Trustee Appointment

Professional Associations Super strengthens female leadership

Professional Associations Super members have recently elected Katherine Kasper as a Member Representative Director. Katherine replaces Marian Bolton, who has been a director on the board for 17 years.

Ms Kasper has more than 10 years industry experience as a trust lawyer in the commercial sector, and her appointment maintains the board’s female representation of two on a board of six.

Megan Bolton, CEO of Professional Associations Super, said that given the funds female skewed membership base, it’s beneficial for the fund to maintain a gender diverse board. Ms Bolton says having a female presence at the executive and board level assists in lobbying efforts to address the significant superannuation gap that exists in Australia for female workers.

"Within our fund, females have been appointed in multiple senior executive roles, including CEO, COO, Company Secretary, Compliance Manager and HR Manager. It is clear that gender diversity is alive within the industry, now it just needs to be reflected in retirement savings."

"The unfortunate reality of Australia’s superannuation system is that females lag behind their male counterparts due to lower average wages, longer life expectancy and career breaks to raise families. Females on average have less than half the super of males, making them statistically far more likely to rely on the age pension."

"Sixty percent of our members are females, and the majority of them work part time. Inadequacy of retirement savings is an important issue for them, with recent research finding that females are less confident in making financial decisions around saving for retirement, and building wealth outside of their superannuation fund."

"We think this is an extremely important issue that we can address. With more females in management and board roles, we are better equipped to understand the challenges Australian females face in the lead-up to retirement and be able to deliver products and services that are more engaging and relevant. We see this as part of a long term focus of bringing this issue to the forefront, working with the industry and government to drive change." Ms Bolton said.