Forrest family foundation hires former ART portfolio manager
Bruce Tomlinson has joined Andrew and Nicola Forrest's Minderoo Foundation as investment director after recently leaving the Australian Retirement Trust.
In the new role, the former ART portfolio manager will report to John Hartman, the chief investment officer of Minderoo and Tattarang, the Forrest family office and one of the country's largest private investors.
Tomlinson is the first dedicated investment hire for the Foundation and his appointment highlights a phase of more growth and specialisation.
First and foremost, Tomlinson joined Minderoo to help grow and evolve its investment portfolio.
It is Australia's second-largest philanthropic organisation, with around $2.5 billion in funds invested in a range of global initiatives. These include improving early childhood education, ending modern slavery and driving accountability for global overfishing, plastic pollution, global warming and the tech ecosystem.
Tomlinson pointed to the difference between the Foundation and a super fund, even though a super fund is not-for-profit.
"The Minderoo Foundation's investment capital can be far more focused on sustainable and responsible investment" he said.
"It's more than about negative screening and changing benchmarks. The Foundations capital will be invested to have a positive impact, not just achieve a return outcome."
"At the moment, most of the capital is allocated to listed equities and public bonds with a small but growing commitment to private equity, so there are opportunities to diversify."
For nearly 15 years, Tomlinson headed up alternative strategies at Sunsuper, which has merged with QSuper to create a $230 billion mega fund.
During his Sunsuper career, he built the fund's defensive alternatives program, starting with hedge funds, then private credit, and more recently adding direct mid-risk assets.
Tomlinson joined the Queensland super fund in 2007 from AMP Capital, where he spent eight years as a fund manager and four as the head of investment analytics."
