The Australian Retirement Trust (ART) has seen significant changes to its leadership team, announcing two vacancies and the creation of a new senior role.
The $240 billion fund, which was formed in 2022 through a merger of Sunsuper and QSuper, would see the departure of its chief strategy officer Teifi Whatley and chief member officer Karin Muller.
ART veteran Whatley, who was with the fund for over 20 years, would retire at the end of March. She had previously been with Sunsuper in roles spanning brand, marketing, technology and strategy.
Meanwhile Muller planned to pursue opportunities outside of the fund, having joined QSuper in 2015 and held roles across information technology, transformation and member services.
“Teifi and Karin played a significant role in delivering our merger and our first year as ART,” said chief executive Bernard Reilly.
“Their hard work, commitment and unwavering dedication to our members will leave a lasting legacy.”
The fund also announced the creation of a chief of retirement role to focus on the execution of ART’s retirement strategy and provide strategic leadership and guidance in the provision of all elements of the retirement offer, including product, investments, service model and advice.
Reilly elaborated, “As we approach our one-year anniversary as Australian Retirement Trust, the time was right to consider our executive structure, ensuring we’re best placed to manage our expected growth and deliver on our commitment to our 2.2 million members.
“We believe our operating model will ensure we are providing market leading support for our members up to and through retirement. This is an important step as we strive to empower our members to retire well with confidence.”
With these changes, the executive team would entail:
- Chief Executive Officer – Bernard Reilly
- Chief Commercial Officer – Dave Woodall
- Chief Financial Officer – Anthony Rose
- Chief Investment Officer – Ian Patrick
- Chief People Officer – Helen Jackson
- Chief Risk Officer – Anne Browne
- Chief Strategy Officer – Stevhan Davidson
- Chief Technology Officer – Rod Greenaway
- Chief Member Officer – vacant
- Chief Retirement Officer – vacant
The new structure would be effective from 1 March and recruitment for the two vacant roles of chief of retirement and chief member officer was underway, ART confirmed.
The fund recently welcomed two new board directors, Linda Apelt and Mark Burgess, and an external adviser to the investment committee, Dr Guy Debelle.
