Leadership team

LFI is governed by an independent board that provides strategic direction and guidance to the company. Our board and management is composed of the following members.

Rowan Ward, Chairman

Rowan is the independent Chairman of LFI appointed in 2012. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of LFI, Rowan accumulated 26 years of experience at Suncorp Ltd in a variety of senior roles most notably Executive General Manager, Actuarial Services and Chief Actuary. Rowan is also a Director of Opus Capital Limited and Chairman of the Risk, Compliance and Corporate Governance Committee and a member of the Motor Accident Insurance Commission advisory committee.

Richard Longes, Director

Richard was appointed as an independent director in 2011. He is currently Chairman of Austbrokers Ltd, Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd and Liberty Financial Pty Ltd as well as a non-executive Director of Boral Limited. Richard was Deputy Chairman of Lend Lease Corporation Limited and a Director from 1986 to 2006, and Chairman of MLC Ltd until 2000. He was also a partner in the law firm Freehills from 1971 to 1988 and a founding Principal of the corporate advisory and private equity group Wentworth Associates.

Peter Hawkins, Director

Peter was appointed as an independent director in 2011. Peter is currently a Director of Treasury Corporation of Victoria, Mirvac Group Ltd, St George Bank Ltd, Westpac Bank Ltd, Murray Goulburn Co-Operative Co Ltd, Liberty Financial Pty Ltd and Clayton Utz. Peter was previously a director of VISA International, ING Australia Limited and ING (NZ) Limited. He also spent 34 years at ANZ Banking Group in a variety of senior roles including Group Managing Director – Group Strategic Development.

Sherman Ma, Executive Director

Sherman is a director of LFI as well as Executive Director of Liberty where he is involved with its operations across Australia and New Zealand. Sherman was previously a Fixed Income Analyst with Credit Suisse and an Associate in the Financial Institutions Group with McKinsey & Company. Sherman has an MBA from the Wharton School and was the recipient of the Management and Technology award for Economics and Operations Research from the University of Pennsylvania.

Peter Riedel, Director, Company Secretary and CFO

Peter is a director, company secretary and CFO of LFI overseeing the risk, legal, finance and treasury functions including liquidity and capital management, statutory reporting and providing value-added financial and risk management analysis. Peter was previously a partner in the Corporate Finance team at Deloitte. Peter spent 16 years at Deloitte, including 6 years working in New York and Europe. His focus was on providing advice on mergers and acquisitions, valuations and capital raising to companies in the financial services industry. Peter holds a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University and is a Chartered Accountant.