Super board and leadership appointments aplenty in 1H23

Reflecting on a busy first half of the year, Super Review has collated all the board appointments and C-suite moves that have taken place in the superannuation industry so far.

This includes CEO moves at super funds including legalsuper and Cbus, organisations such as Industry Super Australia and the Financial Services Council and at the regulator APRA.

January
Early in the year, the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC) appointed Adam Nettheim as acting chief customer officer to replace Peter Jamieson, who had held the role since 2019. He has since been appointed to the role in a permanent capacity.

Prime Super appointed two new non-executive board directors, Gemma Dooley and Bev Durston, who commenced on 1 January 2023 and took over from Brett Lazarides and Gavin Watson, who retired at the end of 2022.

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Jo Townsend, chief executive of Funds SA, the $40 billion investment corporation owned by the government of South Australia, announced her intentions to step down later this year, though she remains in the role until a replacement is found. 

February

Damien Webb, deputy chief investment officer at Aware Super, was named head of international at the $150 billion fund in a major push for the fund’s investments functions.

Later that month, former AIST sales business development manager, Jo Klingberg, joined NGS Super to lead its national business development team. She was named chief growth officer in April 2023. 

Just three months after Vanguard launched its superannuation offering, head of super, Michael Lovett, announced his departure. He was replaced by Shannon Nutter, who will stay in the role until her planned return to the US later this year.

March
Early in the month, the Australian Retirement Trust announced Linda Apelt has joined its board as director while Mark Burgess joined as a director and investment committee member. Additionally, Dr Guy Debelle was appointed external adviser to the ART investment committee.

It also bade farewell to its chief strategy officer, Teifi Whatley, and chief member officer, Karin Muller.

State Super welcomed Thomas Costa, assistant secretary of Unions NSW, to the State Super (SAS Trustee Corporation) Board.

Aware Super also announced an investment team restructure. It appointed Alek Misev as head of property, Mark Hector as head of infrastructure, and Jenny Newmarch as head of private equity. 

At the tail end of a busy March, Luke Symons was appointed chief executive of legalsuper after the departure of Andrew Proebstl last November after 20 years.

April
Following the restructure of its senior management team in March, ART unveiled further changes to its investment team, promoting Andrew Fisher to head of investment strategy. It bade farewell to Damian Lillicrap, previously head of strategy for the QSuper portfolios.

Future Fund also saw senior hires, welcoming David Bluff as private equity lead and Ben Griffiths as director of equities.

May 
Sue Dahn, a Spirit Super veteran, joined HESTA as director and investment committee chair. 

Meanwhile, Kelly Power, chief executive of Colonial First State Superannuation, joined the Financial Services Council (FSC) board.

The Fund Executives Association Ltd (FEAL) saw two board director appointments: Steve Hill from Aware Super and Gemma Kyle from Rest, replacing Deanne Stewart, Aware Super CEO, and Ross Piper, CEO of Australian Ethical. 

Dr Martin Fahy, CEO of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), announced his intention to resign after seven years in the role. In the interim, ASFA chair, Gary Dransfield, will now operate as CEO.

June

At the beginning of what was a particularly busy month in super, Helen Rowell, deputy chair at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), announced she will step down at the end of June after more than 21 years at the prudential regulator.

Meanwhile, Natalie Previtera, acting chief executive at NGS Super for the last nine months, was permanently appointed to the CEO role with unanimous support of the board.

Cbus CIO Kristian Fok, who was also acting CEO, took up the CEO role permanently this month. His deputy, Brett Chatfield, stepped up to lead the fund’s investment strategy as CIO.

The senior appointments continued at ART, which welcomed Lachlan East as chief member officer; Julie Bingham as chief of staff; and Anne Fuchs as executive general manager for advice, guidance, and education.
ART also tapped Kathy Vincent from BT to be its new chief of retirement following the creation of the role earlier this year.

Industry Super Australia and IFM Investors welcomed new chairs to replace Greg Combet, who stepped down to take on a role in the government’s Net Zero Economy Agency. Former NSW treasurer Peter Collins AM KC would chair ISA while Cath Bowtell would chair IFM. 

Women in Super also welcomed a new chair in Robbie Campo, CEO of ESSSuper. 

Finally, at the end of a busy 1H23, AustralianSuper announced Damian Moloney, who has been directly responsible for the build-out of AustralianSuper’s US and European offices for the last five years, would be deputy CIO.