(December-2001) The Top 10 Most Influential People in Super

It probably wouldn’t surprise many people that Paul Keating comes out top in Super Review’s listing of the Top 10 Most Influential People in Superannuation. He is, after all, considered the principal architect of Australia’s superannuation system.

One member of our panel of judges went as far as calling him “the Jesus Christ of Superannuation”, while another noted: “Most of us wouldn’t have jobs if it wasn’t for him.”

While Keating is no longer part of the super industry and his legacy is largely historical, what he did still has an impact on the daily lives of those working in the industry. It is fitting then that he gets top accolades in Super Review’s inaugural listing. As we continue to update this listing each year, our focus will of course shift to the more current movers and shakers of our times.

No doubt many readers will disagree with our listings. From the outset, we knew this could never be a scientific exercise and that the outcome would be subjective, but we hope the results make for interesting reading.

Just how one defines influential is also debatable. For our purposes, we decided that those who are influential are those who have had some kind of impact on the superannuation industry and in shaping its future. They are people who have stirred things up or have led us to do things differently. Their influence can be felt in any way - from how investments are made and how super funds are managed, to the kind of services members are offered and how super policy is shaped.

We were not, however, looking for people who are influential just because they control large funds under management, work for blue chip organisations or have important titles.

We also decided to establish two categories: one that lists the most influential people in superannuation overall and another that honours trustees and super fund executives, the people running Australia’s super funds.

We began our search by asking 30 people, most of whom are already influential and successful people in the super industry (plus journalists and contributors to Super Review), to put forward three nominations in each of the two categories.

Along with the usual suspects, we also received some interesting nominations, including one for “the faceless person in Treasury who designed the surcharge” and another for the consumer.

But not everyone was able to come up with nominations. For example, Chris Artis, investment strategy manager at the Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme, gave our request much thought, but had to admit: “Over the last decade, no one or group of individuals, in our view, have been as influential in the industry. This is in contrast with the 1980s and very early 1990s, where super policy and influence was made.

“Today, the players are characterised by ‘self interest’. The Government has pretty much clamped down on allowing lobbying to influence super policy. Therefore, all major players have failed to change Government policy. The last big chance was with surcharge. More should have been done, I mean more radical steps should have been taken. For these reasons, I cannot give you any stand out names.”

To obtain our final listings, we put all nominations in front of our panel, made up of members of our editorial board. Those attending included Robert MC Brown of Bridgeport Advisers, Jean Elborn of the News Ltd Group Super Fund, Russell Mason of William M Mercer and Brett Westbrook of the Local Government and Energy Industry super schemes.

Two board members — Kevin Casey of Australian Retirement Income Stream Association and David Knox of PricewaterhouseCoopers — were unable to attend but submitted their input in writing.

Our panel faced no easy task. Names were taken off, added again and taken off, as achievements were debated and compared against those of other nominees.

And, as the debate raged, our panel came up with some of their own interesting suggestions, including the inventor of master trusts (believed to be Graeme Morgan of Asgard), the creator of allocated pension plans (believed to be David Smith from AM Corp) and the person or persons behind the transformation of expensive defined-benefit public sector funds to what they are now.

Among the questions posed by the panel was whether it is fair to reward someone who may just be the face of an organisation and is backed by a team that made things happen. This question was particularly pertinent when it came to trustees or fund executives of a fund, who are members of a board and reliant on board decisions.

That industry fund representatives dominated the list of nominees was also a concern, but the panel conceded that this was probably a reflection of the industry and the culture of these funds.

Industry fund representatives grab more headlines, but they have to because, unlike corporate funds, they need to attract new members from the outside world. Trustees from corporate funds often have other jobs, and while most are good operators, they are not paid to be sensational and often have no interest in trumpeting what they are doing.

For each category, the panel nominated one person as the most influential, and then a further nine, which we have listed alphabetically in our tables. It was also decided that those that made the overall list would not be considered for the trustee and fund executive list.

While we were compiling our list, our sister publication, Money Management , was drawing up its own lists, which are more focused on the wider financial services and retail markets. Nonetheless, its panel also chose Paul Keating and Paul Clitheroe to appear on its list. Its listings are included in the box above.

Many thanks to the following 30 people who submitted the initial nominations for our listings (in alphabetical order):

Chris Artis - Emergency Services, Superannuation scheme; David Beattie - BHP Billiton; Ann Byrne - UniSuper; Robert MC Brown - Bridgeport; Kevin Casey - ARISA; Aaron Driver - journalist; Alex Dunnin - Rainmaker; Andrew Dillon - Watson Wyatt; Jean Elborn - News Limited; Brett Elvish - InTech; Steven Gaffney - Aon Consulting; Lyn Gearing - NSW State Super; Lisa Gray - Plum; Reub Hayes - Ausbil Dexia; Helen Hewett - Cbus; David Knox - PWC; Stuart Jones - Australian Tax Practice; George Liondis - Money Management; Ken Lockery - Deutsche Bank; Russell Mason - William M Mercer; Terry McCredden - Telstra Super; Lyn Ralph - IFSA; Mike Turner - Pillar; David Smith - AM Corporation; Veronik Verkest - Frank Russell; Michael Vrisakis - BDW; John Wasiliev - journalist; Brett Westbrook - LGSS and EISS; John Wilkinson - journalist; Laura Wright - JMIFA.