Who’s on the move? June

5 min read
5 min read

GROW Super appoints new super expert

Adam Gee

GROW Super has announced the appointment of Adam Gee to the role of head of strategy.

Gee was recently the lead partner of KPMG’s Superannuation Advisory practice and prior to that, the CEO of research and ratings house SuperRatings.

In his new role Gee will lead the development of GROW’s strategy both domestically and internationally and support the implementation of the TINA platform, GROW’s blockchain-enabled technology solution for superannuation funds and wealth platforms.

GROW’s CEO Joshua Wilson said “We are thrilled to have attracted someone of Adam’s calibre and in-depth industry knowledge to GROW.” Gee commenced with GROW in May.

Aberdeen Standard Investments strengthens ESG capabilities with new appointment

Bill Hartnett

Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has appointed Bill Hartnett as an ESG investment director. Hartnett will report to Euan Stirling, global head of stewardship and ESG investment and will be based in London with a specific remit to support investment colleagues in emerging markets and Asia Pacific. Hartnett will analyse specific long-term factors involving investee companies’ environmental and social management and performance, as well as the effectiveness of governance structures.

Hartnett has over 20 years’ experience of responsible investment and active ownership across roles in asset management, research and asset ownership. Prior to joining ASI he was head of responsible investment at Local Government Super (LGS).

Stirling said: “We are delighted Bill has joined our ESG Investment team, which is growing in importance, as we continue to move ESG considerations further up the investment agenda.”

Energy Super appoints its first CIO

Energy Super has announced the appointment of Kevin Wan Lum to the inaugural role of chief investment officer. With more than 20 years’ investment management experience in Australia and overseas, his most recent roles include head of real assets and alternatives /senior portfolio manager and acting CIO for Vic Super, portfolio manager equities and property with Ibbotson, and portfolio manager, implemented solutions at QIC.

CEO Robyn Petrou said: “This month we welcomed Kevin to the new role of chief investment officer. We look forward to his strong experience, outstanding investment skills and clear leadership in our next chapter of growth.”

Wan Lum said the new role provided an opportunity to continue to evolve his skills while contributing to Energy Super’s success.

“The level of engagement of members and the passion of the Energy Super team are great platforms to really make a difference to members of Energy Super and maximise their retirement outcomes,” he said.

The Energy executive team has also recently added Katie Simpson as general counsel and fund secretary and Sean Marteene as general manager, customer insight and product.

Spaceship announces changes to management team

Andrew Moore

Spaceship has announced its CEO Paul Bennetts will take on the newly created role of chief product officer, as part of a strategic strengthening of its management team. Spaceship chair Andrew Moore (pictured) will assume the role of interim CEO until a permanent CEO is appointed.

Moore said that Spaceship was ready to ramp up its growth after two years as a start-up, and that it was critical for staff, customers and investors that the organisation had the right management structure to realise its ambitions.

“To best prepare Spaceship for the next stage of growth the company needs to broaden the capabilities of the senior management team,” he said.

“We want to harness Paul’s flair for product development, ensuring he can focus his energy on giving the market what it wants. That will allow us to attract an experienced CEO to join the business, who can lead the Spaceship team and concentrate on accelerating our rapid growth.”

Spaceship has grown from a team of six employees in 2017 to more than 40 in 2019, spanning engineering, operations, compliance, risk, marketing and investment.

AMP announces board changes

AMP has announced the appointment of Debra Hazelton as a non-executive director to the AMP board, effective 15 June 2019.

AMP also announced that on completion of the sale of AMP Life to Resolution Life, Trevor Matthews will remain on the AMP Life board as an AMP nominee and retire from the AMP Limited Board. Matthews joined the board of AMP in March 2014 and was appointed chairman of AMP Life in May 2016.

Hazelton brings significant experience from more than 30 years in global financial services, including as the local chief executive of Mizuho Bank in Australia and Commonwealth Bank (CBA) in Japan. She is a non-executive director on the boards of Treasury Corporation of Victoria, Persol Australia Holdings and the Australia-Japan Foundation, and previously served on the board of Australian Financial Markets Association. She is also a non-executive director of AMP Capital Holdings Limited and will continue in this position when she joins the AMP board.

TelstraSuper announces chief risk officer

TelstraSuper has announced the appointment of Sabine Taylor as chief risk officer.

Initially appointed as interim CRO in February 2019, Taylor will transition to permanent chief risk officer immediately.

Prior to her appointment at TelstraSuper, Taylor was head of wrap operations at Colonial First State. She brings over 25 years industry experience in the areas of risk, compliance, operations, governance, fraud and security, including roles at UniSuper, AMP and the Commonwealth Bank. She was also a member of the Bank’s Women’s Advisory Council.

TelstraSuper CEO Chris Davies said the fund was delighted with the permanent appointment.

Mercer appoints head of investment strategy

Gwion Moore

Mercer has appointed experienced investment strategist Gwion Moore to the role of head of investment strategy.

Moore joins Mercer from Suncorp where he has held the role of executive manager, investment strategy and portfolio management since 2015. Prior to this, he was based in London where he led investment strategy at Russell Investments and Mn Services. He has also held portfolio management roles at Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan. Mercer Pacific CIO Kylie Willment said Moore’s appointment strengthens the capabilities of the portfolio management team.

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Derek Thompson

Best Selling Author, Podcast Host of 'Plain English'

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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.

Carmen Beverley-Smith

Executive Director - Superannuation, Life & Private Health Insurance, APRA

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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. 

Amy C. Edmondson

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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.

 

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

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.