Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Joe Longo has tapped Future Fund guardian and former lawyer Nicola Wakefield-Evans to lay out a road map for cutting the overwhelming regulatory burden that is turning some directors off sitting on public company boards.

Getting ahead of an aggressive deregulation agenda if the Coalition wins the federal election, and amid growing calls from business for regulators to cut red tape, Longo will use a speech on Wednesday to acknowledge directors’ heavy compliance task and reveal his first steps towards easing it.