UniSuper
{{short description|Australian superannuation and pension fund}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox company
| name = UniSuper
| logo = File:UniSuperAustralianFundLogo.svg
| type = Mutual fund
| key_people = Peter Chun, CEO
Greg Armour, Chairman
| location = Level 1, 385 Bourke Street,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| industry = Industry superannuation
| aum = {{increase}} A$139 billion (funds under management)
| products =
| members = 647,000
| predecessors = {{Unbulleted list|Superannuation Scheme for Australian Universities (SSAU)|Tertiary Education Superannuation Scheme (TESS)}}
| founded = October 2000
| homepage = {{URL|https://unisuper.com.au/}}
}}
UniSuper is an Australian superannuation fund that provides superannuation services to employees of Australia's higher education and research sector. The fund has over 615,000 members and {{AUD|124 billion}} in funds under management, as of 30 June 2023.{{cite web|url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are|title=Who we are - UniSuper|website=www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are|accessdate=10 May 2024|url-status=live|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20240510221100/https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are|archivedate=10 May 2024|df=dmy-all}}
UniSuper is a not-for-profit company whose shareholders are 37 Australian universities and is governed by a corporate Trustee, UniSuper Limited. All the universities have representation on the Consultative Committee.
UniSuper has been granted a MySuper authority, enabling it to continue to receive default superannuation contributions from 1 January 2014.
Fund history
UniSuper was founded in 1 October 2000, as a result of a merger between the Superannuation Scheme for Australian Universities (SSAU) and the Tertiary Education Superannuation Scheme (TESS). Prior to the merger, UniSuper had been the trustee for the SSAU.{{cite web|url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/fund-profile|title=Fund Profile - UniSuper|website=www.unisuper.com.au|accessdate=8 July 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327061542/https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/fund-profile|archivedate=27 March 2018|df=dmy-all}}
UniSuper has pursued a strategy of buying 'fortress' stocks (defensible against disruption), as well as bringing investment functions in-house, in order to achieve significant returns over time.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/the-secrets-behind-unisuper-s-sparkling-outperformance-20190804-p52dp5.html|title=The secrets behind UniSuper's sparkling outperformance|last=Miles|first=Stephen|date=2019-08-05|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en|access-date=2019-08-28}}
In May 2024, due to a misconfiguration of a Google Cloud VMware Engine Private Cloud by Google operators as a result of leaving a parameter blank, a previously unknown bug was triggered, resulting in all of UniSuper's data on the platform being deleted.{{Cite web |title=UniSuper's Google cloud deletion traced to "blank parameter" in setup |url=https://www.itnews.com.au/news/unisupers-google-cloud-deletion-traced-to-blank-parameter-in-setup-608286 |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=iTnews}} The vast majority of data was later recovered from backup sources, and Google put in place safeguards to ensure a similar incident would not happen again.{{Cite web |date=2024-05-24 |title=Sharing details on a recent incident impacting one of our customers |url=https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/infrastructure/details-of-google-cloud-gcve-incident |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=Google Cloud Blog |language=en-US}} Google described it as a "one-of-a-kind" event{{Cite web |title=A joint statement from UniSuper and Google Cloud |url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/About%20us/Media%20centre/2024/A%20joint%20statement%20from%20UniSuper%20and%20Google%20Cloud |access-date=2024-08-07 |website=UniSuper |language=en}} which had never previously occurred within Google Cloud.
Fund governance
UniSuper's day-to-day administration is managed by a wholly owned company, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd (UniSuper Management).
UniSuper's Chief Executive Officer is Peter Chun.{{cite web|url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/executive-leadership-team|title=Executive leadership team - UniSuper|website=www.unisuper.com.au|accessdate=4 December 2021|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204025729/https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/executive-leadership-team|archivedate=4 December 2021|df=dmy-all}}
=Board of directors=
UniSuper's Board of Directors governs the operations of UniSuper to ensure the Fund is administered in accordance with the Trust Deed, and determines the strategic direction of the Fund. The Board represents, and is accountable to, the members of UniSuper and the Fund's participating employers.
The directors of UniSuper as of 2017 are:{{cite web|url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/our-board|title=Our Board|work=UniSuper|accessdate=4 December 2021|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204025910/https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-people/our-board|archivedate=4 December 2021|df=dmy-all}}{{Update inline|date=August 2024|?=yes}}
;Directors representing employers:
- Nominated by shareholder universities
- Professor Peter Dawkins (Vice-Chancellor and President, Victoria University)
- Professor Jane den Hollander (Vice Chancellor, Deakin University)
- Nominated by the Consultative Committee employer representatives
- Nicole Gower
- Stephen Somogyi
;Directors representing members
- Nominated by the Consultative Committee member representatives
- Professor Lelia Green
- Keith Tull
- Nominated by national unions
- Grahame McCulloch - National Tertiary Education Union
- Sarah Roberts - National Tertiary Education Union
;Independent Directors
- Ian Martin AM (Chairman)
- Nicolette Rubinsztein
- Mark Amour
=Consultative Committee=
The Consultative Committee reviews and approves changes to the Trust Deed and is responsible for nominating four directors to the Board of Directors.
Shareholder universities each appoint up to four members to the Consultative Committee. Half the members represent the employers, the other half represents, equally, academic staff and general staff.
As at 24 March 2017, the Consultative Committee had 145 members and there were four vacant positions.{{cite web|url=https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/our-people/committees#Consultative%20committee
|title=Committees - UniSuper|website=www.unisuper.com.au|accessdate=8 July 2018|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327062435/https://www.unisuper.com.au/about-us/our-people/committees|archivedate=27 March 2018|df=dmy-all}}
See also
References
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