FSC24 Summit | Speakers

David Bryant is CEO of Marsh McLennan Pacific and President of Mercer Pacific. He leads a collaborative effort in the region to deliver innovative solutions and greater client impact at the intersections of the Company’s four businesses: Marsh, Mercer, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman.

In his role as Mercer President, Pacific and CEO, Australia, David leads Mercer’s 2,000+ colleagues in Australia and New Zealand in providing trusted advice and best in class solutions in the areas of superannuation, investments and workforce consulting.

David is often asked to express his views on the changing nature of the financial services industry, as well as the barriers that stand in the way of societal and economic equity and prosperity. He is Chairman of the Financial Services Council Australia - the leading peak body for Australia’s financial services industry - and is a well-respected voice within the sector.

David joined Mercer in 2020 following a successful 40 year career in financial services, asset consulting, and banking across the Asia Pacific region. Previous roles include Chief Executive Officer, Wealth & Capital Markets and Chief Investment Officer at Australian Unity.

From 1990 – 2009 Peter Costello AC served as a Member of the Australian House of Representatives and was Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007 - a record term and the longest serving Treasurer in Australia’s history.

He delivered twelve federal budgets including ten surpluses. During this period Australia’s Sovereign Credit Rating was updated twice to its current AAA rating.

Mr Costello set up Australia’s system of financial regulation establishing the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). He also established the Takeovers Panel.

Peter Costello introduced the largest tax reform in Australian history called: A New Tax System, which introduced GST, abolished seven taxes and reduced income, capital gains and company taxes.

In 2006, after Government debt was eliminated in net terms, Mr Costello initiated the Australian Future Fund. From its original deposit, the Future Fund has grown to hold around $170 billion in assets.

Mr Costello has served on the IMF Committee, as a World Bank Governor and Chairman of the Global Group of 20 Finance Ministers & Central Bankers (G-20).

After leaving politics in 2009, Mr Costello joined a number of international and domestic boards and was chair of the Independent Advisory Board to the World Bank.

In January 2011 he was made a Companion (AC) in the Order of Australia.

Mr Costello is currently Chairman of the Future Fund. He is also Chairman of the Nine Entertainment Corporation.

Richard is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Council – New Zealand. He has extensive experience in leading and transforming Industry Associations, Life Insurance manufacturers and Financial Advice businesses, having held senior leadership roles in all sectors over the past 16 years. Organisations include Sovereign Assurance, ANZ Banking Group, Association of Financial Advisers and ING.

Richard is known as a community builder, skillfully engaging and influencing a diverse range of stakeholders to create common purpose, connection and enable collaboration.

Richard holds an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, a Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Education from Macquarie University and recently completed the Denison Miller Senior Executive leadership program as well as the innovative ‘Rethinking Leadership’ program with the Hunger Project in India.

Kelly Power was appointed CEO Colonial First State Superannuation in July 2021 and is also an Executive Director of the Trustee Board.

Kelly oversees the superannuation business including investments and product. She is also a Director of the CFS Superannuation Trustee board.

Previous roles in CFS include General Manager Product in 2018, with responsibility for marketing, strategy and for the Wrap business in October 2020.

Prior to Colonial First State, Kelly was Head of Platforms at BT Financial Group and also held several other executive management roles at BT and Asgard.

Kelly holds a Bachelor in Communications from UTS, a Diploma of Management from the Australian Institute of Management, a Diploma of Financial Services from Integratec and has also completed the Company Directors course at the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kelly is a former Director of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

She has been a member of the FSC Superannuation Board Committee since May 2018.

Chris McIsaac is managing director of Vanguard's International division, which provides investments to institutions, financial advisors, and individual clients in more than 80 countries around the world. He joined Vanguard in 1997. Most recently, Chris was head of Vanguard's Planning and Development Group, now known as Strategy, Product, Marketing, Communications Group; before that, he was head of the Institutional Investor Group. Chris holds a B.S. from Saint Joseph's University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is also a member of the Franklin Institute board of trustees.

Blair joined AMP in New Zealand in 2009 and became Chief Executive AMP Wealth Management, NewZealand in 2019. Blair was previously Managing Director from January 2017. In 2022 Blair became Group Executive Transformation & New Zealand and in July 2023 took over as Chief Financial Oﬃcer for the Group,based in Sydney.

Blair has over 30 years’ experience across the Financial Services sector in New Zealand and Australia.

Jane is focused on principled retirement policies that take a long-term view, so that the wellbeing of older New Zealanders is enhanced. The journey towards retirement – which means different things to different people – is a long one, so easy access to relevant and motivating financial information is crucial to help people on their way.

Jane’s advocacy interests are in the economic wellbeing of older New Zealanders, equity, and ensuring evidence-based data is readily available to contribute to what can sometimes be heated debate. She has appointed an Advisory Board to support her in ensuring advocacy is forward-focused, independent, and principled.

Jane has had a long leadership career, primarily in media entities, and holds other governance roles. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors.

Jane is focused on principled retirement policies that take a long-term view, so that the wellbeing of older New Zealanders is enhanced. The journey towards retirement – which means different things to different people – is a long one, so easy access to relevant and motivating financial information is crucial to help people on their way.

Jane’s advocacy interests are in the economic wellbeing of older New Zealanders, equity, and ensuring evidence-based data is readily available to contribute to what can sometimes be heated debate. She has appointed an Advisory Board to support her in ensuring advocacy is forward-focused, independent, and principled.

Jane has had a long leadership career, primarily in media entities, and holds other governance roles. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors.

Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords.

Margaret Cole was appointed Deputy Chair of APRA in October 2022, after joining APRA as Executive Board Member in July 2021. She is responsible for the oversight of the superannuation sector, and represents APRA at the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors.

Prior to joining APRA, she spent a year as PwC's Global Regulatory Leader based in Melbourne. Before that, she was PwC UK Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel from 2012 to 2020.

Blake became CEO of the Financial Services Council Australia in January 2022 after re-joining the FSC as Deputy CEO in 2020, where he was responsible for policy and advocacy on behalf of FSC members.

Blake has extensive experience as an advocate for the financial services industry. Blake has previously worked for Westpac Group, as Head of Government Affairs for Wealth, and at the FSC as Senior Policy Manager for Superannuation. Blake has also worked as a policy adviser and industrial advocate for the Commonwealth Government and the NSW Business Chamber.

Blake is also a member of the Board of Advice for the University of Sydney Business School's Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies. Blake holds a Juris Doctor from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor in Commerce (liberal studies) from the University of Sydney.

David is a Senior Partner at Mercer and the National Leader for research and policy in Australia. He has been the actuary to several public sector superannuation plans and is the lead author of the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, now in its 15th year.

Before joining Mercer, David was at PricewaterhouseCoopers and prior to that he was the Foundation Professor of Actuarial Studies at The University of Melbourne. In his two decades in academia, he acted as a consultant to a range of financial organisations, in both the private and public sectors, specialising in pensions and retirement incomes. He has spoken and written widely in this area and has served on many Government and industry committees.

David was an independent Board member of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority from 1998 to 2003 and President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2000.

Raelene is the Group Chief Executive of Sport New Zealand and High Performance Sport NZ.

She joined Sport NZ in December 2020, and was appointed Group Chief Executive in April 2022. Prior to this, she spent seven years working in Australia as Chief Executive of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and then Chief Executive of Rugby Australia. She was previously Chief Executive of Netball New Zealand from 2007 to 2013.

Before beginning her career in sports administration, Raelene built a successful corporate career in communications, sales and marketing. This included general management and other senior roles at Telecom New Zealand (now Spark), Bank of New Zealand and Fuji Xerox.

Raelene has held several governance roles in sport, previously serving as a board director of the ANZ Championship Netball, International Federations of Netball Associations, SANZAAR Rugby and the World Rugby Council.

She also has a rich sporting background as a former representative-level netball, tennis and lawn bowls player.

Raelene was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2015 for services to Business and Sport.

Christine Cupitt is a widely respected and credible leader with a passion for ensuring fair, high-quality outcomes for consumers across the financial services sector. She is the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Council of Australian Life Insurers and has 20 years’ experience working in legal, strategic and public policy roles.

Christine is the former Chief of Policy and Strategy at the Australian Banking Association (ABA) where she led the industry’s response and submissions to the banking Royal Commission. She was instrumental in subsequent changes to the Banking Code of Practice and provided considered industry guidance that helped shape the banking sector of today. She also led the banking industry’s policy response and regulatory program for COVID 19 as well as the development of the ABA’s climate change and net zero transition program.

Christine is a co-founder of the debt relief charity, Way Forward Debt Solutions, and a Vincent Fairfax Fellow.

In her role as Head of Life and Health, Australia and New Zealand, Kresh leads a multi-functional team to deliver reinsurance solutions to Swiss Re's insurance clients. Kresh previously held the role of Head of Life & Health NZ, with primary responsibility for the leadership of Swiss Re's New Zealand business.

Over the past 15 years at Swiss Re, Kresh has built up experience in client management, pricing, reserving and risk management across Swiss Re's Life and Health business in three of Swiss Re's global markets - the UK, Japan and Australia.

"I am passionate about working with the life industries in Australia and NZ to find ways to deliver insurance solutions to under-served and vulnerable communities in a sustainable way. Together with our insurance clients, we aim to help build the resilience of Australians and New Zealanders."

David joined Public Trust as Chief Risk Officer in September 2019, before taking over as the General Manager of our Corporate Trustee Services team in 2022. David has previously been Chief Risk Officer at Tower for more than 3 years, where his team oversaw risk, compliance, legal and governance for the Tower group.

Prior to this, he was Chief Risk Officer at RACQ Insurance in Australia. He also spent 4 years at PwC in Australia and London and worked for the Citibank-State Street joint venture CitiStreet Australia for 6 years prior to that.

As CEO, Ana-Marie is responsible for directing and executing the company’s organizational strategy.

Ana brings over 25 years of broad banking and financial services experience, including a decade in the local and global Wealth teams at ANZ bank. At ANZ, Ana had a number of strategic and executive roles across insurance and investments, including executive responsibility for New Zealand’s largest KiwiSaver Scheme and accountability for strategic decisions and performance of the wealth product suite. She also spent a further 10 years in commercial and product functions at Henderson Global Investors in London. Ana has held governance roles for Pie Funds, ANZ Samoa and the Financial Service Council, and most recently was CEO of AA Money.

Ana qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was admitted as a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is passionate about financial literacy, savings and retirement outcomes for New Zealanders and diversity in the financial services industry.

Ana is a shareholder of Pie Funds

Daniel is responsible for leading the strategy and direction setting for the FMA, ensuring a clear view of the systems, priorities and regulatory design is developed and communicated across a broad range of external stakeholders.

Daniel has extensive experience in developing and delivering strategic direction, capability and planning, implementing policy and legislative changes, while leading successful and diverse teams at a global level.

Previously, Daniel has held leadership roles at HM Treasury in the UK, several global investment banks, a crypto-exchange, as well as an Advisor to the International Monetary Fund.

Daniel holds an MA in Economics from York University, Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Queen Mary University of London, where he also holds an Honorary Professorship.

Graham is a pioneer of retail managed funds research in Australasia, and of financial planning in New Zealand. He started his financial services career in New Zealand in 1975. In 1983, he established his own business delivering funds research and financial advice professional development services. After initially adding Morningstar as a minority shareholder in his fund research business in 1999, he continued to develop it for several years, before selling the rest of the fund research business to Morningstar. In 2002, Graham established Portfolio Construction Forum. Based out of Sydney, Portfolio Construction Forum is recognised as the leading provider of specialist, independent continuing education and certification for investment portfolio construction practitioners in Australia and New Zealand.

Following a transfer from London to his home country of New Zealand, Jono now leads the Client Advisory Team for Morningstar Sustainalytics APAC. His team advises clients on their ESG strategies and use cases for ESG data.

During his 8 years in the UK, he led the product strategy for Sustainalytics’ industry renown EU regulatory solutions, being at the forefront of the response to critically important regulation such as the EU Taxonomy and SFDR. Before this he worked as Client Advisor for some of Sustainalytics largest asset manager, asset owner and investment banking clients, gaining extensive knowledge of cutting edge and emerging ESG strategies and use cases. Jono holds a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Auckland and an MSc in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics.  

Will Liang is an Executive Director at MA Asset Management, where he is responsible for overseeing the company's data, technology, and AI initiatives. His extensive career includes a decade at Macquarie Group, fulfilling several key roles— notably, he served as the CIO for Macquarie Capital in ANZ and spearheaded the technology strategy for the innovative Moonshot initiative. Will's career path led him to Harvard to further enhance his expertise in data analytics and artificial intelligence. Upon returning to Australia, he joined KPMG in a pivotal role, becoming the National Leader of Regulatory Technology.

Besides his executive commitments, Will serves as a non-executive director and treasurer for the RegTech Association's board and participates as a member of the Financial Services Council technology expert group.

As of 2023, Will has earned recognition as a LinkedIn Top Voice in AI and has been distinguished as the most influential Asian Australian under 40 in the corporate category. 

Michael is an innovator, researcher and commentator recognised as one of Australia’s leading voices in cyber security advocating for better privacy protection for businesses and individuals.

He is the CEO of Security in Depth, a global company founded on Cyber Security research providing Cyber risk management strategies and support to organisations around the world.

In a previous life, Michael led teams at Oracle, Gemalto and Volante, to name a few, implementing global innovative technology changes across both government and private sectors.

Peter Ornsby has worked in financial services for the last 18 years and is passionate about this industry and the work we do. Peter has held various roles at RI Advice including head of Practice Management and Head of Operations and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the RI Advice Group & Consultum Financial Advisers.

In his current role, Peter is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the business and driving the RI Advice & Consultum teams to deliver real outcomes for our advisers, support staff and our clients. 

Prior to joining the financial services industry Peter worked for almost 20 years in the travel industry. He held senior roles in the Ansett Group of businesses prior to becoming General Manager of the Travelworld and Jetset travel companies.

As CEO for AIA New Zealand, Nick is proud to lead a passionate team with the dream of making New Zealand one of the healthiest and best protected nations in the world.

With 30 years of experience in the financial services sector, Nick has held a diverse range of senior leadership roles in New Zealand, including CEO at Sovereign prior to the acquisition by AIA and Executive General Manager of Wealth & Insurance at ASB Bank Limited. Earlier in his career Nick held a variety of key leadership roles within ASB including General Manager Corporate Banking and Working Capital Services, General Manager Business Banking and General Manager of Business Banking and Retail Specialist Services.

Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Nick is married with two daughters. Outside of work, he enjoys keeping active, is a keen cyclist and gym goer and has competed in triathlons and Ironman events.

FSC24 Summit Speakers

About the Financial
Services Council

FSC24 Summit Speakers

About the Financial Services Council

David Bryant

Hon. Peter Costello

Rob Flannagan

Richard Klipin

Kelly Power

Chris McIsaac

Blair Vernon

Jane Wrightson

Jane Wrightson

Dr. Oliver Hartwich

Margaret Cole

Blake Briggs

Dr. David Knox

Raelene Castle

Christine Cupitt

Kresh Wright

David Callanan

Ana-Marie Lockyer

Daniel Trinder

Graham Rich

Jono Broome

Will Liang

Michael Connory

Peter Ornsby

Nick Stanhope

About the Financial
Services Council