AustralianSuper’s senior investment director for infrastructure in the US, Damien Mitchell, has left the firm after just a year in the job, sources said.

Mitchell, a former partner at Stepstone Group, joined AustralianSuper’s New York office in July 2024 with responsibility for the superannuation fund’s energy transition and transportation investments in the US.

Prior to joining AustralianSuper Mitchell spent almost four years at the Los Angeles office of infrastructure investor CIM Group focusing on energy transition and transportation.

Mitchell, who left AustralianSuper towards the end of last month, was one of several senior real assets hires by the Australian fund in the summer of last year aimed at bolstering its presence in the Americas.

Another senior hire made at the time, Matthew Choi, as AustralianSuper’s head of real estate debt activities in the Americas has also left the firm, the sources said.

The departures of the executives follow the exit last October of AustralianSuper’s longstanding head of infrastructure, Nik Kemp, who had been based in Melbourne.

Kemp, who was also AustralianSuper’s global head of real assets, joined Australian real assets manager Dexus.

AustralianSuper, which opened an office in both New York and London in 2021, has steadily built up an infrastructure portfolio in the Americas, including buying last December a large minority stake for some USD 1.5bn in US data center business DataBank.

This followed a series of deals earlier in the decade including buying a stake in Australian toll-read developer Transurban’s Chesapeake express lane assets as well as stakes in Lumen Technologies’ Latin American business and in infrastructure investor Generate Capital.

Derek Chu leads the superannuation fund’s 12-person real assets strategy in the Americas from New York.

Jennie Rose, also based in New York, heads up AustralianSuper’s private credit unit, including for infrastructure.

AustralianSuper and Damien Mitchell declined to comment. Matthew Choi did not respond to a request for comment.