Appearing before the Senate economics committee via video link with all the associated technical difficulties and political grilling must be a nerve-wracking experience, Outsider can imagine, but it surely can’t be helpful or reassuring for you if the committee cannot remember your name.
While ASIC chair, Joe Longo, and commissioner, Cathie Armour, are regulars before the committee, Dr Rhys Bollen, has made fewer appearances at the hearings.
Bollen, who is senior executive leader for insurers, was speaking before the committee on the topic of the collapse of the Sterling Income Trust but not once, but twice, the committee forgot his name.
Outsider sympathises with the committee, he too sometimes forgets the names of men in financial services. They are not exactly a diverse group of people even if they are a very successful group of people. Going with ‘John’ is usually a pretty safe bet, given at one point there were 32 ASX CEOs hailing by that name.
Luckily, the committee are in good company at being forgetful, even US President Joe Biden cannot remember the name of his Australian counterpart, describing the Prime Minister as “that fella down under” at the recent AUKUS naval summit.
