Bruce Watson, chief executive of Mine Wealth + Wellbeing (formerly AUSCOAL Super), will leave the super fund over the coming months after 23 years of service to Australia’s mining community.
Watson is the sixth superannuation and investment chief executive to resign since July – the other resignations were from Victorian Funds Management Company, TCorp, QSuper, TWU and Kinetic.
Since Watson became chief executive in 2005, the fund has grown from $3.5 billion in funds under management (FUM) and 51,000 members to almost $10 billion in FUM and 74,000 members.
Watson said: “After achieving substantially more for the organisation than expected over the last 10 years it’s time to find my next opportunity to create value through developing and aligning people with the organisation’s strategy.”
He added that he was open to the idea of being a non-executive director in the superannuation industry. This comes at a time of great policy change to the composition of boards following the introduction of the Superannuation Legislation Amendment (Governance) Bill 2015 into Parliament last week.
Board chair Grahame Kelly paid tribute to Watson saying: “Bruce is as a highly competent, people-focused executive who has embedded a first class customer-centric culture within the business. He has underpinned this culture with the highest ethical standards and shared values. Thanks to his focus, members continually advocate on behalf of the fund, while staff have voted the organisation as a ‘Top 50 Great Place to Work in Australia’ every year for the last seven years.”
The board will undertake a comprehensive search for a replacement chief executive, including consideration of internal candidates.
