Paul Costello

Four years after becoming its first employee, Paul Costello will leave his role as general manager of Australia’s Future Fund, saying “new leadership” was appropriate now that the A$87 billion ($81.2 billion) vehicle was beyond its “startup phase.” (more…)

There are eight “gauntlets” that any managed fund will have to run over the medium term,  according to Investec Asset Management investment strategist Michael Power, and while a Japanese equity fund might be lucky to meet one of them, funds investing in commodities or the emerging markets would satisfy almost all eight. (more…)

Forget the Taiwan issue and China Sea disputes with Japan, the biggest threat to national security for the Chinese people went largely unnoticed last week: 160 illegally bred king cobra snakes escaped captivity from a farm on the outskirts of Beijing. (more…)

Gary Smith

Poor communication and differing incentives between politicians and national wealth managers are undermining performance, argues global head of official institutions at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Gary Smith.

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A new EDHEC-Risk Institute publication, “The Performance of Socially Responsible Investment and Sustainable Development in France: an Update after the Financial Crisis”, concludes that SRI should be integrated in a global process combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. (more…)

Venture capital has been through probably its worst decade ever as an institutional investor asset class, as private equity – as dominated by buyouts – recovered over the past few quarters from some of the ground lost during the global financial crisis. (more…)