Advertise on podcast: The CIO Series

T. Rowe Price chief investment officer of fixed income Arif Husain is a huge believer in the AI revolution – he just doesn’t want to own its debt. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Husain said that through history’s great capacity build-outs, from canals and railways to fibre optics, the bondholder generally ended up the loser. And with hyperscalers now competing against overindebted governments in what he calls a “massive intergalactic battle for capital,” picking the wrong player means losing your money. Speaking with Investment Magazine’s Lachlan Maddock, Husain discussed why the 60/40 portfolio isn’t dead but now takes more work, why he believes the post-GFC disinflation era is dormant rather than over, and what super funds should and shouldn’t internalise in fixed income. In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia’s leading asset owners.

For smaller asset owners, how a portfolio gets built can matter as much as what goes into it. That’s the biggest lesson Frontier Advisors' Charles Wu says he has learned since the firm’s liftout of the investment team he ran at State Super. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Wu said a fund of State Super's scale could start with an investment idea and work out how to execute it later. But smaller clients may have limited access to vehicles, no institutional custodian and no way to make big calls. For them, operations and implementation have to be part of portfolio construction from day one. Speaking with Darcy Song, Wu discussed why he remains positive on AI at the index level, why he thinks asset owners aren’t allocating enough to Japan is underinvested, and his late-2021 decision to strip duration out of State Super's portfolios, a call he counts among his best. In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.

JANA’s new chief investment officer Matt Wacher thinks the biggest behavioural risk faced by investors is one they rarely talk about. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Wacher argued that both he and his peers included are prone to overconfidence and extrapolation, and that the AI capex boom is where that tendency is currently doing its work. Speaking with Lachlan Maddock, Wacher discussed the China tech position he got right for all the wrong reasons, how long an underperforming manager should get before the relationship ends, and why JANA needed a CIO after five years without one.  In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.

Team Super chief investment officer Seamus Collins believes investors are shaped as much by what went wrong as by what went right – and that asset managers and asset owners alike can carry those scars. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Collins described how investors anchor on their best and worst calls, and how the danger isn’t from taking on the market and losing, but doing so out of an unconscious defensiveness. Speaking with Lachlan Maddock, Collins also discussed why he disagrees with the trend away from investing in the US, what super funds trading against their own managers reveal about concentration risk, and the five simple decisions that actually move the dial on returns. In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.

LGT Wealth Management chief investment officer Scott Haslem believes that a geopolitically fragmented world is more opportunity than obstacle when it comes to investing. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Haslem argues that an environment of upheaval is creating huge thematic trends pulling capital towards everything from energy security to defence to AI and a far richer set of return drivers than investors could access even 20 years ago. Speaking with Lachlan Maddock, Haslem also discussed the hidden dimensions of the active versus passive debate, Old Testament investment advice, and why even CIOs can be too slow to sell. In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers of Australia's leading asset owners.

Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage believes the defining change of his 34-year career is speed – and that portfolios now have to be built for markets that can fall as far in days as they once did in months. Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Armitage noted that where the S&P 500 took a couple of months to fall 20 per cent during the GFC, COVID did it in a week, and Japanese equities managed it in two and a half days. Add an AI ecosystem bound together by cross-shareholdings and capital injections at a scale markets have never tested, and resilience, not prediction, becomes the central discipline of CIOs. Speaking with Simon Hoyle, Armitage discussed why CFS has parted ways with managers even when their performance was strong, the two-year-old emerging markets call that is now driving returns, and the death of the “hero fund manager”.  In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.

Robeco global chief investment officer Anton Eser believes AI is the most significant transformation in asset management since passive investing took hold – and that the winners and losers will be determined within the next six to twelve months.  Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Eser argued that what separates the winners won't be productivity gains from automating research reports, but rather the firms that fundamentally rethink the relationship between human and machine across their entire investment workflow. Eser discussed how dispersion in equity markets is creating the best backdrop for active management in a generation, why emerging markets have become a genuine opportunity, and the underappreciated risk that keeps him up at night. In partnership with Robeco, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.

AMP chief investment officer Anna Shelley thinks that the “pervasive” macroeconomic and geopolitical changes of the last few years will effect markets for years to come and fundamentally alter the investment landscape for asset owners.  Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Shelley argued that supply chain fragmentation, defence spending and the capital demands of AI are just some of the opportunities being created by a more fragmented world. In conversation with Investment Magazine's Lachlan Maddock, Shelley also discussed how AMP is thinking about TPA, what she is watching for when AI finally starts making investments, and the lesson from her first boss that has never left her. In partnership with Robeco, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers of Australia's leading asset owners.

In the latest episode of the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Michalakis sits down with APAC correspondent Darcy Song to unpack his investment philosophy, his return to Adelaide, and what he wishes he'd known when he first became a CIO.

Speaking with Investment Magazine's Lachlan Maddock, Miller discussed whether the total portfolio approach is genuinely novel or simply good investing by another name, why the performance test works against the members it is designed to protect, and the investment belief that has stayed constant across his career.

UniSuper chief investment officer John Pearce believes the traditional business cycle might be dead – and that investors need to reckon with what comes next. Speaking on the first episode of the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Pearce argued that policymakers have created a regime of permanent stimulus, where any economic slowdown is met with rate cuts and liquidity injections before a true recession can take hold. The implications for portfolio construction are profound. Speaking with Simon Hoyle, reporter-at-large and editor of Retirement Magazine, Pearce discussed the hype and reality of artificial intelligence, why super funds are hitting “peak exposure” to illiquid assets, and the investment calls that have defined his career. In partnership with Robeco, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia's leading asset owners.