ASIC brain drain as top executives exit

A growing list of senior figures have departed ASIC but chair Joe Longo says the agency is going through generational change.

ASIC chair Joe Longo. Picture: Aaron Francis

The corporate regulator’s latest talent losses have some insiders warning of a brain drain, as the departure of three senior heads erases 53 years of ­collective experience.

The changing of the guard at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, announced on Monday, will see the turnover of top leaders at the agency at a time when it faces intensifying political pressure and an expanding remit.

The departures include ASIC chief executive Warren Day, who will join the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions on secondment, after more than 20 years at the corporate cop, with no plans to return.

Regulation and supervision executive director Greg Yanco will act as CEO pending a permanent replacement.

Mr Yanco has committed to stay on until mid-2025 when he will retire, marking almost 17 years at the commission.

Greg Yanco has committed to stay on until mid-2025 when he intends to retire.

ASIC’s chief enforcer Tim Mullaly will leave ASIC at the end of 2024, after more than 16 years at the agency.

The loss of Mr Yanco and Mr Mullaly sees ASIC lose the two key lieutenants of the commission’s enforcement strategy, after a restructure pushed through by ASIC chair Joe Longo.

Mr Day’s move to the CDPP, on a six-month secondment, will see the seasoned regulator take on a role as the director’s executive officer as part of a program to drag the agency into modern legal practice.

Mr Day will assist the CDPP to “design and implement a program of work to review the practising model with a view to enhancing and modernising the CDPP’s legal practice”.

ASIC figures have criticised the CDPP’s prosecution record, with the agency refusing briefs from the regulator and losing a number of key cases before the courts.

Several other key staff have left ASIC in the run-up to a restructure of the agency, which combined responsibilities under Mr Mullaly and Mr Yanco.

The restructure came after Mr Longo announced a review of ASIC’s infrastructure and operations, which saw the creation of a CEO role, with Mr Day promoted to fill the position, as well as the creation of a regulatory efficiency unit and consolidation of functions at the commission.

Tim Mullaly will leave ASIC at the end of 2024. Picture: David Geraghty

ASIC’s markets enforcement boss Sharon Concism left the agency in December 2022, soon after the executive director of the regulator’s financial services wing Joanna Bird.

Chief data officer Scott Barber left in January 2023, while Greg Kirk, the executive director of strategy, departed in July last year.

Zak Hammer, operations executive director, left in February to return to the private sector.

ASIC chief of staff Louise MacCauley has announced plans to retire.

Observers say low public servant salaries and a staid work culture leave the corporate cop ill-placed to poach from the private sector or retain high performers.

ASIC sources said Mr Longo’s restructure had unforeseen consequences, with several mid-ranking regulators leaving the agency after being offered redundancy packages or the possibility of taking on a new role.

This came as Australia enjoyed the lowest unemployment in decades.

Others highlight ASIC’s involuntary redundancy figures, around 8.15 per cent, noting the agency had become better at identifying and retaining the right staff.

ASIC is also facing intense public scrutiny, with a report from the Senate economics committee, spearheaded by Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, due in the coming months.

Former ASIC chair James Shipton said the departures of “senior and experienced leaders” at the regulator “should be a wake-up call to ASIC and the government”.

“So long as ASIC’s chronic underfunding and ineffective governance and accountability structures remain, it will continue to lose experienced people,” he said. “ASIC is clearly a low funding and institutional priority for the government and Treasury; despite nearly three intervening years and a change of government, the government is yet to replace Josh Frydenberg’s pandemic era statement of expectations of ASIC.”

Mr Longo said the agency had to be “set up to meet the challenges and opportunities that rapidly evolving national and global markets present”.