The evolution of Kelly’s gang

It has been six months since chief executive officer Kerrie Kelly began the structural makeover of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and at last count the number of staff employed at the industry organisation had dropped 42 per cent from 86 to less than 50.

The staff departures have been closely followed by the media, although it was Kelly herself that brought up the subject last week at a meeting with Money Management journalists. She clearly made it known that despite integration issues, the FPA will be continuing its mandate to streamline and re-focus the organisation towards better servicing its members.

“The staff who are here are prepared to meet the goals of the Financial Planning Association,” Kelly said.

Looking back, it’s been a busy six months for Kelly, who last November stepped into a role that had been held by Ken Breakspear for the previous five years.

She had only been in the job a little more than a month before announcing plans to restructure the organisation with the aim of improving member services.

As a result of the restructure, the executive management structure was expanded and flattened with eight business units reporting through to the chief executive instead of the previous five.

Under the new management structure, Kelly identified four key business areas in particular that would implicitly drive the revamped organisation to achieve its goals.

These areas included member services, professional practice, public policy and government relations and education policy.

Last week, the FPA advertised four vacancies, including some of the head roles in each of these four areas.

Other areas Kelly flagged under the restructure that would provide support services to these key areas were public relations and communications, business analysis, corporate services and human resources.

Since the December announcement, there have also been other comings and goings in these areas, with some roles merged and others handed to caretakers until permanent appointments can be made.

With the recent departure of public policy and government relations manager Con Hristodoulidis, who was also general manager — a dual role that has since been separated — the FPA has at least five senior executive roles to fill.

Some of the notable departures that have followed Breakspear include: Christina Kalantzis, policy and professional standards manager; compliance manager Robert Tohill; and Belinda Robertson, former learning product manager, who will not be replaced, instead a new role of education program co-ordinator has been advertised.

Other departures include Rohan Burgess, who was head of member services.

Burgess will not be replaced, instead the member services division will now be managed alongside corporate services, an area previously headed up Steven Reynolds who has also left the organisation.

Caretaking this aligned role is John Tsalkos, but only on a contract basis. The FPA is looking to appoint someone permanently to this role, which will be repackaged as finance and administration general manager.

When asked about her shrinking staffing numbers, Kelly last week reiterated her focus on boosting member services.

Kelly said FPA members are starting to benefit from the changes made to the organisation, with the association receiving positive feedback on service levels from field trips to FPA chapters in provincial New South Wales in recent weeks.

“The re-focusing effort is starting to get some traction,” Kelly said.