AMP’s Australian wealth management arm will become defunct due to a restructure of the business which will see the departure of division CEO, Scott Hartley.
Hartley was responsible for several departments including advice and platforms, led by Matt Lawler and Edwina Maloney, respectively. These businesses will continue to operate under a flatter operating structure.
Hartley joined AMP in January 2021 as part of a long overdue cultural reset led by AMP Australia CEO Alexis George who officially commenced her position later in the year.
Hartley will work with the team to transition to a new operating model over the next six months, before departing.
In a media release on Monday morning, AMP cited the need for a flatter executive structure as the reason for the restructure following the sale of several parts of the AMP Capital business.
AMP Capital was re-branded to Collimate Capital last February and the real estate and domestic infrastructure equity business was sold to Dexus Funds Management while the international infrastructure equity business was shipped to DigitalBridge Group.
In additional to Hartley’s impending departure, CFO Peter Fredricson will also retire after a short stint of less than six months in the role.
Upon Fredricson’s departure, Blair Vernon will take on the combined CFO and group executive transformation role from 3 July.
His key focus will be delivering the capital management and cost base review which is in on track to be completed before the firm’s half results announcement in August.
Vernon joined AMP in 2009 and became wealth management CEO for New Zealand in 2019.
In May 2022, Vernon was appointed to lead all of AMP’s transformation activities, including the separation of the AMP Capital businesses. He was AMP Australia acting CEO from August 2020 to January 2021.
George said Vernon’s appointment will ensure a “seamless transition”.
“He is uniquely well-placed to take on the combined role of AMP CFO along with his existing role of transformation, having played a major role in the simplification of the business,” George said.
