Georgina Dudley

Investment leaders from across Australia and New Zealand’s institutional and wealth landscape will gather at the JANA Annual Conference 2026, to explore a defining challenge for institutional investors: how to construct resilient portfolios as artificial intelligence, geopolitics, demographic change and the energy transition converge.

Hosted by JANA Investment Advisers, the conference will bring together global and local investment perspectives from BlackRock, Wellington Management, Blackstone, Baillie Gifford, Robeco, Hamilton Lane, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Vinva.

Discussions will explore how structural forces are becoming more interconnected and what that means for portfolio construction, governance and long-term investment outcomes.

For JANA, the increasing complexity of investment markets reinforces a philosophy that has underpinned its advice for almost four decades.

Working across superannuation, wealth, not-for-profit, insurance and other institutional investor segments gives JANA a broad perspective on how these challenges are playing out across different portfolios, governance models and investment perspectives.

Chief Executive Officer Georgina Dudley said the questions facing long-term investors were continuing to evolve.

“Institutional investors don’t make decisions in quarterly cycles – they make decisions that shape outcomes for decades. That changes the nature of the questions they need to ask and the conversations they need to have. It’s no longer simply which opportunities to pursue, but how a portfolio is constructed to deliver the outcomes investors are seeking.”

“The best long-term decisions are rarely made in isolation. Bringing together global and local investment perspectives gives investors an opportunity to challenge assumptions, test ideas and consider different views. In today’s environment, intelligent investing isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions to make more informed long-term decisions.”

JANA Chief Investment Officer Matt Wacher said traditional assumptions about diversification were being challenged as structural forces increasingly cut across sectors, asset classes and geographies.

“Artificial intelligence provides a useful example. It is no longer simply a technology story. It is influencing power infrastructure, data centres, semiconductors, private markets, commodities, supply chains and capital investment. Investors may believe they are diversified across multiple asset classes, but many are ultimately exposed to the same underlying structural drivers.”

Mr Wacher said the same was increasingly true across other long-term themes.

“Geopolitical fragmentation is reshaping supply chains and capital flows. Demographic change is influencing labour markets and productivity. The energy transition continues to redefine infrastructure investment and capital requirements. Each creates opportunities in its own right, but together they create a far more complex investment environment.”

“The challenge isn’t simply identifying attractive investment opportunities,” Mr Wacher said. “It’s understanding how structural forces increasingly influence the way entire portfolios behave. Investment success has never depended solely on finding good opportunities, it has depended on how those opportunities work together within a portfolio. As market forces become more interconnected, portfolio construction becomes an even more important driver of long-term investment outcomes.”

The conference has been designed to examine the major forces reshaping investment markets, moving from AI adoption and productivity through to infrastructure, energy systems, geopolitics, commodities, private markets and ultimately how investors should value these structural shifts.

Among the perspectives to be explored throughout the day are:

• Artificial intelligence is a marathon, not a sprint. While adoption has accelerated rapidly, many organisations remain in the early stages of implementation, with legacy systems, data quality, skills and governance likely to determine who ultimately captures productivity gains.
• AI may prove to be this generation’s equivalent of the “China Shock”. Rather than being simply a technology story, AI has the potential to reshape labour markets, infrastructure investment, energy systems, productivity and capital flows across the global economy.
• Infrastructure may prove to be one of AI’s biggest investment stories. As demand for computing power grows, investment implications increasingly extend beyond software into electricity generation, transmission networks, semiconductors, fibre, cooling systems, water infrastructure and critical minerals.
• The most significant opportunities may lie beyond the obvious winners. Investors are increasingly examining second-order beneficiaries and the bottlenecks supporting AI adoption, recognising that every major structural investment theme creates both opportunities and excesses over time.

Mr Wacher said these discussions ultimately point back to the same conclusion. “Long-term investing has always been about balancing opportunity with resilience. As markets become more interconnected, that balance will increasingly depend on portfolio construction rather than prediction.”

JANA’s 2026 Annual Conference, Prosperity with Purpose: Intelligent Investing in a Changing World, will bring together investment leaders from across superannuation, wealth, not-for-profit, insurance and institutional investment, facilitated by JANA investment professionals and select global investment managers to examine the structural forces expected to shape investment markets over the coming decade.

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Matt Wacher

JANA Investment Advisers (JANA) has appointed Matt Wacher as Chief Investment Officer (CIO), strengthening investment leadership and alignment across its investment capabilities.

The appointment reflects JANA’s continued evolution as client demand, portfolio complexity and regulatory expectations continue to grow across segments and mandates.

Reporting to JANA’s Chief Executive Officer, Georgina Dudley, and joining the Executive Leadership Team, Mr Wacher will lead JANA’s overarching investment strategy and oversee investment outcomes across all client segments and mandates.

In this role, Mr Wacher will provide leadership across JANA’s investment research, investment strategy and sustainability functions.

Ms Dudley said the CIO appointment reflects the increasing breadth and complexity of client needs.

“JANA has a team with real depth across research, strategy and sustainability, and I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve built,” Ms Dudley said.

“As demand continues to broaden across our clients, the work is becoming more multi-dimensional as we support a wider range of client objectives and portfolio needs.”

“A Chief Investment Officer role strengthens investment leadership across our business and ensures we continue to deliver disciplined, long-term outcomes for our clients.”

Mr Wacher said, “I’m excited to join JANA at a time when clients are placing an even greater emphasis on disciplined decision-making and consistent oversight.”

“JANA has built strong investment capability grounded in rigorous research and thoughtful portfolio construction,” Mr Wacher said.

“My focus will be to provide leadership across the investment function, build on the depth already in place, and ensure we continue delivering disciplined, long-term outcomes for clients.”

Mr Wacher joins JANA from Morningstar Investment Management, where he was Chief Investment Officer, Asia Pacific, leading multi-asset investment strategy and portfolio management across the region. He also served as Chair of Morningstar’s Global Investment Committee, overseeing investment methodologies and governance across its global investment operations. In these roles, he oversaw approximately US$15 billion across diversified multi-asset strategies.

Earlier in his career, Mr Wacher held senior investment roles at Qantas Superannuation, Russell Investments and CMC Markets, spanning multi-asset portfolio construction, institutional investment solutions, and investment markets across Australia and Japan.

Matt Wacher will commence his role at JANA on Tue 19 May.

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The addition of the Morningstar Growth and High Growth Model Portfolios to the Generation Life investment bond range enables advisers to access professionally managed, multi-asset model portfolios with Morningstar’s high conviction views, coupled with the benefit of the tax-effectiveness of an investment bond structure.

Generation Life is the only investment bond provider to offer Morningstar Model Portfolios through a tax-effective investment bond tax structure. The combination of direct equities, ETFs and managed funds in the one model portfolio provides a streamlined and tax-effective mix of investments to help advisers and clients reach their financial planning objectives.

John Laver, Head of Investment at Generation Life, said: “We understand the importance of providing advisers a consistent portfolio allocation experience for their clients’ across various product structures including superannuation and Investor Directed Portfolio Services (IDPS) structures, with a focus on providing inflation linked investment outcomes. We believe that Morningstar’s portfolio approach, which focuses on outpacing the rising cost of living, is particularly relevant in the current economic and market environment.”

While this is the first time Morningstar and Generation Life have offered model portfolios through an investment bond structure, it’s important to note that it has been constructed with financial advisers in mind. By consolidating financial advisers’ investment product suites across their clients’ investment strategies, these new model portfolios will cut out many of the needless administrative processes that advisers currently face while also enhancing after-tax returns for their clients.

Matt Wacher, Chief Investment Officer at Morningstar, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Generation Life to bring our Growth and High Growth Model Portfolios to their network.

Morningstar’s valuation-driven approach has been tried and tested over several years, reducing day-to-day administration and friction for advisers while providing holistic, long-term solutions for clients. Our portfolios are built on rigorous analysis and constructed to be robust throughout the spectrum of market conditions.

With Generation Life, we’re pleased to bring these solutions via an investment bond structure, resulting in an investment process that centres both advisers and their clients.”

Generation Life is well-placed to join with Morningstar as an innovative financial solutions provider. Generation Life was also recently recognised top 10 in the AFR Boss Most Innovative Companies list for its unique investment-linked lifetime annuities offering and innovation, the only Life Insurance/Asset Management Company to be listed within the superannuation and banking category: LifeIncome.

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