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The events of 2020 have emphasised the value of robust frameworks in helping risk managers navigate disruptive business environments.
From crisis management and getting your staff back into the office to managing investment risk, cyber security and regulatory changes, the Risk Symposium is not to be missed by risk professionals.
This year's symposium may look different to previous years, but it will deliver the same great content and practical knowledge from speakers and panel discussions that you can take away and apply to your own organisation.
Our speakers gift is a donation on their behalf to our charitable partner Literacy for Life Foundation who are an Aboriginal-run charity training Aboriginal people to bring literacy to their communities.
11 am – 12 pm (AEST) | 1 CPD hour
While the assessment of our pandemic preparedness as a society will be the source of scrutiny for years to come, organisations – including those in the superannuation sector – will need to take stock of what can be learnt from COVID-19 to inform risk management strategies.
Hear from several prominent CROs as they unpack the issues that have been brought on by the coronavirus and what a business continuity plan will look like moving forward.
SPEAKERS —
Stephanie is the Chief Risk Officer of EISS Super and is accountable for oversight of EISS Super’s risk management framework and compliance management framework. Stephanie is responsible for ensuring that EISS Super’s risk and compliance program is effectively integrated into daily operational processes and for managing the reporting process to the Board, Risk Committee and Audit and Compliance Committee. Prior to joining EISS Super, Stephanie worked as an External Auditor in a large accounting firm specialising in superannuation, funds management, insurance and banking.
Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Commerce (German), is a Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of Harvard Business School (General Management Program).
Andrew Major commenced as HESTA’s Chief Risk & Compliance Officer in January 2020, with responsibility for leading HESTA’s central risk and compliance functions. Andrew joined HESTA in 2009 as a Senior Investment Analyst and has performed a number of roles within the Investments team since that time, most recently as General Manager, Unlisted Assets.
Andrew is Chair of the Australian Investment Council, the industry body representing the private capital sector in Australia. He has also served as Co-Chair of the UN PRI Infrastructure Advisory Committee, as a director of the Climate Bonds Standards Board, and as the HESTA appointee on numerous fund advisory boards.
Prior to joining HESTA, Andrew worked in private legal practice and for the Macquarie Group, in investment banking and investment management. He has undergraduate degrees in Economics and Law (both with Honors), a Masters in Applied Finance, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
'We're focused on understanding and effectively managing risk to deepen confidence and trust in the Fund.'
Paul is AustralianSuper’s first Chief Risk Officer. He has responsibility for the Fund’s Risk Framework including the Fund’s Risk Appetite, Risk Governance and Management Plans and Risk Culture. He is responsible for the Fund’s relationships with key regulators (in particular APRA and ASIC) and for the Fund’s Risk and Compliance team. Paul was appointed Chief Risk Officer on 28 October 2019 having joined AustralianSuper in 2007. He was Group Executive Membership from 2013-2016 before taking on the role of Group Executive Strategy, Brand & Reputation from 2016-2019. Prior to joining AustralianSuper he was the National Secretary of the Finance Sector Union of Australia. He is a Director of SuperFriend – the industry fund Mental Health Foundation. Paul holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and was awarded the Shell exhibition prize for Labour economics. He also holds a diploma in Financial Planning.
CHAIR —
Brad has been working in superannuation for over 40 years bringing to Mercy Super a wide range of experience across all facets of the industry. He has worked in administration, client service, trustee education, marketing and systems development.
In his current role, Brad ensures Mercy Super operates within the required legal framework and assists the Trustee and management team in monitoring and managing risk to protect the security and integrity of members’ benefits.
Brad made his television debut in the late 1960s on the same day and show as Kerri-Anne Kennerley. She never writes.
2 – 3 pm (AEST) | 1 CPD hour
As COVID-19 restrictions start to ease around the country, organisations will need to prepare for a ‘new normal’ in facilitating their day-to-day operations.
From bringing employees into a safe environment, to reimaging the future of business travel, our expert panel will unpack the various considerations and intangible risks funds need to be across as they bring their people back to the workplace.
Adrian is a broad-based communication professional with more than ten years’ experience spanning traditional public relations, internal communication, marketing communication, social media and bid management. His work over the years has spanned a number of key industries including professional services, financial services, travel and retail.
In his current role as Customer Strategy and Experience Design Manager for Deloitte Digital, Adrian led an engagement to establish Deloitte Australia’s Virtual Office program, where he now leads a team of professionals spanning ITS, HR and Communication disciplines with a view to improving the experience of Deloitte Staff who primarily work remotely.
Adrian has significant experience in Diversity and Inclusion programs and communication, having held the position of Communication manager in Deloitte Australia’s Inclusion, Diversity & Wellbeing team in Australia for three years.
He is also the Chairperson of Deloitte’s LGBTI Network “GLOBE” and sat on the firm’s Inclusion and Diversity Council for three years. He also serves as an editor of Deloitte’s external monthly publication on Inclusion, Diversity and Leadership.
Nikki joined Vision Super in 2019 as the Chief Risk Officer. She is responsible for leading the quality, risk and compliance program of work at Vision Super. She has a wealth of experience in financial services as prior to Vision Super, she was the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer and Company Secretary at LUCRF Super for over seven years. She also worked at KPMG in their superannuation group for more than a decade.
60 minutes | 1 CPD hour
With sweeping changes introduced to superannuation over the last several months, this timely session will look at what funds can expect from the regulators – from the impact of early release to detecting fraud - and the key reforms on the policy horizon.
Jane leads ASIC’s Superannuation team and oversees ASIC’s regulatory work associated with superannuation trustees in the $2.8 trillion sector. Her 16 years of regulatory experience includes senior roles overseeing funds management, mergers and acquisitions, fundraising, corporate governance and supervising the ASX and other licensed financial markets.
Before joining ASIC, Jane was Senior Associate with Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons), working within the Corporate/ Mergers & Acquisitions team. She has also worked as in-house counsel for the Westpac Banking Corporation. Jane holds honours degrees in Law and Psychology from the University of Sydney.
Markus Erikson is a Director in the Intelligence division of Australia’s Financial Intelligence Unit, AUSTRAC. Markus has worked alongside law enforcement to target the financial activity of crimes including sexual servitude, money laundering, corruption and foreign bribery matters. Markus has worked with Australian and international law enforcement agencies to identify criminal behaviour through money flows, embedding financial intelligence into investigations. Markus is currently overseeing Australian’s public private partnership, the Fintel Alliance, bringing together 29 government, law enforcement and financial industry partners to tackle complex financial crime.
Larissa has responsibility for the ATO’s engagement and assurance of the APRA regulated fund sector. This includes oversight of fund member reporting, the integrity of the data and payment standards, use of ATO super services and the design and implementation of new policy or administrative measures.
Larissa has held various other roles within Superannuation and Employer Obligations as well as the Tax Counsel Network and previously with the Tax Practitioners Board. Larissa also has experience working with the super industry though a secondment with ASFA.
Mel started her career in superannuation in the ATO, moving to work with industry super funds in 2004. Her roles have included senior roles in stakeholder relations, strategy, marketing and communications in Link Group/ Superpartners, HESTA, Hostplus, AUSfund, Industry Fund Services and ME Bank. Her most recent role at ASIC was as a Senior Specialist in the Superannuation team where she provided technical analysis and strategic advice on consumer issues in relation to superannuation.
Mel is passionate about delivering benefits to members, with a particular focus on improving women’s retirement outcomes.
Mel is also the current deputy chair of the Victorian Committee of Women in Super and has been a member of the Mother’s Day Classic organising committee in Melbourne for a number of years.
She has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Educational Psychology from Monash University and a MBA from Deakin University and has successfully completed the Advanced Leadership Program run by Women & Leadership Australia.
45 minutes | 0.75 CPD hours
Boards play a critical role in influencing management’s processes for monitoring risks and in this current landscape, ensuring that we understand and better communicate the risk framework to leadership has never been more critical.
Bringing together a CEO and Chair of a Board, this session will address just what are the expectations of risk management by our decision-makers, and how the lines of communication can be improved on.
Kirsten Mander is chair of legalsuper, the super fund for Australia’s legal community. legalsuper specialises in delivering high levels of personal service and products that are tailored to the particular aspirations and needs of people working in the legal community.
Kirsten is an experienced non-executive director and chairman, with substantial experience both within Australia and internationally. In addition to her role as chair of legalsuper, Kirsten is the chair of International Women’s Development Agency and a director and Audit and Risk Committee chair Peninsula Health. Previous board roles include chair of the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority and a director on various boards including Swinburne University and RT Health.
Previously Kirsten had over 20 years’ management experience in the listed, private and profit to member sectors as a senior executive, general counsel & company secretary for a number of Australia's top companies including Australian Unity, Smorgon Steel Group and Western Mining, working throughout Australasia, Asia and the former Soviet Union.
She holds a Masters of Law from Melbourne University and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a fellow of the Risk Management Institute of Australia.
Wendy has over three decades of experience in the financial services industry, including senior executive and state head roles within major financial institutions encompassing technical, business development and marketing functions. She was also Managing Director of a health industry based super fund for six years.
Wendy spent a number of years as CEO of a major HR Consulting firm leading a team focused on enhancing workplace performance for employers and also spent some time as CEO of an information technology consulting business.
Wendy returned to the financial services industry in 2017 to become CEO of Mercy Super.
She is a past lecturer on superannuation and insurance at the University of Queensland.
Having held a number of directorships of superannuation funds and other financial services organisations, she is currently a member of the Australian Dental Association Foundation Advisory Board and the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment Advisory Board.
Today’s cyber-attacks are designed to be fast-moving, so much so that the loss of access to data and the systems that support your business operations, can happen overnight.
With COVID-19 adding another threat of complexity, this session will explore the latest cyber security issues you need to know, and how to demonstrate compliance with new regulatory guidelines.
Duncan Green leads cybersecurity and technology controls management for J.P. Morgan in Australia and New Zealand and the Securities Services business across Asia. Duncan has over 19 years of professional experience in technology risk, cybersecurity, internal and external audit across the financial services sector.
Duncan joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 having worked at PwC in the technology risk and cyber security audit and advisory practices in various locations. He is a member of the ISACA IT Governance Association and is a Chartered Accountant.
Sai joined J.P. Morgan in 2010. In her current role, she is responsible for ensuring the Securities Services business develops and maintains a forward looking approach on anticipating and managing regulatory change, develop regulatory products/solutions, and drive industry engagement on regulatory reforms on behalf of our clients.
Prior to joining J.P Morgan, Sai worked for the Trust Company of Australia. In her last role as the general manager of fiduciary services, she was responsible for corporate trust operations, the estates and trusts division and adviser services.
She holds an MBA along with a Bachelor of Social Science and Industrial Relations.
David has extensive senior management, general management and consulting experience in superannuation and financial services that includes both industry and retail super, marketing and distribution, financial planning, wholesale investments and product development.
His qualifications include an honours degree in law, an MBA, a Diploma of Financial Planning and a Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment.
In addition to consulting, he has worked at Norwich Union, Norwich Investment Management, ING Investment Management and Vision Super.
APRA’s measures to strengthen superannuation member outcomes has been a welcome move, yet questions remain on how funds can go about setting achievable outcomes, and the risks they face in not hitting them.
In this session we will hear from APRA’s Katrina Ellis, as she shares insights into how funds can ensure members’ best interest with SPS 515 and other key updates from the prudential regulator.
Katrina Ellis is a General Manager of Superannuation at APRA. She has had a number of senior leadership roles at APRA over the last decade, including leading the APRA team that implemented the Cooper Review recommendations in 2012-13, introducing the APRA Prudential Standards for superannuation, updated superannuation Reporting Standards and MySuper authorisation. Her other roles have spanned policy, data, and supervision in banking, insurance and super. Katrina has a research background, having been an academic before joining APRA in 2008.
David has over 30 years’ experience in super, primarily in the profit-to-member sector, and always advocating outcomes that put fund members first.
David is Senior Policy Manager at AIST. He has spent the last eight years working closely with the Australian Government, Parliament, regulators, the ATO and industry in developing and implementing all aspects of superannuation policy – including pre- and post- retirement products, structure, taxation, reporting and disclosure, and data and technology.
David was previously Chief Executive of the diversified financial services company, Industry Fund Services and two super funds; an executive at Members Equity; a trustee of the universities’ super fund; a director of the SuperStream Gateway Network Governance Body; held senior roles with superannuation administrators; and chaired the Audit and Risk Committee of COTA (Victoria).
David is also an executive with the IQ Group, and on the advisory board of Conexus Financial.
The fallout from the coronavirus highlights the importance of our investment teams understanding risk. Whether our current pandemic fundamentally changes investment strategies or not, this session will cover the lessons fiduciaries learned about themselves, managing investment risks, being prepared in a crisis, and how COVID-19 will inform portfolio construction.
Kim Bowater is the Director of Consulting at Frontier, having joined Frontier in 2002. Kim is responsible for overseeing the delivery of advice and research through our consulting team. She is a member of Frontier's Investment Committee and Chair of our Client Portfolio Review Committee. She is also the lead consultant for several large superannuation funds. Kim has 24 years of industry experience having previously been employed at Deloitte and Towers Perrin. Kim is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree with First Class Honours in Mathematical Statistics. Kim is a member of the CFA Institute.
Marc Hollenstein has joined Equipsuper in 2018 as Investment Risk Specialist. He is responsible for the development and implementation of a 2nd line Investment Risk Management Program with focus on operational, analytical and regulatory risks, including the governance of member-option alignment. Marc was previously employed as an Investment Analyst and Associate Consultant at Atchison Consultants, a Melbourne based boutique asset consulting firm. He also worked as Tax Consultant for H&R Block and as Financial Adviser for OVB Holdings AG in Berlin, Germany. He holds a Master of Business Finance and Accounting degree from Victoria University and a Master of Research degree in Psychology with focus on empirical studies from the University of Vienna.
Martin has been General Manger-Risk at HESTA since July 2014, leading the risk team in providing enterprise wide risk management supporting the executive team and the audit & risk committee. Prior to joining HESTA, Martin had an extensive career with APRA as a frontline supervision team manager leading several superannuation teams covering all sectors of the industry. During that time he managed the largest portfolio of funds spanning RSE licensing in 2004 through to the introduction of prudential standards in 2013.
Martin holds a Bachelor of Business and Graduate Diploma Applied Finance and Investment and is a dedicated supporter of community organisations serving as President and Treasurer of school and sporting club committees, and enjoys coaching his sons basketball team to back-to-back premierships recently – not competitive at all !
To develop effective leaders, companies often spend millions of dollars in training and professional coaching. Methods that are fairly traditional and tend to develop managerial skills rather than equipping leaders with the right tools to succeed in a volatile and uncertain environment.
Founding Director of Serendis Leadership, Maud Lindley, will highlight what goes into developing your leadership acumen to prepare you for challenges that lay ahead and how to avoid a risk-averse culture within your teams.
Maud Lindley is the founding director of Serendis. She has led our rapid growth into a thought-leading consultancy by creating a high-performing team of passionate individuals who aim to make a difference, with clients across the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
Maud has a life-long passion and a unique insight into the human psyche, coupled with a critical business mindset, an energy to succeed in disrupted markets, and 15 years’ experience in coaching senior executives. She provides her clients unparalleled expertise that informs her approach to leadership development, strategic team facilitation and behavioural change, particularly in the pursuit of developing a culture of collaborative leadership.
She is a sought-after keynote speaker and a precious partner of executive teams. Before founding Serendis in 2003, Maud held senior management positions in debt capital markets for large investment banks in London and Paris, including HSBC, Societe Generale, Credit Lyonnais and UBS.
Maud holds a Master in Finance an Business Management (University Nancy II, France) as well as professional accreditation with honours from the Institut des Neurosciences Appliquees, a leading French institute in positive psychology and coaching.
Holly has over 20 years of experience working on governance and sustainability-related issues in the superannuation and corporate sectors. Holly currently runs the secretariat for AIST’s Governance Code Monitoring Panel and facilitates AIST’s trustee director courses. She is a director of Transparency International Australia and a governor of WWF Australia, a leading conservation organization.