Acknowledgement of Country
We want to respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of these lands, seas, and waters throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders both past and present. We acknowledge the history, the resilience and the continual contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of their Country.
Acknowledgement of Country
We want to respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of these lands, seas, and waters throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Elders both past and present. We acknowledge the history, the resilience and the continual contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of their Country.
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Chief Executive Officer
Mary Delahunty is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Limited (ASFA).
ASFA is the peak policy, research and advocacy body for Australia’s superannuation industry. It is a not-for-profit, sector-neutral, and non-party political, national organisation. ASFA’s mission is to continuously improve the superannuation system, so all Australians can enjoy a dignified retirement.
Mary joined ASFA in 2024 after founding Seven Advisory, a specialist ESG and impact advisory service to institutional investors developing their social license to deliver long-term value. Prior to that Mary was Head of Impact at HESTA where she played a key role in shaping strategic policies and responsible investment practices to advance member outcomes in the superannuation system. She was also previously an executive with Link Market Services.
Mary is a member of the Pensions & Investment World Pension Summit International Advisory Board and holds several board positions including in the RegTech and education sectors and was a 2015 Churchill Fellow awarded for international research on gender equity in retirement outcomes.
Mary studied Arts at the University of Melbourne, and later completed a Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning and then a Masters of Applied Finance.
Chief Policy & Advocacy Officer
James joins the ASFA team as Head of Policy and Advocacy, bringing over a decade of public policy and political experience working with state, territory, and federal governments in various key policy and strategic roles.
Most recently, James has worked as a government engagement specialist in the Vice-Chancellor’s office at the University of Sydney and was instrumental in managing the University’s engagement with federal and NSW government, as well as advocating on reforms such as the Australian Universities Accord and the National Reconstruction Fund.
Prior to that, James worked in various roles across government and politics, including for treasurers, government leaders, and senior cabinet ministers. In advising government, James has taken leading roles in the legislative agenda of governments, and worked on reform for ministers in the transport, tertiary education, cyber security, procurement, and insurance portfolio areas.
James holds a Bachelor of International Relations from the Australian National University and holds qualifications in public policy from the London School of Economics and in Executive Leadership from the University of Oxford. He is currently undertaking a Master of Public Policy at the University of Sydney.
Chief Operating Officer
John Davis is the Chief Operating Officer, having joined ASFA in 2017.
After an early career in the NSW Police Force, John moved into the private sector in senior managerial roles with a number of national, regional and international organisations. In 2014 he founded Bangalley Group management consultancy providing transformation and change support to organisations including Ausgrid, NSW Justice Department, NSW Department of Sport and National Rugby League (NRL). John and his Bangalley team have also led major projects with organisations including Harris Farm Markets, Activision Asia/Pacific and Telstra.
John currently holds a number of Advisory Board positions and has been a member of KPMG’s Executive Coaching Panel since 2016.
Chief Finance & Corporate Services Officer, Company Secretary
Stella is a seasoned finance and corporate services executive with a proven track record in financial strategy and governance. As Chief Finance and Corporate Services Officer and Company Secretary at ASFA, she leads the organisation’s financial planning, risk management, IT transformation, and corporate governance initiatives, driving efficiency and long-term sustainability.
With previous experience from RedHill Education Limited and Prudential Investment, she played a key role in financial integration during acquisitions, improving internal controls, and streamlining reporting processes. Her expertise spans finance, IT, compliance, legal, and project management, ensuring strategic execution and business optimisation.
Drawing on her strong financial acumen, leadership, and stakeholder engagement, Stella is committed to fostering high-performing teams, enhancing governance, and delivering impactful business outcomes.
Stella is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) and holds a Master’s Degree in International Business from Macquarie University and a Master’s Degree in Professional Accounting.
Chief Strategy, Corporate Affairs & Experience Officer
Madeleine Morris is ASFA’s Chief Strategy, Corporate Affairs and Experience Officer.
Madeleine joined the team in January 2025 having previously consulted to ASFA. Prior to that she enjoyed a long career in Australian and international media, including as the finance presenter of ABC News Breakfast, senior reporter for 7.30, presenter of ABC/RMIT FactCheck and 11 years in London at the BBC as a reporter and presenter on BBC World television and radio. She has reported from over 20 countries, including the US where she was Washington Reporter for the BBC. She has won numerous journalism awards, including a prestigious UK One World Media Award and is also a published author.
Madeleine holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, and post-graduate qualification from the London School of Economics and UTS. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a director of South-East Community Links in Melbourne.
Bestselling author, podcast host & founder
Few speakers can match Derek Thompson‘s ability to synthesize mega-trends in society, labor, economics, technology, and politics. Put another way: Derek trawls the data sets and does the forecasting and deep reporting necessary to help us better understand how we live, how we vote, how we spend, and how we work.
In his paradigm-shifting #1 New York Times bestseller, Abundance (co-written with Ezra Klein), this award-winning journalist reveals how our policies and culture have pushed us into a world of scarcity (not enough housing, workers, or progress)—and offers a radical new path towards a world where housing is affordable, energy is plentiful, and innovation flourishes across industries.
He shares a compelling vision of a future where we have more than enough for everybody, and a practical, actionable roadmap for how to get there. It starts with taking more risks, building more expansively, and recognizing that we all have the power to create a world of abundance. “Everything’s utopian until it’s reality,” he says.
Executive Director - Superannuation, Life & Private Health Insurance, APRA
Carmen joined APRA in March 2023 and holds the role of Executive Director, Life and Private Health Insurance and Superannuation.
She has had an esteemed career in financial services, spanning over 25 years. She has held diverse leadership roles at Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including across risk, transformation and change, product and portfolio development, and sales and service.
Prior to joining APRA, she held the role of General Manager, Risk Transformation Delivery Integration at Westpac. This involved leading the group-wide implementation of a suite of solutions to uplift risk management capability and develop data, analytics and reporting.
Carmen leads with a values-driven approach and a particular interest in developing and mentoring talent.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Accounting, is a certified Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School
Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.
Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021 and 2023; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017. She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organisational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Her prior books – Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) – explore teamwork in dynamic organisational environments. In Building the future: Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities.
Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 24 additional languages, and was selected for the Financial Times and Schroders Best Business Book of the Year award.
Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organisational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design from Harvard University.
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services
Born in Brindisi, Italy, Daniel was a young child when he moved with his family to Australia. He grew up in Canberra and completed his first degrees – arts and law – at the ANU. He then completed a Master of Economics (University of Sydney) and a PhD in economics from Yale.
He lectured at Monash University, was an economic adviser in the Gillard government and was a Victorian MP from 2014 to 2018. As Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer of Victoria, Daniel helped deliver major infrastructure projects and developed innovative financing structures for community projects.
In 2018 he was preselected for the new federal seat of Fraser and became its first MP at the 2019 election, re-elected in 2022 and 2025. From 2022 to 2025, Daniel was chair of the House of Representatives’ Standing Economics Committee in which he chaired inquiries; economic dynamism, competition and business formation and insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims.
In 2025, he became the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.
In August 2022, Daniel published ‘Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia’, which aims to explore the ways in which an insurance approach can improve the effectiveness of government service delivery.
Chief Practice Officer, ASFA InPractice (AIP)
Hans van Daatselaar is the inaugural Chief Practice Officer of ASFA InPractice, a leading collaborative forum for superannuation practitioners within ASFA. He is also responsible for ASFA’s Financial Crimes Protection Initiative, which strengthens the superannuation sector’s defences against financial crime and cyber threats through coordinated efforts among ASFA members.
Hans leads initiatives aimed at enhancing superannuation administration efficiencies that deliver tangible benefits to fund members and industry stakeholders and champions ASFA’s unique collaboration model, bringing together administration practitioners, software providers, and regulators to co-design, implement, and manage the evolving superannuation ecosystem.
He is a member of the ATO Payday Super Working Group and has played an active role in several strategic government working groups, including the ATO SuperStream Reference Group, ATO STP Advisory Group, ATO Cyber Security Stakeholder Group (CSSG), and the APRA Superannuation Data Transformation Strategic Forum, all of which has contributed to a more efficient superannuation landscape.
Hans previously served as the Ambassador for Startupbootcamp Australia’s Fintech Programs (2020-2021) and since 2017 has served as an ASFA-appointed Director of the Gateway Network Governance Body Limited (GNGB.
He holds a Diploma of Superannuation Management (ASFA) and a Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning). He is a Fellow of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Hans has also completed the University of Oxford’s Fintech Programme, INSEAD’s Innovation in the Age of Disruption Programme, and Harvard’s Cybersecurity: Managing Risk in the Information Age Programme.
