AMP board member and committee chair to retire

AMP has announced that board member Geoff Roberts would retire at the firm’s next annual general meeting scheduled for 2 May 2019, nearly two years after joining the board.

Mr Roberts’ decision was attributed to “increasing demands on his time from both his executive role at SEEK Limited and as a director of the AMP Limited board and a number of AMP’s main subsidiaries”.

In addition to joining the board in July 2016, Mr Roberts was also appointed as chair of AMP’s audit committee.

The outgoing board member has held a number of other positions at the company, including as a member of the risk and remuneration committees, as non-executive director on AMP Life’s board, and more recently as a member of AMP Bank’s board.

Andrea Slattery will replace Mr Roberts as chair of AMP Limited and AMP Bank audit committees upon his departure.

AMP chair David Murray thanked Mr Roberts for his contribution, adding that: “Geoff’s extensive experience in financial services across Australia, Asia and Europe has been invaluable during a period of significant change at AMP.

“We have benefited from his knowledge and expertise and wish him well for the future.”

In the firm’s next annual general meeting, shareholders will be voting on David Murray’s reappointment, as well as the appointment of John Fraser, John O’Sullivan and Andrew Slattery as AMP directors.

They will also vote on AMP’s remuneration plans for 2019, which includes discontinuing its executive performance incentive plan introduced for 2018.

“Instead, AMP will be adopting an approach more suited to the significant change and transformation AMP will be undergoing. This will include a greater emphasis on long-term incentives linked to transformation objectives,” the wealth firm’s annual report for 2018 states.

Other remuneration plans for the year include further reviews of AMP’s remuneration framework in response to banking royal commission recommendations and shareholder feedback, including the continued use of any remaining sales incentive plans and the consequences of misconduct.

AMP last month announced that its CEO, Francesco De Ferrari, had formally joined the group’s board, after being appointed as CEO in August 2018.

Marsha Beck was also appointed to AMP Capital as its newly created role of managing director Australia, heading up all the retail and institutional client teams for the Australian region under one role.

[Related: AMP profits shrink by $820m in 2018]