It is interesting that the ex-chief executives Investor Weekly spoke to for this story came to the helm of their superannuation funds serendipitously.

All stayed due to an overarching commitment to members and their future financial stability.

"The super industry on the whole is a remarkable industry in Australia as there is a sense that we're all in this to work for members," former REST Superannuation chief executive Neil Cochrane said.

Steve Gibbs started in the industry about a decade ago as the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees.

In 2000 he became the chief executive of the Public Sector Super Scheme and Commonwealth Sector Super Scheme (now called the Australian Reward Investment Alliance (ARIA)). Before moving into superannuation he was a union official, but still saw super as an important issue.

"I was secretary of a public sector union for many years and we'd always regarded superannuation as important for our members. In fact we'd campaign for superannuation going right back to the 1970s," Gibbs says.

Like Gibbs, for Ann Byrne, the current Australian Council of Super Investors chief executive and former UniSuper chief executive, becoming the chief executive of Superannuation Trust of Australia (STA Super) was also a natural progression.

"I had been doing some consultancy work within the manufacturing sector and because STA was the manufacturing super fund, someone suggested that I apply for the position, so I did even though I hadn't really worked in the financial services industry before," Byrne says.

For Denis Carroll, the former AvSuper chief executive and now head of distribution at Pengana Capital, it was an even more open-ended proposition.

He was working at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority when he was asked to do an employee communications program about super.

"Now I didn't know anything about super, but I said I'll give it a go," Carroll says.

He recalls his first days.

"When I started on the first day we didn't actually have a fund and part of the job was to build a fund. I started with a blank sheet of paper in 1990, so I had to quickly learn about super," he remembers.

Cochrane, the current head of Colonial State First Global Asset Management, came to a superannuation fund from the "other side".

Before joining REST Super he was the chief executive of an asset management business. He was looking for a new challenge when he heard of the opening at the fund while on holiday in Australia from his native South Africa.

"I just got to a point after five years where that part if my life was fulfilled and I just knew it was the right thing to do," he says. So, despite all entering the super industry through very different channels, the group is united by the notion of doing the right thing by members.

"I think the thing that most appealed to me was the transparency through to the members. I had a very real sense of personal responsibility to the members and a very real sense of connection to them; that was very important to me," Cochrane says.

The ex-chief executives also remembered there was a great deal of camaraderie within the industry, which made it an exciting place to work. 

"This industry is very generous in the way that it welcomes new people and helps them understand how it works," Byrne says.

Carroll says: "One of the things that characterises the super industry is that they do help each other and they look out for each other and that was really good."

Gibbs found he too had to learn and he was able to do this with the support of those around him.

The supportive nature of the super industry was put to the test when a number of legislative changes swept through the industry in the 1990s.
From the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act in 1993 to the introduction of choice of fund in 2005, the changes forced the industry to move into a new era of sophistication.

"The environment of choice brought in that element of competition and with it came a much deeper professionalism of the executives," Cochrane says.

Gibbs remembers when he first began in the industry investment strategies were very different, simply because super funds were smaller.

"You had a balanced portfolio and you had some shares and some bonds and a bit of property and a bit of cash. Now you've got private equity and hedge funds and commodities and all these very sophisticated investment vehicles," he says.

Carroll says when he first started in 1990 his fund's first tranche of money was just $5 million.

"I was just investing money in short-term cash, but when I got up to $86 million I wasn't sleeping very well at nights," he says.

But now all this has changed as funds increasingly look toward more sophisticated financial arrangements to benefit their members.

"It's a business which is extra complex now and chief executives are running these huge businesses. My old fund is a $15 billion fund and looks after 1.7 million people. Every time you walk down the street, one in every 10 people is a member of REST," Cochrane says.

With the increasing financial sophistication of the superannuation industry in the 1990s came more focus on regulation.

"From when I started at ARIA to when I left, the amount of people we had working on compliance and regulation went through the roof. People have a lot of money tied up in superannuation and it's quite proper that there is a level of oversight there," Gibbs says.

Carroll says: "I didn't have a problem with super funds having to meet the same standards as financial services companies because they're as big as a lot of those financial services organisations."

As a result of the emphasis on professionalism in the industry, funds also began focussing on member communication.

During the 1990s, funds started harnessing the power of the Internet to talk to members.

"When I first started you just thought generally about members, because nobody's balances were very high, so it was really just making sure everything was correct. Now it's about targeting specific members," Carroll says.

Cochrane would take a more personal approach.

During his time at REST whenever anyone would make a contribution of over $200,000, he would phone them and thank them and ask what the fund could do better.

It was also an era when financial planning emerged as an important issue, with REST being one of the first industry funds to offer the service.
"In REST's case where we have people with very small accounts, the Financial Planning Association weren't really interested. So we addressed that by bringing in Money Solutions, who gave advice via the phone," Cochrane says.

"This made an enormous change to the culture of looking after the members. By looking after members you actually build the business." Moving forward to the present, what do these ex-super fund chief executives think are the big issues for the industry today?

Gibbs, who is now the chair of the Responsible Investment Academy, says climate change and sustainable investment are something funds need to address.

He says there will be winners and losers, and the winners will be the funds who attack the issues head on.

"There are going to be opportunities and risks for investing and the ones who get it right will do very well," he says.

Another challenge will be effective communication with members, particularly during the current market turbulence.

"There's been so much publicity about the stock market going down. But people are more knowledgeable that super is a long-term investment," Gibbs says.

Cochrane says: "I think member communication is going to be an ongoing issue that the industry grapples with. The issue will never change [in importance] as you always have new people coming in."

Carroll says it is also very important for funds to be mindful of controlling their costs, particularly in today's economic climate.

"I think the major issue for super funds is that they don't get too ahead of themselves, that they don't lose focus and get intent on pursuing growth for the sake of growth. Getting five stars or an apple or a gong for one year isn't important. This is a marathon, it isn't a sprint and it's about getting the strategies right for the long term," he says.

Byrne says corporate governance and transparency are also key issues.

"Transparency is of prime importance for a sophisticated investment market," she says.

The ex-super fund chiefs use the experience they gained during their time in super in their current positions.

Carroll feels he has an extra insight that he wouldn't have otherwise developed.

"Having sat across the other side of the table you have a pretty good idea of what's going to work and what's not going to work. You understand the thinking of trustee boards and because of that you can cut through the nonsense and the traditional marketing techniques," he says.

Byrne echoes these sentiments.

"The thing that I've been able to transfer apart from my skills is my knowledge of how super funds work and how super funds interact with investments and investment managers and how super funds work together," she says.

Carroll says even though he is proud of his time at AvSuper, he has no regrets about moving on.

"I don't miss running a super fund. It's just getting harder and harder and expectations are getting greater and greater," he says.

While Byrne misses the people she met and worked with during her time at UniSuper, she too is happy in her current position. In fact, she thinks it is a good thing for people to move on.

"For all organisations it is important to have changes at the top. For the individual it is a huge boost to your intellectual thought to do something new and it is good to give other people a chance too," she says.

But for Byrne it is an industry she has chosen to remain in and she has high hopes for the future.

"We're very lucky in this industry because the intellectual talent within the financial services sector is amazing and you have the opportunity to work with an incredible number and variety of very talented people," she says.