Former CFS chief joins Australian Ethical board
Australian Ethical Investment has welcomed an independent non-executive director to its board, who previously spent a decade as Colonial First State’s CEO.
The ethical investment manager announced Brian Bissaker will commence in the non-executive board position on 15 April 2025.
His appointment follows the recent additions of Richard Brandweiner, former Pendal CEO, and Fiona Reynolds, former UN Principles of Responsible Investment CEO, to its board last year.
Bissaker brings over 30 years of financial services and consulting experience to Australian Ethical, spanning funds management, superannuation, life insurance, and banking.
Most notably, he spent 10 years at Colonial First State, where he began as the general manager for product and investment services, and later went on to hold the chief executive role.
He also served as an executive vice president at BT Funds Management, director and deputy chair of the Financial Services Council (FSC), group executive at Bank of Queensland, CEO of Virgin Money Australia, and more recently as a director at IMB Bank.
Steve Gibbs, Australian Ethical Investment chair, welcomed Bissaker to the company.
“Brian is a seasoned financial services executive and highly experienced non-executive director, with a distinguished track record of business success. We welcome his deep investment management and governance experience to the board,” the chair said.
Commenting on his own appointment, Bissaker said: “Australian Ethical’s growth in recent years is admirable – leveraging its authenticity as a genuine ethical business to achieve rapid and significant growth.
“It’s proof that you can be a financially successful business and deliver great outcomes for customers and the world more broadly. I am looking forward to working with the board and the management team as the business embarks on its next phase of growth.”
In its financial results in February, Australian Ethical described how it is seeking to expand its usage of private markets, including via an offering for wholesale investors.
Expanding on this to Money Management, the firm’s head of private markets, Adam Roberts, said: “We are seeing a lot of interest and feedback about private markets, so we are thinking about how can we provide a solution for wholesale capital in that space?
“It’s not straightforward as it is very nuanced so we think our brand and our portfolio is appealing to people, so we are looking at what will work and how we can unlock that for them.”
However, he cautioned the firm is aware there are varying degrees of adviser literacy around the products.
“We have noticed there are varying degrees of understanding, some have very fundamental questions and some have been using them for a long time in various ways. It’s more of a wholesale product than a retail one, at least in the first instance.”
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
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