Former APRA deputy chair joins ART board

Australian Retirement Trust (ART) has announced two new board appointments, welcoming Helen Rowell and Dr Martin Parkinson as new independent directors effective April 2024.

Rowell is former deputy chair at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), who stepped down at the end of June 2023 after more than 21 years at the prudential regulator.

In this role, she oversaw the introduction of APRA’s superannuation heatmaps, which published its inaugural results in late 2021.

Rowell’s résumé also includes more than six years as a member of Chief Executive Women (CEW) and one year as president of the Actuaries Institute.

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Meanwhile, Parkinson is a former board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and has previously served as secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, secretary to the Australian Treasury, and inaugural secretary of the Department of Climate Change. He is currently the chancellor of Macquarie University.

“The appointments of Helen and Martin are outstanding additions to the ART board, and further strengthen our expertise in a wide range of areas, including climate risk management, cyber security, insurance and governance,” said ART chair Andrew Fraser.

“Our fund is growing every day, now looking after more than $280 billion worth of retirement savings for our members. Helen and Martin bring exceptional and deep national and international experience to our board, and I look forward to working with them as we steward the fund on behalf of our more than 2.3 million members.”

The board appointments replace vacancies that arise from the departure of Georgina Williams and Michael Traill, who chose not renominate.

Thanking them for their service, Fraser noted they had both been valued members of ART and, prior to the merger in 2022, of Sunsuper.

“I want to thank them for their work, for their support as colleagues, and for their role in helping make the merger a reality,” he said.

Additionally, as part of the planned changes to board composition, former Future Fund managing director Mark Burgess, who joined the board of ART last year, has been appointed chair of the ART investment committee.