Equity Trustees hires chief risk officer

Equity Trustees has appointed Nevein Versace as chief risk officer, replacing Owen Brailsford, who is headed to the UK after five years with the firm.

Versace who has an extensive background in superannuation joins from HESTA, where she was most recently acting general manager of compliance.

Previously, she was head of enterprise risk at AustralianSuper and chief risk officer (Australia) at Northern Trust.

Versace earlier completed a short-term contract at Medibank, following nine years at National Australia Bank. Her last position at the lender was head of Australian Investments - portfolio governance and advice.

"With outstanding experience which is well aligned with our growing and unique trustee business, including a fulsome understanding of the regulatory environment and our key stakeholders, we're very pleased Nevein will be joining us as CRO," said Equity Trustees managing director Mick O'Brien,

O'Brien stressed the importance of the risk chief role in a business focussed on governance and risk management for a highly specialised trustee service."

The outgoing chief risk officer at the specialist trustee company plans to travel for 12 months spending time with family in the UK.

Brailsford has over 20 years of international experience in risk management and has held regulatory roles in the superannuation, pensions and insurance industries.

Before joining Equity Trustees he was chief risk officer at TelstraSuper.

Brailsford's background includes roles at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Prudential PLC and RSA Insurance, and a risk management advisory role at KPMG.