FPA needs a leader, not a politician

Jo-Anne Bloch will leave the Financial Planning Association in the coming weeks, and her replacement must be non-partisan.

The chief executive of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), Jo-Anne Bloch, will be vacating her chair soon after Easter, but it may be a number of months before the organisation is in a position to announce her replacement.

The FPA has retained the services of a head hunter and speculation is already rife with respect to who will be included on the long list and who may ultimately make it to the shortlist. It is a measure of the difficulty of the job that no one is suggesting a ‘sure-fire’ candidate.

The challenges confronting the FPA are significant and whoever is selected for the role will need to bring to the job strong managerial abilities combined with a better than average understanding of the financial planning industry, an ability to think strategically and a capacity to open doors in Canberra.

It is not a role for burnt-out or aspiring politicians. For industry organisations to be effective they must remain apolitical.

They must maintain an ability to work with all sides of politics because, irrespective of self-interested claims to the contrary.

While former Liberal politicians may be able to open foyer doors, they are unlikely to then gain entry to the inner circle of Labor policymaking.

The same can be said of former Labor politicians dealing with Liberal Governments. It was ever thus.

Government ministers dealing with complex and closely regulated portfolios are more comfortable dealing with industry representatives who come to the negotiating table untarnished by past political affiliations.

Thus the FPA’s best interests are served by selecting a chief executive who comes unencumbered by party political baggage.

With the Government likely to pick up elements of the Ripoll Inquiry, with the Cooper Review still on foot and with a Federal Election looming in the second half of the year, the FPA can ill-afford to unduly delay the appointment of a new chief executive. The danger in creating vacuums is that they are inevitably filled by something you do not want.

Given the challenges still confronting the industry, the FPA’s best strategy is selecting substance over style.