![Teik Heng Tan, Executive Director, The Investment Innovation Institute [i3]](https://i3-invest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Teik-Heng-Tan_680-678x430.jpg)
The role and responsibilities of CIOs continue to change as funds become larger and the sector matures. Teik Heng Tan investigates whether they are still investment specialists first or have become more of a manager of investment teams
I once sat across the table from the chief investment officer (CIO) of a large sovereign fund at a dinner function, and what was an informal conversation turned serious when I asked the question, “As the CIO, do you see yourself as an investor or a manager?”
Without hesitation he answered, “I’m a manager!”
The Changing Role of the CIO
Most of us were surprised at the recent appointment of the new chief investment officer of Rest Super, a $93 billion Australian superannuation fund.
Michael Clancy comes with outstanding leadership credentials, having successfully led Qantas Super as CEO for almost 10 years and NAB’s wealth management business prior to that.
There is no doubt about his management capabilities, but the surprise stemmed from the assumption that he hasn’t been in the trenches of investment decision-making over the past decade.
Reading between the lines of that appointment, one can probably hazard a guess about the organisational development priorities of the super fund.
Is that symptomatic of the changing role of the CIO, as the industry matures?
To many budding investment analysts, becoming the CIO is probably the epitome of their career. But what does it take to get there?
In a poll of investment analysts held at the [i3] NextGen Academy** program last year, almost 25% aspired to be a CIO in 10-15 years’ time.
Source: Delegate Polling at [i3] NextGen: Portfolio Strategy Academy 2024
When I was developing that academy programme, the CIO of a large superannuation fund shared his talent development objective with me: “I’m looking for a good technical specialist who can grow into a generalist manager”
I interpret that in terms of the breadth and depth of the role. Most investment analysts have the requisite depth ie technical know-how or the hard skills. It is almost a hygiene factor and likely the basis of them being hired in the first place.
But the breadth relates to the ability to communicate, negotiate and engage – also known as soft skills, plus a healthy dose of EQ (emotional quotient).
Crunching numbers is not easy but managing people is another whole new level. As some would say the “soft stuff is the hard stuff”!
Australian Retirement Trust (ART) vs Unisuper
No analysis is complete nowadays without an AI research contribution, at least for me. So I set forth creating a task for ChatGPT.
I was interested to know if there were other dimensions impacting the changing role of the CIO, beyond the fund size factor.
For example, with size comes implications for structure and governance. How does organisational structure, culture and investment strategy impact the CIO role?
I dug into the [i3] Podcast archive, where we had previously interviewed CIOs of two large superannuation funds with different operating models:
Episode 78: Ian Patrick, CIO, Australian Retirement Trust (ART)
Episode 65: John Pearce, CIO, Unisuper
Based on the conversations with both CIOs, ChatGPT analysed the content and keywords, with particular attention to statements and quotes that reflect the evolving balance of management versus investment-specific responsibilities.
Further considerations were given to the amount of time devoted to discussing those issues during the podcast
This might sound like a rudimentary experiment, but I felt more assured with ChatGPT using a deep reasoning model and other tools to analyse the voice conversations on the SoundCloud platform.
The findings in the table below are segmented into multiple dimensions for ease of comparison.
CIO Role Comparison: Manager vs Investor
Source: ChatGPT-generated analysis, drawn from [i3] Podcasts
A Shifting Paradigm in CIO Leadership
The contrast between Patrick and Pearce illustrates a paradigm shift: As super funds grow in size and complexity, CIOs are increasingly required to be organisational managers – building systems, overseeing governance, integrating cultures, and enabling investment teams – rather than playing the traditional role of manager selector or market strategist.
But the transition is uneven and contextual. In a mature, centralised fund like UniSuper, the CIO can still act as a high-profile investment driver.
In a scaled-up, post-merger giant like ART, the CIO becomes more like a chief investment executive, balancing leadership across investment, risk and organisational transformation.
It is incumbent for CIOs in the Australian investment landscape to have blended skills:
- Strategic leadership and people management
- Strong governance knowledge
- High-level investment understanding (even if not tactical)
- Communication skills to align diverse stakeholders (trustees, regulators, teams).
The CIO role is certainly evolving from a “chief allocator” to “chief orchestrator.”
However, despite the prestige, not everyone could or should be the CIO.
PS: An investment savvy CIO friend once lamented to me that he spends only 5% of his time in any given day on investment decision-making. My ideal job, as he quipped, is to be the Head of Investment Strategy, not CIO!
** The [i3] NextGen: Portfolio Strategy Academy aims to equip aspiring young leaders with strategic thinking and adaptive skills needed to navigate a rapidly evolving investment landscape. The next edition will be hosted in Melbourne on 27-28 November 2025
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[i3] Insights is the official educational bulletin of the Investment Innovation Institute [i3]. It covers major trends and innovations in institutional investing, providing independent and thought-provoking content about pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds across the globe.