Finding the passion in directorship

Deputy chair of Vision Super and branch manager of the Australian Services Union, Lisa Darmanin, is passionate about change making and equity. She shares insights from her path to directorship and explains why reform of the system is now more important than ever.

LISA DARMANIN

Deputy chair of Vision Super and branch manager of the Australian Services Union, Lisa Darmanin, is passionate about change making and equity. She shares insights from her path to directorship and explains why reform of the system is now more important than ever.

Can you tell us about your career prior to joining your first board?

My career started in social and community services and through that work I became aware and involved in women and work and, more specifically, pay equity in the caring industry (or lack of equity).

My early years in social and community service were spent trying to address some of those inequalities in a female-dominated industry. Through my early career I became involved in the union movement.

But I was always interested in superannuation... and understanding the drivers of the pay gap and how that manifests in retirement for women in particular. If you don't do something early it's harder to catch up.

My career path, I guess, is around change making. The different opportunities have been around trying to do that.

What was the first superannuation fund board you were on?

The first super board I was on was HESTA (2013-2018) but before that I started out on a national not-for-profit board in a voluntary role. I joined the Vision Super board in March 2018 and became deputy chair in July of that year.

When I started on HESTA's board my son was 6 weeks old and I was 36. I brought him to the board meetings a couple of times...even just things like that changes the dynamics. Everyone was great and I think part of having women on boards is just building that diversity. And we also need to talk about having all kinds of diversity on boards.

What advice would you have for anyone wanting to get on a board?

The things I would say are to think about the skills you have that would be valuable that you could offer to a fund as a director and also think about what your passionate about and what you're interested in. Being a director is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility so you have to be passionate about what it is you're trying to achieve. Focusing on areas that you feel passionate about and the skills you've got that you can offer will mean it doesn't feel like work.

The other thing is you've got to be interested and you've got to be interested in people at work and people in retirement and how that works.

I think it is helpful to get exposure to different kinds of organisations and how they run their governance. Everyone does things differently but when you're in a position of responsibility, like being a director on a board, you have to understand your responsibility.

What training would you suggest for anyone wanting to become a trustee director?

The trustee director course from the Australian Institute of Trustees (AIST) is a must - now more than ever. The responsibilities and requirements on superannuation directors are immense and they are quite specific compared to other industries or a corporate board.(Read more about the AIST course here.)

Also I think getting involved in industry activities to keep up your continuing professional development [is important].

What are you thoughts on the current crisis?

Overall, as a director, it's about managing ongoing uncertainty and how we respond to what's in front of it. In some ways that's not new, it's just different challenges where you can never kind of predict what is going to happen in the future.

I think what is unique to this situation is the impact on young people and women. All of my life I've been working to close the gender pay cap [and] in some ways I feel like this ground hog day. I think we have to redouble our efforts to reform the system because the reform now is more urgent than ever.