UAO Insider
People, power, relationships and influence across the world’s largest asset owners.
Issue 3 · Saturday, 13 June 2026
People Moves
Ralph Berg Departure
Head of Europe and head of the New Energy & Industrials and Mobility & Logistics teams, Temasek (London-based, from 1 September 2026)
Previously: Chief Investment Officer, OMERS (CIO since April 2023; with OMERS since 2013; departs OMERS 1 July 2026, with CEO Blake Hutcheson assuming CIO duties in the interim)
John Dewey New Hire
Chief Investment Officer, Northern LGPS (subject to regulatory approval)
Previously: Chief Investment Officer, West Yorkshire Pension Fund (previously Managing Director, HSBC Alternatives, Singapore)
Lim Leong Guan New Hire
Head of Private Banking, Middle East, South Asia & International, and CEO of the DIFC branch, Dubai (from 1 July 2026, subject to regulatory approval)
Previously: Global Head of Financial Intermediaries, Family Office & Wealth Advisory, Bank of Singapore (at the bank since 2020; a 35-year private-banking career)
Also moving: Charlotte Quarmby → Head of Transitions, pension-risk-transfer business (from Aon), Legal & General (src) · Sera Sadrettin → Chief Operating & Finance Officer (from Fidelity International), Northern LGPS (src) · Priya Kainth → first Master Trust Board apprentice (from Bank of America), Standard Life (Phoenix Group) (src)
On the Circuit
SuperReturn opens in Berlin with LPs pressing GPs for their money back
The year's largest private-capital gathering (InterContinental Berlin, 8-12 June) opened on 8 June with 6,000-plus attendees and 2,000-plus LPs reportedly representing more than US$50trn in AUM. Bloomberg's curtain-raiser captured the mood bluntly: pensions, sovereign funds and endowments arrived to press managers to return capital amid a stalled distribution cycle, with a keynote roster including Carlyle's David Rubenstein and CVC's Rob Lucas. Why it matters. The distributions-to-paid-in (DPI) squeeze is now the defining LP-GP tension of 2026, and the largest allocators are using the Berlin floor to recalibrate re-up pacing — the tone set this week tends to shape allocation conversations through the summer. (SuperReturn International 2026, 8 Jun 2026, Bloomberg)
Brighter Super's new CIO makes his pitch: small caps, EM and 'the Sunshine State'
In his first public remarks since taking the role — at Investment Magazine's Fiduciary Investors Symposium (3-5 June, Blue Mountains NSW) — Damien Webb said the A$37bn fund will chase alpha through small caps, emerging markets and its home state of Queensland, likening the local 'ecosystem' to the way Stanford invests around itself, while stressing the fund is still seeking scale. Why it matters. A mid-sized fund leaning deliberately into capacity-constrained segments the mega-funds cannot easily access is a live example of how smaller allocators differentiate as Australian consolidation pressure intensifies. (Brighter Super, 8 Jun 2026, Investment Magazine)
Capital Society
PIF and Talaat Moustafa Group Saudi sign an urban-development MoU under PIF's new strategy
PIF and Talaat Moustafa Group Saudi for Real Estate Development signed a non-binding MoU to explore cooperation on mixed-use residential, commercial, hospitality, retail and integrated urban projects across PIF-owned developments — work that sits under the 'urban development and livability' ecosystem, one of six new ecosystems in PIF's just-approved 2026-2030 strategy. Why it matters. Signals PIF leaning on proven master-developer expertise to de-risk delivery across its giga-project pipeline, and operationalises the domestic-ecosystem focus of its new five-year plan. (Public Investment Fund, 7 Jun 2026, PIF (press release))
Mandates & Money
Abu Dhabi Investment Council anchors a US$2bn raise for ExodusPoint
ADIC, the autonomous Mubadala arm, was among the backers of a US$2bn capital raise by Michael Gelband's multi-strategy hedge fund ExodusPoint — the firm's first major raise since 2023 — lifting its assets to roughly US$14.5bn following an 18% return in 2025. Why it matters. Underscores Abu Dhabi's accelerating tilt toward externally-managed alternatives — hedge funds, private credit and secondaries — and its willingness to write anchor tickets into leveraged multi-strategy platforms. (Abu Dhabi Investment Council, 10 Jun 2026, Bloomberg)
Masdar takes a ~US$978m, 49.99% stake in a 705MW Repsol renewables portfolio in Spain
Masdar — the Abu Dhabi clean-energy champion backed by Mubadala, ADNOC and TAQA — agreed to take 49.99% of a EUR849m Repsol renewables portfolio of 705MW operational capacity (13 wind farms and six solar parks) plus a 565MW hybridisation pipeline, a deal The National valued at roughly US$978m and expected to close by year-end pending approvals. Why it matters. Advances Masdar's 100GW-by-2030 target via the partner-with-incumbents model Gulf investors favour for scaling renewables abroad, and deepens Abu Dhabi's energy-transition footprint inside the EU. (Masdar, 11 Jun 2026, The National)
ADIA realises value as gas-engine maker Innio raises US$2.43bn in an upsized Nasdaq IPO
Munich-based Innio, in which ADIA holds a minority stake taken in 2023 alongside Advent International, priced an upsized IPO at the top of its range (US$27/share), raising US$2.43bn; shares began trading on 4 June with the offering (entirely secondary) closing 5 June, leaving Advent- and ADIA-backed entities with about 90% control. Demand was driven by appetite for AI-data-centre power infrastructure. Why it matters. A marquee partial-monetisation milestone for ADIA on an energy-infrastructure bet that rode the AI-power thematic — a concrete read on how Gulf funds are realising value from pre-IPO positions in the data-centre supply chain. (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, 5 Jun 2026, Reuters (via Zawya))
Illinois SURS terminates a long-volatility hedge fund manager for underperformance
Illinois SURS terminated a hedge fund manager from its long-volatility portfolio for underperformance, four years after originally hiring the firm — the latest in a series of allocation moves by the system. Why it matters. A clear data point on US public plans tightening manager oversight and pulling capital from tail-hedge strategies that have not delivered through the cycle. (Illinois State Universities Retirement System, 10 Jun 2026, Pensions & Investments)
CalPERS discloses ~US$800m of new real estate commitments to Sculptor and BGO
CalPERS disclosed a US$200m commitment to Sculptor Real Estate Fund V plus US$400m of sidecar co-investment, and a further US$200m to a BentallGreenOak-managed sidecar vehicle. Sculptor's Fund V closed in December 2025 at a US$4.6bn hard cap, targeting digital infrastructure, cold storage, gaming/leisure and hotels. Why it matters. Confirms the largest US public plan is still deploying into alternative real-estate sectors through co-investment-heavy structures, days before its 1 July switch to a total-portfolio approach. (CalPERS, 10 Jun 2026, PERE)
Quiet Signals
Liu Haoling moves from CIC to China's securities regulator
China Investment Corporation's Vice Chairman, President and Chief Investment Officer, Liu Haoling — at CIC since 2008 — has been appointed Vice Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), a State Council appointment surfaced in late April 2026 and reflected in a subsequent CIC personnel notice; no successor CIO has been publicly named. The signal. The sovereign fund loses its top investment executive to the regulator at a moment of heavy state focus on capital-markets reform, and the unfilled CIO seat is one to watch — context that originated before this week's window. (China Investment Corporation)
Border to Coast positions as the UK pool courting cross-border co-investment
Profiled as Global SWF's June 'Fund of the Month', the ~US$158bn Border to Coast pool — Europe's sixth-largest institutional investor after its 1 April expansion to 18 partner funds — used the feature (via CIO Joe McDonnell) to outline its openness to co-operation with sovereign and pension peers in Canada, Australia and Asia, framing itself as a preferred UK access partner for international asset owners. The signal. The consolidated UK LGPS pools are now scaled enough to court cross-border co-investment partnerships — a new node forming in the global allocator network. Published 1 June, just ahead of this week's window. (Global SWF)
A Nordic CIO repositions into real assets and venture for a higher-rate era
Sampension CIO Henrik Olejasz Larsen detailed a portfolio rebuild around real assets with secure income (real estate, infrastructure, forestry, commodities) as inflation protection, stripped leverage from credit, and a further lean into venture capital via fund-of-funds — despite Solvency II constraints that keep most Danish funds structurally underweight VC. The signal. A clear statement of how a mid-sized Nordic allocator is repricing strategy for a post-disinflation regime, and a live example of how Solvency II shapes European venture exposure. (Markets Group)
Italy overhauls pension auto-enrolment, set to widen the second-pillar asset base
Italy finalised an auto-enrolment overhaul (under the 2026 Budget Law) that auto-directs new private-sector hires' TFR severance accruals — and, by default, employer and employee contributions — into pension funds, and defaults new entrants into life-cycle strategies; COVIP President Mario Pepe called it 'a paradigm shift'. The signal. A structural expansion of Italy's funded second pillar that, over time, enlarges the pool of long-term capital European asset owners and managers compete to run — context rather than a discrete owner move. (Markets Group)
Name to Know
Ralph Berg — Head of Europe (from 1 September 2026), Temasek (from OMERS)
Berg leaves the CIO seat at OMERS — which he has held since 2023, having long steered the fund's infrastructure and real-assets investing — to build out Temasek's European direct-investment franchise from London, owning its new energy, industrials, mobility and logistics teams. He departs OMERS on 1 July (CEO Blake Hutcheson assumes CIO duties in the interim) and starts at Temasek on 1 September. The move is a telling read on where Singapore's sovereign investor is putting senior bench strength: real-economy assets in Europe, sourced by a Canadian-pension operator who knows infrastructure and energy intimately. Watch what he buys, who he hires, and whether more Maple-Eight talent follows the same trans-Atlantic-to-Asia path. (source)
Room to Watch
Sacramento — CalPERS Investment Committee, 15 June
Days before the largest US public plan replaces strategic asset allocation with a total-portfolio approach on 1 July, its 15 June Investment Committee takes up the Total Fund Policy review and asset-liability management that frame the switch. (The related question of how staff incentive pay is aligned to whole-fund outcomes sits with CalPERS' separate Performance, Compensation & Talent Management Committee.) CalPERS is the bellwether the many peers adopting the same model will be reading, so the decisions taken in Sacramento this week travel well beyond California. We will be watching the readout. (source)
UAO Insider is the weekly people-and-power briefing from UniversalAssetOwners.com. Editorial intelligence for long-duration capital — not investment advice. Public, professional facts only.