All change at the top

Telstra subsidiary Kaz announced in August last year that it had sold AAS to Link Market Services for $215 million — a move that saw the departure of AAS chief executive Stuart Korchinski, who later emerged at the helm of competitor administrator Citistreet.

Korchinski was replaced at AAS by Andrew Alcock, but Alcock earlier this year also announced his departure.

In joining Citistreet, Korchinski was filling the shoes of Gary Cox, but did not take up his new position until after he had been the subject of legal action initiated by his former employers at AAS.

On top of that, Superpartners announced that it was losing its long-serving and highly influential chief executive, Frank Gullone, who was late last month replaced by acting chief executive Peter McNeil.

McNeil joined Superpartners late last year, prior to which he was a senior executive with health insurer Medibank Private.

The only major administrator largely unaffected by change in the past 18 months has been Pillar, albeit that there has been speculation that the re-election of a Labor Government in NSW might give rise to a review of its ownership.

Pillar, operating out of Sydney and its major call centre facility at Coniston, near Wollongong, is headed by chief executive Peter Cormack.

However, the most significant change to Australia’s superannuation environment in 2006-07 has been acknowledged as the sale of AAS to Link — a company with no previous background in superannuation administration.

Link, which is part of the Pacific Equity Partners group, had no previous experience in superannuation administration but had over the previous two years acquired the share registry business of Pitcher Partners in Queensland and the employee share plan administration business of Mellon Human Resources and Investor Services.

While a number of AAS client superannuation funds initially expressed misgivings about the change in ownership, the company has lost few clients, with only the Queensland-based Intrust opting to seek out a new provider.