Aware Super

We’re proud to celebrate the Principles for Responsible Investment for Responsible Investment turning 20 at today’s ASX bell ringing event, recognising two decades of progress in responsible investment globally.   Our CEO Deanne Stewart joined leaders from across the investment community to reflect on how responsible investment continues to evolve in Australia and around the world.   Over the past two decades, responsible investment has matured from exclusionary thinking toward a much broader focus on stewardship, resilience, long-term value creation and active ownership.   For Aware Super, this means continuing to operate as a sophisticated institutional investor at scale, helping generate strong long-term returns for the more than 1.3 million members we invest on behalf of.   Congratulations to Principles for Responsible Investment on 20 years. Liza McDonald GAICD

What is Wear Orange Wednesday? Australia's day to thank State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers, and the perfect moment to look back at our Super Helpful Game with the GWS GIANTS against the Essendon Bombers. We had the pleasure of meeting GIANTS superfan Swav, who repped her orange while doing the coin toss before our team claimed the win. Swav summed up why we run our Super Helpful Games better than anyone: to thank everyone in the community who shows up for others, across SES and other frontline emergency services, plus nurses and teachers.   🧡

At Aware Super’s annual NED Aware Day, one message came through clearly, that strong governance is critical to creating long-term value for our members. As a long-term investor, Aware Super works closely with our nominee non-executive directors (NEDs) to help drive performance, resilience and innovation across the companies and assets we invest in on behalf of more than one million members. From AI and automation to geopolitical disruption and the energy transition, boards are being challenged to do more than oversee strategy, they must help shape organisations that can thrive through structural change. The conversations reinforced an important point: stewardship and innovation are no longer separate agendas. The boards that embrace both will be best positioned to deliver sustainable long-term value for shareholders, stakeholders and members alike. Thank you to all our speakers, nominee directors and industry leaders who contributed to a valuable day of discussion, challenge and shared learning. Dr Aengus Tran and Paul O’Malley

At the Future Women Budget Dinner last week, our CEO Deanne Stewart shared an investor's perspective on the choices facing Australia right now. Her message: "We are living through one of those rare, compressed moments in history" where decisions made in the next two to three years will shape the country for the next fifty. Deanne pointed to three connected and urgent priorities: ☑️ Housing - "The foundation of a person's security." The budget moves on taxation make important progress, but supply is at the heart of the problem. We need to build more homes, faster, in the right places. ☑️ AI - The defining economic force of our time. Australia’s AI opportunity is to lead on energy, on infrastructure, and on world-class applications in sectors where we have deep expertise, including financial services, healthcare and agriculture. ☑️ Energy - "The binding constraint on everything else." Australia's renewable resources, our land, sun and wind, give us a genuine comparative advantage, if we act now. Deanne also pointed to Australia's $4.5 trillion superannuation system as long-term capital ready to invest in exactly the productive assets the country needs, including data centres, transmission networks and renewable energy. Deanne urged industry and political leaders to bring the same urgency and solidarity Australia showed during COVID. "We have the talent, 50% of them women, the capital, the institutions and the natural advantages to be a force in this era." Thank you to FW (Future Women) for hosting this important conversation.

Last week, Sonia Baillie, Head of Defensive Assets at Aware Super, joined global investment leaders on stage this week at the PDI Europe Summit 2026 in London — contributing to discussions on private credit, diversification and the outlook for the asset class. The summit brings together some of the world’s leading institutional investors, making it an important forum for conversations shaping global capital markets and investment strategy. It’s a strong reflection of the depth of investment expertise within Aware Super, and the increasingly important role Australian super funds are playing in global investment conversations. Always valuable to see these conversations happening on a global stage, and to have Aware Super contributing to them. Sonia B.

We are thrilled to announce that TelstraSuper and Aware Super have successfully completed their merger. By combining two of Australia’s leading retirement specialists, we are setting a new standard in retirement outcomes. 85,000 TelstraSuper members have joined Aware Super to create a superannuation fund with approximately 1.3 million members and over $235 billion in funds under management. Our CEO Deanne Stewart warmly welcomed members of Telstra Super. “This merger is a significant achievement in the history of Aware Super and TelstraSuper and enables members to benefit from the deep retirement and advice capabilities of both organisations, greater scale and enhanced member outcomes.” Ms Stewart said the fact that the merger had been achieved in only 9 months spoke to the alignment of values and strong execution capabilities of both funds. “Our sincere thanks to the Board and Executive of TelstraSuper for their dedication to their members and to making the merger a success,” she said. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gND2rhnR

“People do care about retirement, they just rarely engage with it until something makes it feel urgent, emotional, relevant, or possible," Kate Rolfe, Retirement Experience Lead. This really resonates with how we think about engagement at Aware Super. One of the biggest challenges in super isn’t just education or access to information, it’s earning attention early enough to help people act. Most people aren’t actively thinking about retirement in their day-to-day lives. Which means our job isn’t just to provide information when people seek it out, it’s to show up in ways that feel relevant, approachable and worth engaging with in the moments they already have attention. That’s why we’re focused on making super feel simpler, more culturally relevant, and easier to connect with emotionally, helping people build confidence through small, achievable steps over time. Because when retirement feels more understandable and possible in the present, people are more likely to take action for their future. Read more from Kate, here: https://lnkd.in/gYudbFpB

Yesterday, we joined with our partners Barings and with Victorian Planning Minister Hon Sonya Kilkenny to officially open the latest build-to-rent asset in our residential pipeline, WeAreLiving Preston. This development exemplifies the WeAreLiving brand apartments with high quality amenities located in central metro locations. We’re proud to not only deliver strong long-term returns for our members, but play a critical role in addressing our nation’s housing supply challenge with this development set to provide homes for about 500 people in the Melbourne postcode. Congratulations to Liza McDonald GAICD, Warwick Dowler and Luke Duncan.

AI is reshaping what great service looks like and expectations are rising fast. Our Group Executive and Chief Technology & Data Officer Richard Exton joined industry leaders at Zendesk’s Future of Service 2026, one of Australia’s leading CX and technology events, to discuss the future of AI-powered service. On a panel with Guzman y Gomez CTO Bryce Maybury, Richard shared how AI is enabling Aware Super to see each member as an individual, understanding their circumstances, anticipating their needs, and delivering trusted, personalised experiences that support them to retire with confidence. Built on years of deliberate investment in data, automation, security, privacy and risk governance, and grounded in a member-first culture of continuous learning, this enables us to move at pace, responsibly, with our members’ best interests at the centre of every decision. Kellie Hackney

Good advice often comes down to the things working properly behind the scenes. The form that’s easy to find. The process that doesn’t slow you down. The right information, right when it’s needed. Because when those things are simple, advisers can spend less time navigating systems and more time focusing on what really matters — giving advice. That’s why we’re proud to be recognised as an Adviser-Ready Fund by the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) and Chant West. This accreditation reflects the practical improvements we’ve made to support advisers in real-world advice delivery, from smoother transactions and digital authorisations to better access to client information and dedicated support. The result? It’s easier to act, not just plan. And whether someone needs simple guidance or more complex retirement advice, the right support is there to meet them where they are. We’re one of only a few profit-to-member funds to receive this recognition. But the real win is making advice easier to actually use. Click here to read more: https://lnkd.in/gtkdt_6q . . . . . 🔎 Consider if Aware Super is right for you and the PDS and TMD at http://aware.com.au/pds ⭐ Issued by Aware Super Pty Ltd (ABN 11 118 202 672, AFSL 293340) trustee of Aware Super (ABN 53 226 460 365).