This document summarizes profiles of three superannuation fund executives who won National Achievement Awards in 2015. It discusses their roles and challenges: 1) REST Industry Super CFO Chris Stevens discusses centralizing the fund's data analytics and harnessing data to understand member behaviors and performance. 2) UniSuper COO Steven Leach describes building technical skills to handle transactions while preparing products for regulatory changes like CIPRs. 3) Former Telstra Super CIO Jim Christensen talks about managing investment risk for members by balancing short and long-term opportunities. He advocates age-based investment approaches.

1. THE JOURNAL OF SUPERANNUATION MANAGEMENT• FS Super
BUILDING SUPER
EXCELLENCE

2. The National Achievement Award winning executives are considered
leaders in superannuation and the management of Australia’s
retirement savings. As the industry fronts constant change, these
executives are showcasing the leadership and foresight that will
direct superannuation’s future. Darren Snyder reports.
FS Super THE JOURNAL OF SUPERANNUATION MANAGEMENT•

3. This ability to build teams has served
Stevens well as he prepares to help REST
enter the next wave of superannuation
challenges. The most immediate of those
is addressing the increasing industry im-
portance of data analytics.
REST’s data analytical skills are spread
across the $37 billion fund but it has made
a decision to centralise the function under
Stevens’ CFO banner. He is currently re-
cruiting to build capability in the area.
“Data is so important for the fund. We
have a wealth of data but the challenge is
how to harness it to gain better insights
into member behaviours and also under-
stand the drivers behind our key perfor-
mance indicators,” Stevens says.
“There’s two aspects to it: there’s the
member insight part of the data – so try-
ing to understand more about behav-
iours…and getting the data to try and
predict what behaviours occur, and ther-
erfore what are the actions we can do to
trigger those sort of behaviours.
“On the other side of it, importantly is
really a means to measuring and moni-
toring our own performance. It’s about
both understanding the lag indicators or
what the data’s telling you and then try-
ing to draw that down to say what are
the lead indicators or the triggers that
are telling you that you’re heading in the
right direction.”
THE JOURNAL OF SUPERANNUATION MANAGEMENT• FS Super
14 www.fssuper.com.au
Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2016
Cover story
REST Industry Super chief financial officer Chris Stevens was
supposed to come to Australia from Britain on a two-year se-
condment but about 20 years later, he remains Down Under.
REST was one of Stevens’ first clients during a 15-year period
in the Australian custodial services department at J.P. Morgan.
The role of chief financial officer had not even been thought
of when the two first met, but Stevens was later appointed as
joint chief risk officer and inaugural CFO in 2008. More re-
cently he became the inaugural National Achievement Awards’
Chief Financial Officer of the Year (The awards were a joint
initiative of La Trobe Financial and Financial Standard).
Joining REST post the Global Financial Crisis, Stevens ex-
plains the industry fund held its own during a tumultuous pe-
riod and was well served by its long term view – both with in-
vestments and a supportive internal culture.
“There wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to cut costs everywhere, it
was still seen as important to invest in our people and build the
capability,” Stevens says.
“I was lucky to get that role at the time and then to have that
support. Looking back we were very heavily outsourced and re-
liant on our service provider, especially our administrator, so a
lot of it was taking more control over the financial aspects of the
organisation and also building a culture within the organisation
around financial discipline.”
One of Stevens’ first actions was to build separate cost report-
ing whereby each manager had their own budget and were held
accountable. It was an attempt to change previous mechanical
habits and drive better accountability.
Stevens says that implementation has obviously evolved over
the time “and made my life a lot easier.” He adds managers know
if they ask for more money next year it will have to be justified
with detail including offsets and savings. It is about making sure
“people have a financial discipline.”
The quote
We have a wealth of data but
the challenge is how to harness
it to gain better insights into
member behaviours.
The numbers
$37bnSize of REST
Industry Super.

4. open market and “we owe it our members to do that.”
“To keep the lights on while you’re running millions of transac-
tions through the system year on year, and not skipping a beat on
quality service and compliance obligations, that’s where I suppose
the challenge is,” Leach says.
“It’s about getting money to the right spots in the right form. But
the how we get there is changing. Those changes drive and shape the
nature of your work force too.”
Leach says the fund has heavily invested and continues to invest in
change management capability, not just within operations. He says
there will always be processes, systems and technology, “but people
are the glue.”
As part of the fund’s executive, Leach has significant input in to
capability assessments. He is one of the judges as to whether Uni-
Super has the technology and operations to confidently embark on
a project.
He knows his role won’t look the same in three to five years as it
does today. Whether that’s through legislative change or the era of
automation, Leach says the only certainty is that his job will be far
more technical in nature. But for now the focus is not about what his
role is going to be, but rather what the fund is going to look like in
the 10 or 20 years.
Putting investment and
advice aside
Also citing the importance of building sup-
port teams is UniSuper chief operating of-
ficer Steven Leach.
The 2015 National Achievement Awards’
Chief Operating Officer of the Year says
more than ever super funds have are hiring
staff with technical experience.
“More and more of the skills that are
needed are far more analytical in terms of
the exception handling and other skills to
get the same outcomes we’ve always had,”
Leach says.
He joined UniSuper more than five-and-a-
half years ago in a head of operations role that
reported to an executive manager who looked
after technology and projects. During the
fund’s restructure about two years ago, the
technology and projects role was split out to
operations and Leach was made an executive.
Chief of operations at the $52 billion in-
dustry fund means Leach is heavily involved
in administration for all the pension and
super products. His remit does not include
UniSuper’s expanding investment team or
the fund’s advice operations.
Leach explains that during his first few
years UniSuper was in a remediation phase
of getting its core systems and processes up
to the required level as one of Australia’s
largest super funds. He describes it as a “hy-
giene approach”.
He says it will be his role over the next cou-
ple of years to build on digital programs and
the redesign or refreshment of product and
benefit design. It is all part of ensuring UniS-
uper is properly aligned to recommendations
from the Financial System Inquiry (FSI),
including Comprehensive Income Products
for Retirement (CIPRs). Leach is also over-
seeing the refreshment of UniSuper’s de-
fined beneft design to take to the market in
the next couple of years.
Leach is pragmatic about the layers of con-
siderations and challenges that will continue
to meet his role. He says talk about super
fund choice and defaults has been around for
numerous years, as has talk about the money
washing around super and the tax levers that
may be pulled or pushed.
“Now it’s all becoming real,” Leach says.
Outside of choice and defaults there are
other competitive forces. Leach says it is now
hard for any super fund to compete without
a reasonable digital offering to their member-
ship. He says UniSuper operates as if it’s in an
15www.fssuper.com.au
Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2016
Cover story
FS Super THE JOURNAL OF SUPERANNUATION MANAGEMENT•
The quote
To keep the lights on
while you’re running
millions of transactions
through the system
year on year, and not
skipping a beat on
quality service and
compliance obligations,
that’s where the
challenge is.

5. 16 www.fssuper.com.au
Volume 08 Issue 01 | 2016
Cover story
THE JOURNAL OF SUPERANNUATION MANAGEMENT• FS Super
Super for the long term
During his recent five-year stint as Telstra Super chief investment of-
ficer, Jim Christensen also focused on shaping the corporate fund’s fu-
ture and maintained its position among Australia’s top super offerings.
Christensen told Telstra Super in 2015 his investment team of 14
employees “we’re always watching, calculating, estimating, [and]
weighing up.”
“This is our members’ money, so it’s important to get the strategy
right. That’s the excitement, as well as the challenge,” Christensen says.
This year the 2015 National Achievement Awards’ Chief Invest-
ment Officer of the Year made a move back to Queensland asset man-
ager QIC, and was appointed managing director – global multi-asset.
Christensen’s career first started at Queensland Treasury as an
economist and strategist before moving to the Queensland Invest-
ment Corporation (QIC) in a similar role, but in charge of a much
larger portfolio and managing around 100 team members.
During his initial employment at QIC, Christensen said he thrived
on the adrenalin of delivering consistently high returns for a major
financial player across a range of asset classes.
“But after a while, I felt I was becoming more of a manager and less
of a hands-on analyst. I wanted to have more control, to play my part
and be closer to the decision making process. When the Telstra Super
job came up, I grabbed it,” Christensen says.
At Telstra Super he was overseeing a diverse investment portfolio in-
cluding global and Australian equities, currency and property.
“Managing risk for members is a delicate tight-rope walk between
seizing short-term opportunities and waiting for longer-term gains.
Stock markets and currencies are volatile and unpredictable, we need
to set the building blocks right between selecting high-risk stock
which usually offers higher returns, and safer investments which are
less risky, but generally don’t deliver as much,” Christensen says.
As for delivering a superannuation fund of the future, Christens-
en said he encourages members to consider an age-based invest-
ment approach.
“Take risks when you’re young, look at equities and similar assets,
because you could be able to take advantage of both good and bad re-
The quote
Success in current
investment markets
might mean choosing a
strategy that only pays
off in three years’ time.
turns in the market cycle. Success in current
investment markets might mean choosing
a strategy that only pays off in three years’
time,” he says.
“But the nearer you get to retirement, the
less risk your portfolio should have, because
you don’t have the time to recoup potential
losses. Generally a more defensive strategy,
investing in things such as bonds, property
or cash is more appropriate the nearer you
get to retirement.”
La Trobe Financial president and chief
executive Greg O’Neill said it is clear from
introducing these awards in 2012 “that our
retirement savings are in good hands and
from what we have seen over the past decade
their [super funds’] performance has been
exemplary and deserve recognition.”
Finalists for the inaugural Chief Financial
Officer of the Year were: Phil Hagen (En-
ergy Super); Chris Stevens (REST Industry
Super); and Ruby Chi (VicSuper).
For the Chief Investment Officer of the
Year, finalists were: Oscar Fabian (VicSu-
per); Robert Fowler (HESTA); and Jim
Christensen (Telstra Super).
For the Chief Operating Officer of the
Year, finalistswere: Steven Leach (Uni-
Super); Tony Griffin (Local Govern-
ment Super); and Antony Thow (LU-
CRF Super). fs
A JOINT INITIATIVE OF
Winners of the 2015 Selecting Super Awards and National Achievement Awards, a joint initiative of La Trobe Financial and Financial Standard.