Scott Charaneka, Head of Superannuation and Wealth Management, Thomson Geer

Scott Charaneka is the Head of Superannuation & Wealth Management at Thomson Geer and is an industry leading financial services lawyer. He has comprehensive experience in licensing, governance, administration, distribution, restructuring and investment matters associated with superannuation, funds management and life insurance products. He presently acts for many of Australia's largest private and public sector financial institutions. Scott has previously worked as an in-house counsel at Legal & General and ING. He is a regular speaker at conferences and has designed key training programs for boards and RMs. He was the lead editor of Wickens The Law of Life Insurance in Australia from 1998 to 2008, a co editor of CCH Australian Superannuation Law & Practice from 2001 to 2010, a co editor of the Lexis Nexis Financial Services Newsletter from 2001 to 2008 and is a current co editor of the Lexis Nexis Australian Superannuation Law Bulletin. Scott is a fellow of ASFA, the former deputy chair of its Queensland State Executive Committee, an emeritus member of the Law Council of Australia Superannuation Lawyers Committee and was appointed to APRA's Superannuation Lawyers Liaison Forum.

Publications by Scott include:
- The CCH Guide to Estate Planning (first and second edition);
- The CCH Guide to Super Choice;
- Establishing a Funds Management Business in Australia (first and second edition); and
- The CCH Guide to MySuper, SuperChoice and SuperStream.

Scott has been listed annually in Australia's Best Lawyers in the categories of Regulatory Practice and Superannuation Law since 2012 and has been listed annually in Who's Who Legal: Pensions & Benefits since 2015. He was a finalist for the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year in Financial Services in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and has been rated in Chambers Asia-Pacific since 2018 in the Superannuation category

Stanley Drummond, Adjunct Head of Superannuation and Wealth Management , Thomson Geer

Stanley specialises in superannuation, life and general insurance, managed funds, financial planning and financial services regulation. His expertise in these areas is founded on previous roles as in-house counsel at St George Bank, Vero Insurance, ING Australia and GE Money.

Most of Stanley's work is for the trustees of large APRA-regulated superannuation funds, including AustralianSuper, Aware Super (formerly First State Super), QSuper, Statewide Super and WA Super. A substantial part of his practice is advising and acting for superannuation trustees in relation to disability and death benefit claims (both litigated and unlitigated) and complaints. He has very significant experience in drafting submissions to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and its predecessor, the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.

Stanley's has also worked very extensively in the area of financial services regulation since the commencement of the current Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in 2002. This includes Australian financial services licensing work for St George Bank, GE Money and CBRE companies.

Stanley is a prolific author on superannuation, insurance and other financial services topics, with articles frequently appearing in the Superannuation Law Bulletin, the Insurance Law Bulletin and the Insurance Law Journal. He is the principal author of Thomson Geer's quarterly Superannuation Case Law Update. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and training courses convened by the Australian Insurance Law Association.

Mel Birks, Head of Advocacy, AIST

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.