The Future Fund, the A$109 billion (€78 billion; $84 billion) Australian sovereign wealth fund, has appointed Wendy Norris as its new head of infrastructure and timberland following a global search process.
Norris has been a director in the organisation’s infrastructure and timberland team for the last five years, having previously been an investment director at Hastings Funds Management and held project finance roles with ABN AMRO in Chicago and Sydney.
In her new role, she succeeds Raphael Arndt, who was promoted to become the Future Fund’s chief investment officer in September last year. In the interim period, the infrastructure and timberland role had been overseen by Barry Brakey, the fund’s head of property.
In a statement, Arndt described Norris as combining “infrastructure portfolio management, asset management and transaction expertise with the ability to contribute to investment thinking across all asset classes”.
As well as leading the development of Future Fund’s infrastructure portfolio, currently valued at more than A$8 billion (7.4 percent of total assets at the end of last year), Norris will also play a part in building the organisation’s overall portfolio as a member of its investment committee.
The Melbourne-based Future Fund was established in 2006 by the Australian government as a fund designed to meet the government’s future liabilities for the payment of pensions to retired Australian civil servants. The fund has a stated aim to hold A$140 billion in assets by 2020.
Reporting by Andy Thomson
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