Former IFM exec joins Cbus

Cbus Super has made three appointments as part of a plan to grow its in-house investment teams to 59 people by the end of this year. 

Linda Cunningham, formerly the executive director of debt investments at IFM Investors, has joined the Australian super fund as a Melbourne-based manager for debt. With over 25 years’ experience in fund management and banking, she is tasked with overseeing alternative debt investments within Cbus’ public markets team and is also responsible for designing strategies that will help grow the institution’s debt footprint in the longer term. 

Alex Miller, most recently a director within KPMG’s infrastructure and projects unit, has been appointed to the private markets team as infrastructure transaction specialist. Based in Sydney, Miller has 18 years of experience in originating and executing greenfield and brownfield infrastructure transactions. Prior to KPMG, he was a director at BOS International, a Scottish lender previously owned by Lloyds Banking Group.

The third appointment sees Anna Weickart join Cbus as a Sydney-based senior investment analyst in the public markets team from consultancy Willis Towers Watson. She oversees the fund’s international and Australian equity research activities. 

Kristian Fok, the fund’s executive manager of investment strategy, told Infrastructure Investor in August that Cbus was looking to add three staff to what was then a two-man infrastructure team. He also said that the fund was aiming to deploy about A$1 billion ($766 million; €698 million) through direct investments in infrastructure. 

The recruitments come after the fund’s unveiled a new investment strategy in August. Under the plan, Cbus aims to grow its assets under management from A$34 billion to over A$50 billion in the next three to five years.