Suncorp CIO, Nick Basile, will retire from his position at the end of June and is looking to pursue a small number of non-executive director roles in the industry. A search is underway for his replacement.
Basile’s career in funds management spans nearly four decades and traces the modern history of the superannuation industry. He has been in charge of the $20 billion investment portfolio for Suncorp since 2013.
His career has included heading up direct investment management operations, as well as overseeing manage-the-manager strategies, including the early days of MLC which pioneered the outsource model and introduced sector specialist managers to Australia, with the help of Frank Russell in the mid-1980s, when Award Super was introduced.
Basile said last week that he hoped to continue to contribute to the industry by taking on a small number of non-executive directorships in super and funds management.
He currently sits on several boards, including the infrastructure group Gardior, as Suncorp’s representative. He transitioned Suncorp’s investments to the multi-manager model after the firm sold Tyndall to Nikko.
Basile, an actuary by training, started at the former Friends’ Provident in the 1970s. It was an era dominated by the life offices. He joined Lend Lease in 1987, when the legendary Dick Dusseldorp had been instrumental in bringing Frank Russell to Australia to advise on an outsourced model for the investment portfolio of its subsidiary MLC.
Basile was investment manager and a director until 1996 when he moved to Legal & General to head up investments. He subsequently became involved in the sale of Legal & General to Colonial and then Colonial’s purchase by Commonwealth Bank, as head of Commonwealth Investment Management. He then went on to work at St George Bank, where he had responsibility for businesses including Advance Asset Management, Insurance and Margin Lending, and then later headed up multi-affiliate managers Ascalon, owned by St George, and nabInvest.
Basile said he had been fortunate to have been involved in many aspects of a dynamic and rapidly evolving funds management industry and hoped that his skills would translate well to board roles. He had not been actively looking as yet, he said.
* Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)