AMP chairman Peter Mason will retire from the board of the financial services major in May after eight years in the role and more than 10 as a director.
Former Macquarie Group executive Simon McKeon will replace him.
The AMP board thanked Mason for overseeing the successful transition of two CEO’s during his decade of service, his “calm stewardship” during the GFC and fruitful negotiations leading to the $4 billion-plus acquisition of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings three years ago.
Mason said it had been a great privilege to chair the company.
‘‘During the tenure of this board we oversaw the merger between AXA and AMP, which has delivered transformational change. The new AMP has significant scale and capacity, market-leading products and platforms, is number one in key market segments, has an expanded financial planner footprint and is well-positioned for growth,’’ he said.
“Succession planning has always been a key focus of the AMP Board and I am pleased that Simon McKeon will take over from me as chairman when I step down after a full cycle of board renewal. The company and the board are in very capable hands.”
McKeon was a top executive with Macquarie Group and joined the AMP board last year. He is also the chairman of the Federal Government’s science and research body CSIRO and holds a number of not-for-profit directorships.
He said the board renewal process was timed to follow the smooth transition to the new chief executive Craig Meller and the completion of the AXA merger.
‘‘We thank Mr Mason for agreeing to stay an extra year past his planned retirement date to oversee these important milestones,’’ McKeon said.
AMP also announced director Rick Allert will also retire at the upcoming annual meeting, having reached the end of his three-year term, and that former Aviva executive Trevor Matthews will join the AMP board as a non-executive director, from March 3.
