Vamos makes super mainstream
Pauline Vamos was deemed the 2016 Super Executive of the Year for her work in the superannuation industry through significant reform during her nine year tenure as CEO of ASFA.
As the head of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) for nine years, former chief executive, Pauline Vamos, has led the industry through significant reforms, including the Financial System Inquiry (FSI).
She has advocated for SuperStream governance, and improved the internal governance of ASFA through better committee structures and the appointment of an independent chair.
The comments above were from judges of the awards and her peers, which is a testament to the high regard with which she is viewed by the financial services and superannuation industry.
Vamos' own personal goal was to increase super awareness among consumers, which she did through the consumer-based website, Super Guru, which is funded by ASFA and its members. That website receives 10,000 to 12,000 hits a month.
"The super industry is great at talking to itself, it's not so great at talking to others, particularly the broader community and stakeholders," Vamos said.
"So I made it as part of my goal to present in non-super forums. I'd often go down to Canberra and educate Treasury, cross benchers, members on both sides of Parliament, do countless media interviews, talkback radio. All of that was to increase the visibility of super, the understandability of super, and of course the visibility of ASFA."
Vamos also focused on ramping up efficiency in the super system, and she particularly focused on the quality of data, the inter-operability between funds, gateways, clearing houses, administrators, and employers.
Under Stronger Super, collection of data jumped from 300 bits of data to 3,000 bits of data.
"A lot of my role in that was to ask the question "why are we collecting this, what are we going to do with it, who is going to be accountable for it?" Vamos said.
"How do we ensure that the data that is collected can be compared, that there is some robustness around it because a straight trust structure's very different to a master trust structure."
Reflecting on her time as ASFA CEO, Vamos said her main goal was to unite all stakeholders, and sell the super story.
"[It was also about] being able to bring everybody along on the journey, even when they didn't agree on what we were trying to do," she said.
Fellow finalist, Tasplan Super fund services manager, Bronwyn Riley, drew praise for delivering a fully operational contact centre for the fund in addition to her other responsibilities.
Here Vamos talk about winning the award, in the video below.
SUPERANNUATION EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
WINNER
Pauline Vamos
Former chief executive officer
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA)
FINALISTS
Bronwyn Riley
Fund services manager
Tasplan
Dascia Bennett
Executive manager, customer
NGS Super
Trish Donohue
Executive manager, investment management
Cbus
Catherine Price
Owner and principal auditor
TABS — Super Fund Auditors
Angela Thurstans
Executive manager, governance and risk
Cbus
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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