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(December-2001) Rosemary Vilgan
Rosemary Vilgan runs one of Australia’s largest super funds and was the youngest ever elected chair to the board of directors of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia. Yet, she describes herself as a quiet person who prefers to spend time with her family and playing with her two young children.
Since taking over as QSuper’s executive director in 1997, her fund has doubled in size to $10 billion in funds under management, and if one takes into account the Queensland Government superannuation reserves, the amount she is responsible for increases to $18 billion.
Vilgan’s peers nominated her for her efforts in providing critical direction to QSuper, and for her roles as a senior influencer of policy in Australia and as a leading figure in public sector super.
She says one of her biggest accomplishments was amalgamating five existing superannuation funds — QSuper, Go Super, State Super, Police Super and Fire Super — into a single fund with reduced costs. QSuper now has 400,000 members, but this will grow again after the Queensland Ambulance Service Superannuation Scheme amalgamates with the scheme.
According to Vilgan, her biggest achievement was working with the union, the Government and trustees to negotiate a new increased super deal last year for government workers that went against the industry trend.
“In Queensland at the moment, members will get double the benefits of the other states because of the higher contribution rates,” she says.
Her focus for the future includes reviewing investment strategies, adopting more aggressive options for defined benefit fund investments, and enhancing financial planning services in order to keep members in the fund for longer.
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