Alberts is thrilled to announce the addition of Rest superannuation’s former Head of Fixed Income, Credit and Cash, Tracey Duff, to the company’s Investment Committee.
When Tracey Duff announced her impending retirement as Head of Fixed Income, Credit and Cash with Rest late last year, there was a keen sense of the loss of such an impactful member. The indefatigable Melburnite had been a key presence – not only in the super fund, but the local finance industry for decades, regarded as much for her strategic thinking as her trademark outgoing nature and inclusive leadership.
Rest’s loss is Alberts’ gain, as Duff has joined the company’s Investment Committee. Since October, she has sat alongside highly respected investment industry veterans and fellow external committee members Chris Cuffe AO, Chris Pidcock, Andrew Rothery (Alberts’ non-executive director), and group CEO David Albert.
“We’re excited to welcome Tracey to the Investment Committee, adding to the committee’s strong technical skills and culture whilst enhancing not only member diversity but also diversity of thought given her deep fixed income experience and institutional perspective,” says Alberts’ CFO Ben Edmonds, adding Tracey will also provide input to the Committee supporting The Tony Foundation, Alberts’ philanthropic arm.
A proud country Victorian, Tracey grew up in the Mount Buller ski resort, the daughter of a Scot enticed to Victoria in 1952 to help build the Olympic village for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Initially billeted to a skiing family, her father would ultimately go on to co-found and run, with Tracey’s mother, a ski-hire business in the alpine village.
Tracey went on to study a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Spanish art history at La Trobe University and firmly believes her ongoing interest in history – she describes herself as ‘an historian by nature’ – has been key to her four-decade career in the finance industry.
“Economics and the macro environment are very historical, you’re continually referring back to what happened previously in the macro environment and how society reacted,” Tracey says, citing ‘the GFC’ of the 1930s as an example. “I’m an organised person and an interested person and the investment world allows you to deploy all those skills, the historian side suits fixed income.”
Tracey’s journey into finance began in the mid-‘80s as a temp computer inputter with the ANZ, where she would remain for 17 years, ultimately rising to Senior Money Market Manager before moving briefly to the Treasury Corporation of Victoria, managing client services.
“Whilst at TCV, I found that I missed the ability to investigate whatever trends I thought compelling, follow markets, politics, all those things that go into big market moves. So, when the opportunity came to go back to investment management at Rest, I jumped at it.”
When she joined the business, Rest employed around six staff in Melbourne and five in Sydney. Today, the $100bn super fund has approximately 500 employees working between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and London, overseeing the superannuation of two million members who are overwhelmingly young, female and often straight out of school.
It is Rest’s ethos and membership base that has driven Tracey’s ongoing interest in and commitment to the fund.
“You focus on producing the best retirement outcome you can for those two million people who are overwhelmingly female, often have broken careers through kids and shift work, and typically have very small balances,” says Tracey. “The ethos of the place kept me there because it’s very aligned with how I see things.”
Tracey balanced her career at Rest with pro bono work for the Supreme Court of Victoria, advising the Master of Funds on investment decisions on behalf of members of the public receiving compensation for circumstances such as crime or disability.
It was through Tracey’s connection with Chris Pidcock, a former colleague at Rest, that she heard Alberts was looking for an additional member for its Investment Committee. Passionate about music, Tracey was familiar with the company through the 2015 documentary Blood + Thunder: the Sound of Alberts, but says it was learning more about what drives the family business today that triggered her decision to retire from full-time work.
“Being Head of Fixed Income is a six-day a week job and when the opportunity with Alberts came up, I wanted to give it a proper crack. I’ve worked for 40 years straight, I turned 65 in August, the time was right,” she says.
“The role with Alberts is an opportunity too good to miss. Alberts’ focus on responsible investment, diversity and sustainability are at the core of what we’ve tried to do at Rest and was certainly at the core of my team.
“It’s all about the people you work with and interact with. Trust is so important to me, no matter how you dress it up – ‘social capital’, ‘relationship building’. And the fact Alberts is involved with music is also a bit of a winner!,” says Tracey. “[But] it’s all about trust, and I’ve got a pretty good radar. I’m hoping to contribute positively to the portfolio’s investment outcome, and to make a positive contribution to Alberts broader goals of pioneering a vibrant and sustainable future.”
