(pictured: Adriaan Ryder)
Maybe insiders were not surprised and, maybe, we should have seen it coming, but the announcement by QIC last Thursday that its long-standing chief investment officer, Adriaan Ryder, had resigned to join an unnamed “major middle eastern” sovereign fund, at least surprised the market.
The decision follows the appointment last year of Jim Christensen as a managing director in charge of QIC’s global multi-asset team, which was previously run by Ryder. Christensen was the chief investment officer of Telstra Super for six years, but before that he spent more than 12 years at QIC, including as head of what was then known as its “active management division”. He resigned from Telstra last November.
“Adriaan made a significant contribution to QIC and a number of key clients through his focus on the fiduciary management function of the Queensland government’s retirement assets as well as by deepening our sovereign wealth fund networks,” the QIC statement said.
“Jim and Adriaan have had a smooth handover of the running of the global multi-asset team, investment processes, and clients, which has benefitted from Jim’s previous experience at QIC and corporate knowledge,” QIC said.
Ryder joined QIC in 2005, serving in several senior asset management and strategy roles before he was promoted to chief investment officer in 2008. An actuary by training, Ryder has been in asset management for about 35 years. Before QIC he held senior investment roles in the UK and US, managing institutional client portfolios worldwide, with responsibility for asset management businesses in Japan, Europe and Canada.
In the past few years, QIC has grown significantly into a global fund manager, with strong capabilities in infrastructure and property, a burgeoning New York office and with total assets of about A$80 billion.
Frawley was recruited from BlackRock, where he was the Sydney-based chief executive, to Brisbane-based QIC in 2012. Both he and Christensen were raised in Queensland. Don Luke, the highly regarded former chief executive of Sunsuper and fellow Queenslander, was appointed chair of QIC in 2013.
