Governance and Management Committee
RMA Australia is a not-for profit association governed by a Management Committee, elected annually. The committee is responsible for the management, coordination and long-term development of the Association. The committee is composed of senior executive risk management professionals who represent the Institutional membership.
Your RMA Management Committee
Chairman: Robert Molyneux, Group General Manager Risk Infrastructure, ANZ
Vice Chairman: Andrew Harmer, Partner, Ernst & Young
Treasurer: Dirk McLiesh, General Manager Group Risk, Westpac
Secretary: Gant Lowen, Chief Risk Officer, International Financial Services, CBA
General Committee Members (including as alternate)
Philip Riquier, Chief Credit Officer, Bendigo & Adelaide and Bendigo Bank
Mike Ritchie, Partner, Financial Risk Management, KPMG
Gary Turner, Dean of Risk, NAB
Karen Smith-Pomeroy, Chief Risk Officer Banking, Suncorp
Richard Gossage, Partner, Risk Management, PwC
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE PROFILES
Chairman: Robert Molyneux
Group General Manager Risk Infrastructure, ANZ
In this role at ANZ Robert is responsible for portfolio risk management, measurement, analysis and reporting at an organisation-wide level.
A seasoned banker, Rob’s 30+ years working across ANZ includes senior roles in retail banking, international banking, HR, audit, credit, finance and technology.
Rob holds both a business and a science degree. He has led many key initiatives that operate in ANZ today, including the development of ANZ’s current Risk Grade and portfolio measurement systems and the deployment of core financial and risk systems across ANZ. He also led the group-wide team that was instrumental in ANZ being Basel II accredited at the advanced level in 2007.
In addition to serving as Chairman of RMA Rob is a Fellow of both CPA Australia and the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA).
Vice Chairman
Andrew Harmer, Partner, Ernst & Young
Andrew has over 20 years’ experience in advising financial institutions in Australia. He established and leads E&Y’s Financial Services Risk & Regulatory Practice in Australia and is a member of the firm’s global regulatory strategy group.
Andrew’s experience has covered all major aspects of banking, including risk management, capital management, accounting, auditing and prudential supervision.
He has assisted Australia’s major financial institutions on regulatory matters covering risk and capital management across credit, liquidity, operational and market risk. He was a leading advisor to number of banks on the implementation of the Basel II framework in Australia.
Andrew has gained an in depth understanding of the current landscape relating to risk management governance, frameworks, risk appetite and risk reporting. More recently he has been assisting institutions on the optimisation of capital.
During the financial crisis Andrew completed a secondment as the Group Chief Risk Officer of a major Australian insurance conglomerate where, working closely with the Board, he led the transformation and enhanced the effectiveness of the risk function.
Treasurer: Dirk McLiesh
General Manager Group Risk, Westpac
Secretary: Grant Lowen
Chief Risk Officer, International Financial Services, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Grant Lowen joined the CBA in 2004 as Executive General Manager, Group Audit and subsequently was appointed the CRO responsible for risk management across the Group’s Asian operations and as CRO of the CBA subsidiary Bankwest (based in Western Australia).
He has detailed technical knowledge of risk management and banking operations and leads the Group’s Risk Management International Financial Services function.
Grant is a qualified chartered accountant with over 25 years’ experience working in banking environments at CBA, St George and Westpac.
Grant is a member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants, the Institute of Internal Auditors Australia and Australian Institute of Company Directors.
General Committee Members
Philip Riquier
Chief Credit Officer, Bendigo & Adelaide and Bendigo Bank
Philip is responsible for the Credit Risk and Asset Management departments at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Previously he has been responsible for all specialised lending departments and rural banking, and has also headed up Products, National Business Banking and Structured Finance for this institution.
Philip supported FINSIA for many years as a senior lecturer in the Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance program.
Mike Ritchie
Partner, Financial Risk Management, KPMG
Mike Ritchie is the partner in charge of KPMG’s Financial Risk Management practice. He has been a partner in the FRM team since 2005 and was appointed to the PIC role in July 2010.
Mike is focussed on the design and implementation of effective and efficient risk management and compliance frameworks for clients in such diverse industries as banking and finance, government, telecommunications and mining.
Mike has over sixteen years Risk Management experience both as a consultant and commercially and has been involved in creating or refining the design of Basel II Compliant Risk Management frameworks for major banks in Australia and internationally. He has worked in Australia, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the UK and New Zealand.
Gary Turner
Dean of Risk – Risk Skills Management, Group Risk – National Australia Bank
Gary Turner joined National Australia Bank in February 2005 as State General Manager for nabBusiness NSW & ACT.
In July 2008, Gary was appointed as Chief Risk Officer for Business & Premium Banking Risk and then held a number of senior roles in the risk function until his appointment as Dean of Risk in February 2010.
Gary’s career spans over 34 years in the financial and banking industry, 30 of them with the CBA where he held a variety of senior management positions.
Karen Smith-Pomeroy
Chief Risk Officer Banking, Suncorp
Karen is Chief Risk Officer of Suncorp Bank, which is the fifth largest bank in Australia.
Karen is a financial services professional who has extensive experience in banking and risk management. She has been with Suncorp for over twelve years in a variety of roles, is a member of the Bank Executive Committee and works closely with the Suncorp Group executive on all banking risk issues. Prior to joining Suncorp, Karen spent a number of years with CBA in lending, credit and risk management roles.
Karen is also a non-executive director of CS Energy Limited, a Queensland Government owned corporation, and Queensland Affordable Housing Consortium Limited.
Richard Gossage
Partner, Risk & Capital Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Richard returned to PwC after 13 years in the financial services industry and has worked in the Americas, Europe and in Asia, specifically China.
Richard was the COO of the Wholesale Bank and interim CEO of the Products & Markets business for Lloyds Banking Group. At RBS Group Richard was Chief Internal Auditor Richard and then Group Chief Risk Officer. Prior to this Richard was the Group Head of Audit at Natwest which he joined from PwC's where he was a partner in the Risk Management Services practice in London.
Richard has also held NED roles, the most recent being the Chairman of the Group Audit Committee for The Football Association in the UK. In addition, Richard was the UK representative on the practitioner’s panel of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, (CEBS) from 2004 to 2006.