Rear Window

UniSuper's John Pearce dusts $5bn in 11 weeks

Joe AstonColumnist

Mar 17, 2020 – 11.50pm

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Just one, cruel month ago, UniSuper’s chief investment officer John Pearce was honoured with the page one splash of AFR Weekend, a poison chalice if ever there was one.

“Mr 18%” went the headline, celebrating the (then) $85 billion retirement fund’s 18.4 per cent returns for calendar 2019. “All the stars aligned last year but clearly that means all the stars can go the other way as well.” Spooky. Can they ever!

Joe Aston is the founder of Rampart and the best-selling author of The Chairman’s Lounge: The inside story of how Qantas sold us out. From 2012 to 2023, Joe helmed The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window column.