Sam Sicilia has long been on my list of contacts to upgrade from phone interviewee to lunch date. Among superannuation fund executives – a sector that can be technical and dry, sometimes dubbed the public service of the financial world – the jovial and avuncular chief investment officer at Hostplus stands out.

But, sadly, despite his agreeing to participate in a Lunch with the AFR, the goal remains elusive. Such are the time demands on the man holding the purse strings at a $100 billion pension fund that he could only squeeze me in for breakfast — and even then, only at the Sydney CBD hotel he stays at when visiting from Melbourne, the Radisson Blu.