Melinda Howes bids farewell to BT

Melinda Howes has finished up as managing director of superannuation at BT, having spent the better part of two decades with the company.

Howes departed BT last week for personal reasons, the company confirmed. It is understood Howes has been on carer's leave in recent months.

She has led the superannuation business for the past seven years. In total, Howes has spent 18 years with BT across two stints; she previously served as director, superannuation, and retirement products from 1993 to 2004.

Between 2004 and 2014 Howes held several roles, including as chief executive of the Actuaries Institute, director of product strategy and services at AMP, and director of policy and industry practices for the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA). Howes also now sits on the board of ASFA, having joined in 2017.

Discussing her decision to re-join BT in a 2019 FS Super cover story, Howes recalled being approached by a recruiter to lead an unnamed superannuation business: "I told them the only super business I would like to work for is BT - and it turns out it was BT."

In a statement, a spokesperson for BT said: "We thank Melinda for her long service to BT superannuation which has included the development of the new digital BT Super product migrating over 430,000 members from more than 30 legacy products to the new product."

BT's head of customer experience and growth Hannah Oakhill is acting in the general manager role "as we work through the next steps", the spokesperson confirmed.

BT is currently consulting with numerous staff as it makes changes in the super business. As first reported by Financial Standard, BT has made several roles redundant as it prepares to announce the sale or merger of the business.

It's understood the teams most impacted are those reporting into Oakhill.

This article first appeared in the Financial Standard