Whilst their names don’t top the list of highest paid executives, new analysis in Investment Magazine’s 2021 Super fund salary survey highlights the pay packets of executives from AvSuper, Maritime Super, Meat Industry Employees Superannuation and Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme as highly ranked on a per member and assets under management basis.
On a pay-per-member basis superannuation fund CEOs Michelle Wade from AvSuper, Alex Hutchison from Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme (EISS) and Peter Robinson from Maritime Super are among the highest paid CEOs, the analysis shows.
The departing Wade, who has occupied the AvSuper CEO seat for 14 years and has been replaced by former MTAA Super CEO Michael Sykes in February this year, earned a pay packet equivalent to more than $70 per member for the 2021 Salary Survey period.
Meanwhile, on an assets under management basis, CIOs including Meat Industry Employees Superannuation’s Chris Artis, Christian Super’s since outgoing Tim Macready and Maritime Super’s Grant Harslett are among the highest paid investment team executives as is Australian Meat Industry Superannuation Trust’s Murray Rutherford.
The full data-set from the 2021 Investment Magazine Super fund salary survey can be found here.
For the first time this year’s Salary Survey has ranked CIO and CEO pay according to assets under management and number of members respectively. Analysing executive pay in this way provides unique insight into how much funds are paying for their executives in light of their size and complexity.
In addition to bringing light to some funds with relatively expensive CIOs and CEOs compared to the broader group based on these measures, the analysis also highlights the impact scale has of fixed costs such as executive rem.
All of the top paid CEOs of the largest funds rank economically on a pay-per-member basis including HESTA’s Debbie Blakey, Cbus’s David Aitkin, Aware’s Deanne Stewart, Qsuper’s Michael Pennisi, Unisuper’s Kevin O’Sullivan and MTAA Super’s Leeanne Turner who will continue as CEO following the group’s merger with Tasplan, the survey shows.
Consistent with the CEO pay on a per member basis, CIOs at the largest funds tend to be good value on an AUM basis too, with the pay packets of Australian Super’s Mark Delaney, Aware Super’s Damian Graham, UniSuper’s John Pierce et al costing a fraction of a per cent (0.001/0.002) of their funds’ respective AUMs.
You can find the full coverage of this year’s Investment Magazine Salary Survey here.
