AMP announces wealth leadership shake-up

Under the changes, former Yellow Brick Road wealth management chief and Wealth Market head Matt Lawler will be appointed managing director of advice, with Equipsuper chief investment officer Anna Shelley to join as CIO, with accountability for investment performance being brought into AMP Australia for the first time.

Current Sunsuper chief financial officer Jason Sommer will join as director of transformation and investments.

AMP Australia director of workplace super Ilaine Anderson has been elevated to the role of director of super and retirement, while AMP Capital global head of product Edwina Maloney will assume the role of director of platforms.

Four new leaders across finance, people and culture, legal and risk were also expected to be in place by July.

AMP said the new leadership team “has the capability and experience to drive the transformation of the AMP Australia business, and each has the attributes to lead a high-performance culture”.

“As well as bringing together an experienced leadership team with four new executives, we also have an updated operating model to deliver a flatter structure to enable empowered, distributed leadership,” AMP Australia CEO Scott Hartley said.

“This will improve efficiency and ultimately the performance of the business by giving our leaders end-to-end operational accountability.”

Mr Hartley said the group had looked for leaders that “have a firm grasp of the challenges we have as an organisation, and a strong sense of urgency about the changes we need to see in our business”.

“I’m very pleased we are bringing in such well respected, talented executives, to help transform the business, and I am confident we now have the team to successfully deliver on the strategy,” he said.

Meanwhile, AMP acting group executive of advice David Akers would step down from his role as part of the changes.

“David has led the business with strength, integrity and vision. With the transformation now well underway, it is the right time to transition to a new leader, who is well positioned to take the advice business through the next phase of transformation and growth,” Mr Hartley said.

“Ahead of Matt’s arrival, David will continue to lead the advice business to maintain the momentum we have in our advice transformation, with the priorities for the business and the network remaining unchanged.”