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Speakers:

• Anthony Asher – Adjunct Associate Professor, UNSW Business School
• Elizabeth Sheedy – Professor, Department of Applied Finance of Macquarie Business School

Chair: Scott Donald – Associate Professor, Director (CLMR), UNSW Sydney

Abstract:

Risk culture and executive remuneration are unavoidably interconnected. Poorly designed incentives and steep remuneration packages make it difficult to sustain a good risk culture and further, from an ethical standpoint, CEOs and senior management enjoying higher pay can be seen as unfair, undermining other employees’ commitment to the organisation. It can also lead to hubris and recklessness when individuals overestimate their own abilities, jeopardising the company’s operations itself.

This session will introduce our expert speakers’ views on the fundamental links between risk culture and remuneration, including the ethical virtues that underpin corporate decision-making. It will then explore what can be done to assist directors who bear the responsibility for determining remuneration. In particular, discussion will address:

• how directors ought to face requests for excessive and inappropriate packages,
• how shareholders can take a more active approach to help directors prevent inappropriately designed packages, and
• how regulators can support and monitor directors to appropriately provide executive remuneration.

Speaker Bios:

• Dr Anthony Asher – Adjunct Associate Professor, UNSW Business School

Anthony Asher is an actuary and Adjunct Associate Professor at the UNSW Business School - i.e. now retired from paid work, but still involved in research.  His working life has been divided between university teaching and a variety of professional roles including Chief Actuary of a life insurer, consultant actuary to a range of companies and governments, and with APRA. He is currently a member of the Council of the Actuaries Institute and of its Retirement Strategy Group, and Convenor of the Retirement Incomes Working Group, which is working on the design of post retirement products and advice. He is well known in the profession for his interest in ethics in professional life, particularly the social impact of actuarial work.

• Dr Elizabeth Sheedy – Professor, Department of Applied Finance of Macquarie Business School

Professor Elizabeth Sheedy is a risk governance expert based in the Department of Applied Finance of Macquarie Business School. She teaches in the Master of Applied Finance program and the Global MBA program. Since 2012 her research focus has been risk governance, culture and remuneration in financial institutions. This work has enabled Elizabeth to contribute to the policy debate on financial services misconduct, remuneration practices, enhancing financial services culture/conduct and related issues. She publishes in top international journals, is a popular speaker at industry conferences and a regular media commentator. She has just had a new book published with Routledge called ‘Risk Governance: Biases, blind spots and bonuses’.

• Dr Scott Donald – Associate Professor, Director (CLMR), UNSW Sydney

Scott Donald is Director of the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation, UNSW Sydney. Scott joined the Faculty in 2010 after a successful career in the funds management industry advising governments, superannuation funds, insurance companies and fund managers on investment strategy, governance and regulation. In 2009-10 he was retained to advise the Review of the Governance, Efficiency, Structure and Operation of Australia’s Superannuation System (the Cooper Review). Scott teaches corporations, trusts and superannuation law at both undergraduate and post-graduate level. He regularly presents at academic, professional and industry conferences in Australia and overseas and publishes in both the academic and professional press on research related to financial services regulation, governance and superannuation policy.