State Super equities lead exits

After five and a half years at State Super, Andrew Huang has departed to set up his own shop in the sustainability space.

As reported last week, Jonathan Chung has stepped into Huang's role of senior investment manager - equities.

Huang has left the fund to set up Impact Alpha Partners - a start-up that aims to partner with investors and help them drive impact and alpha into portfolio outcomes.

State Super chief executive John Livanas said : "We wish Andrew the very best in his new venture."

At State Super, Huang led the design and implementation of the fund's first strategic investment in companies that are expected to financially benefit from global decarbonisation.

To follow his passion for research, he departed to focus on market developments in impact investing.

"Expectations continue to grow for institutional investors to understand and influence how their investments affect wider societal and planetary environments," he said.

"Whilst collaborative engagement continues to make big strides to reduce negative impacts while growing economic well-being, there is an increasing set of investment opportunities that deliver positive impact and return benefits with improving validity over time.

"I believe that impact investing will open up (or already has opened up) another competitive front for differentiation amongst funds as they aim to contribute societal and planetary impacts while driving competitive returns and economic well-being"

Currently, he says, impact investing is at a nascent stage in institutional portfolios.

During his career, Huang has held roles at Colonial First State Global Asset Management, AIA Australia, LUCRF Super and Mercer.