A focus on a member first mission
For most of Karen Volpato’s 37-year working life, she has relentlessly sought to make the superannuation industry a member-first space, and has devoted her time to championing gender equality.
As Money Management’s 2017 Woman of the Year, Volpato started her working career as one of the first female lawyers in Tasmania where she established a self-funded legal department for Trust Bank, worked in local government, and is now a senior policy adviser for the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).
Speaking to Money Management, Volpato said one of her biggest achievements had been halving self-insured claims and managing the Port Arthur massacre invalidity claims, after spending a year and a half interviewing all the stakeholders.
Her latest achievements have included developing the AIST Mercer Super Tracker, that tracks the costs and benefits of the super system, launching the country’s first website devoted to women and super, and has been the AIST project lead for the regulator’s Regulatory Guide 97 (RG97) for fee and cost disclosure.
“No matter what I do, whether it is within a fund, about marketing and campaigns, and designing a product, or in testing members communications, or at AIST where it’s about system and structural issues ,you have to think about the member first,” she said.
“I’m one of the few people who have been involved in RG97 since it started and it has been a long and complex process. I’ve devoted myself to the project and to members. In the end it’s about the net return to members and that’s critical.
“There’s been a lot of debate about RG97 – on if it has actually delivered. But my comment around that is, you’ve got to know fees and costs to be transparent so each line of fees and costs actually delivers value to members.”
Volpato has also worked on a pro bono basis as the Women in Super’s chair of policy for four years where she helped develop a policy platform, an action plan for policy issues, and a project research brief.
The judges found that Volpato was a standout candidate for the award not only for what she had done with RG97 but also her role in advocating equal pay, gender equality, and closing the super gender gap.
“I think women like to see there are women out there getting behind them and saying ‘we need more gender equality, pay equality, we need to get more women getting advice, the super gap is an issue’ and that’s the extra bit we saw in Karen,” the judges said.
“It’s good to find someone I believe is putting a lot of work around the great job they do but also putting back into the industry, the government, and who is championing women.”
AIST chief executive, Eva Scheerlinck, said Volpato was a true asset to the team, was passionate, driven, and strived to improve the retirement system for all Australians.
In terms of breaking through the glass ceiling, Volpato said women needed to believe in their sense of mission to overcome their sense of gender.
She said while she had experienced being in the middle of gender politics before, she tried to ignore it by focusing on her sense of mission in her roles.
“I don’t think being aggressive ever works. I think having your own sense of voice is very critical in those circumstances and I think women really need to work on that a lot,” Volpato said. “It’s always the message that draws rather than the politics.”
She was also praised by another reference who said what set her apart from others was her “consistently high level of dedication, attention to detail, and dealing with high pressure situations with humour and equanimity”.
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