AMP announces five new executive appointments

Five new executives have been appointed to AMP’s Australian Wealth Management division leadership team, including Lakshman Anantakrishnan as chief investment officer, Lara Bourguignon as CEO of SuperConcepts, Jennifer Thomas as chief operating officer, Fraser Herd as managing director of client relationships, and Ant Dureau as chief client officer.

Mr Anantakrishnan was formerly the head of portfolio management at Credit Suisse and will commence his new role as chief investment officer at the wealth firm at the end of June this year. He previously also worked at BT Financial Group and Principal Global Investors.

Also joining from Credit Suisse, Mr Herd will begin his new role at AMP as managing director of client relationships at the end of June. The appointee has held a number of leadership roles in the financial services industry, including at Macquarie, Westpac, and most recently as director of private bank at Credit Suisse.

Ms Thomas joins AMP from RBS, where she spent more than 10 years in a number of different roles, most recently as head of client due diligence. She also worked at ABN AMRO Bank as COO of reverse mortgages and other roles. The appointee starts at AMP as COO in early May.

The other two appointees, Ms Bourguignon and Mr Dureau, were already employed at AMP and will be transitioning into their new roles in mid-April. The former is currently the director of strategic marketing and customer experience, while the latter is the acting director of strategic marketing and customer experience.

The five new appointees will report to Alex Wade, the CEO of AMP Australian Wealth Management. They will reportedly have a focus on “providing better experiences and outcomes for our clients through a simpler, more efficient business and stronger risk controls”.

The wealth firm last month 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 was also appointed as chair of AMP’s audit committee in 2016.

He is to be replaced by Andrea Slattery on the board and audit committee.

In February, AMP revealed 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 in February to AMP Capital to the newly created role of managing director Australia, heading up all the retail and institutional client teams for the Australian region under one role.