodwin is chair of the Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc. and was chairman and director of Kiwi Group Holdings.

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is the entity which manages the superannuation of New Zealand; all the country’s citizens are eligible for income from the NZ Super upon retirement.

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Alex Bacchus Appointed Acting CIO of NZ Super

Tags: Brad Dunstan, Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, Jo Townsend, New Zealand Superannuation Fund, NZ Super, Will Goodwin

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, speaking at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s annual meeting on Monday, stressed the need for policy makers to address the federal deficit and $36 trillion national debt, pointing to the strength of U.S. capital markets as a way to improve the country’s fiscal woes.

“The economy is growing about 3%, but if you take out the excess spending of the federal government [$1.8 trillion deficit], that’s an equivalent of 6% GDP,” Fink said. “The growth is on the back of debt; the growth is not on the back of equity … we are going to have a [debt] crisis.”

One way to tackle the deficit, the CEO of the $11.5 trillion asset manager said, is to grow the economy above the trendline by investing in major projects like infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

Fink pointed out the billions that AI and data center projects cost, noting that these investments are opportunities for private capital to grow the economy.

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“I’m not frightened of this deficit, but it’s pretty cautionary if we don’t find a way to unlock growth,” Fink said. “This is my message to every politician: We need to be unlocking growth from the private sector, and the U.S. is in the best position of any country in the world because of the scale of our capital markets.”

Fink says the way to unlock capitalism and achieve this growth is not to raise or lower taxes, but to make the capital markets more efficient, so that they can provide more funding for more segments of the economy.

Permitting reform is needed to clear a major hindrance to building needed infrastructure projects, Fink noted in his remarks: “The permitting process is inhibiting growth, inhibiting opportunity.”

Fink also pointed to the role that private credit can play in infrastructure investing.

“I think the biggest growth of private credit can be infrastructure credit,” Fink said. “I believe you’re going to see more and more opportunities in all the different shades of credit.”