Legalsuper named a new CEO and new CIO, hiring from Health Employees Superannuation Trust Australia and Qantas Super.
HESTA Chief Operating Officer Stephen Reilly will take on the role of CEO, and former Qantas Super Deputy CIO Chris Grogan has been named to the top investment post. Legalsuper managed almost $5 billion in member benefits, according to its June 30, 2025 audit.
Reilly will join Legalsuper on August 17, while Grogan is due to join the specialist superannuation fund on October 26.
Legalsuper Chair Kristen Mander said both executives bring extensive experience across profit-to-member superannuation funds and institutional investment management.
“Stephen comes from major profit-to-member super fund HESTA, where he has been chief operation officer since 2015,” Mander said. “Importantly, in addition, he brings experience gained over more than 10 years in management consulting and senior strategy roles with Booz & Company and the Commonwealth Bank.”
Mander said the board was particularly encouraged by Reilly’s enthusiasm for leading a specialist fund.
“We were particularly impressed with Stephen’s observations during the recruitment process about the attraction to him of working with a smaller specialized and high performing fund like Legalsuper and this alignment with his interests in organizational strategy and operating model differentiation,” she said.
Reilly said Legalsuper’s specialist focus and performance record made the role particularly appealing.
“I’ve appreciated Legalsuper’s firm commitment to excelling as Australia’s only fund specializing in the legal sector,” Reilly said. “In addition to demonstrably strong investment performance and member engagement practices, Legalsuper continues to challenge more conventional views that ‘bigger is better’ within Australia’s superannuation discourse.”
Grogan will join Legalsuper after a year and a half as deputy CIO at family office Cambooya Pty. Ltd. and 13 years at Qantas Super, where he finished as deputy CIO and head of defensive assets. He also spent more than a decade in senior public sector investment roles.
The appointments come after Legalsuper reported that its MySuper Balanced option returned 10.09% for the 2025-26 financial year, following a 12.56% return in the prior year.
“Our MySuper Balanced option, where the majority of our members are invested, returned a very strong 10.09% for FY 25/26, which is a great follow-up to our market-leading 12.56% for FY 24/25, and continued the fund’s delivery of strong, long-term, competitive investment returns,” Mander said.
A version of this article originally appeared in our sister publication, Financial Standard, which, like CIO, is owned by ISS STOXX.
Tags: Australia, HESTA, People Moves, Superannuation Funds
