With Alexis George stepping back from CEO duties at AMP, Money Management covers the firm’s leadership since the Hayne royal commission.
It was announced on 20 January that George would be stepping down after five years as CEO of the financial services firm with her tenure having seen the sale of the AMP Capital and its advice business.
Read on for a timeline of the firm’s previous leadership:
At the time of the royal commission, Craig Meller was the CEO from 2014 to 2018 but quit with immediate effect when it was uncovered that AMP had covered up to ASIC that it was charging customers fees for advice that was not provided. The chair at the time, Catherine Brenner, also stepped down for the same reason after two years in the role.
Speaking at the time of his exit, Meller said: “I do not condone them or the misleading statements made to ASIC. However, as they occurred during my tenure as CEO, I believe that stepping down as CEO is an appropriate measure to begin the work that needs to be done to restore public and regulatory trust in AMP.”
Shares in the company, which had once traded at more than $10 in 2007, had fallen to half of this by 2018.
In his place, AMP appointed its non-executive director Mike Wilkins as interim chief executive in April 2018. He had joined its board in September 2016 and was also chair of its audit and risk committee, having previously been chief executive of fund manager of Tyndall.
Seeking a permanent hire, AMP then appointed former Credit Suisse chief executive Francesco De Ferrari to take up the role from December 2018. At the time, he faced a “mammoth” recovery task to rebuild the company after the royal commission which had seen the firm raked over the coals for problems such as fees for no service, fees to deceased customers and Buyer of Last Resort (BOLR) changes for financial advisers.
“While 2018 has clearly been a challenging year for the business, I’m confident we can earn back trust which will underpin the recovery of business performance,” he said.
De Ferrari formerly spent 17 years at Credit Suisse where he was chief executive for its South East Asia and frontier markets division and head of private banking for Asia-Pacific. Moving over from Singapore to Sydney, he was also reimbursed $200,000 for relocation costs, as well as his $2.2 billion base salary, and went on to purchase a $7.5 million Woollahra mansion, which later doubled in value.
However, De Ferrari’s tenure as CEO faced turbulence with two senior executives departing following conduct concerns.
In June 2020, Boe Pahari was appointed as chief executive of AMP Capital, a move seen as controversial given he had an employment complaint against him for sexual harassment towards a female employee from 2017. Just two months later, he resigned from the AMP Capital role but remained at the firm as chief executive of its global head of infrastructure equity until August 2021. Chair David Murray and director John Fraser also resigned around this time over the board’s handling of the Pahari complaint.
Not only this, chief executive of AMP Australia Alex Wade– who formerly worked with De Ferrari at Credit Suisse – resigned with immediate effect in August 2020 and this was also understood to be related to conduct allegations surrounding explicit photographs.
On an interim basis, Blair Vernon, who will be George’s replacement from March, took over as acting CEO of AMP Australia to replace Wade. He was then replaced by Scott Hartley in January 2020 – a role Hartley held until his current position as chief executive of Insignia Financial.
From a business perspective, De Ferrari also faced criticism for AMP’s falling share price and his failure to secure a deal with global asset manager Ares Management Corporation to acquire its AMP Capital division.
Fast forward to March 2021 and De Ferrari resigned after just two years in the CEO position, to be replaced by ANZ deputy chief executive Alexis George. She also joined the board of the Financial Services Council (FSC).
“I want to shape and be part of a purpose led culture that’s dynamic, inclusive, accountable and customer centric. I know it’s a work in progress and it’s something that I certainly intend to lead from the front,” George said at the time.
Her tenure saw multiple divestments from the business, including its advice business, the AMP Capital real estate and domestic infrastructure business, its equity interest in Resolution Life, and self-managed superannuation technology business SuperConcepts.
Speaking a year ago, she said: “For the first few years [as CEO], it is a bit of a clean-up process of the portfolio, focusing on simplification and efficiencies. Now we’ve done a lot of the hard work, it is time to reprioritise growth.
“I really see opportunities in the platform business as that proposition has always been strong. We are working on the sales capabilities there and the digital proposition, our retirement solutions are gaining traction.”
With the new appointment of Blair Vernon as chief executive from April, AMP said it is now focusing on a ‘new chapter’ for the business after a period of significant transformation, although it did not detail what this would encompass.
His remuneration stands at a base salary of $1.4 million per annum plus a short-term incentive of 100 per cent of his base salary on target performance.
Vernon added: “AMP is delivering against its strategy, and I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in executing our strategic ambitions and delivering positive outcomes to customers, shareholders, communities and colleagues.”
