Former JBWere chief executive Maria Lykouras has been appointed as the successor to Judith Fox to lead the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association.
Lykouras will commence from 1 December. There will be a handover period until the end of the year where she will work with Fox to ensure a seamless transition.
She left JBWere at the start of the year after two and a half years in the role and was the first woman to be CEO of the company.
Prior to that she held executive roles at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Commonwealth Private, leading their advice business and previously running their operations and risk as well as investment and advisory services.
“I am looking forward to bringing my experiences and capabilities in leading wealth businesses to this incredible opportunity to be a voice for our industry; provide value to our broad member base; and hopefully be able to support our members in facing current industry challenges,” Lykouras said.
“Priorities when I begin will be to meet with members, many of whom I already know through my previous roles.”
Dee, who will be speaking at the Professional Planner Advice Policy Summit in Canberra next year about the growth of the profession, said the association is looking forward to working to continue to deliver on promoting the value of stockbroking and investment advice.
“Maria has great strengths in stakeholder engagement and will be a powerful voice for members as they navigate ongoing changes in the sector,” Dee said.
“She has longstanding, existing relationships with a wide range of our members and an in-depth understanding of the transformational changes they are facing in technology, investor demographics, market structure and regulation.”
Lykouras was also credited in the design and release of the Women in Wealth whitepaper about supporting women in managing their wealth and attracting women to adviser roles.
Fox announced her departure earlier this year and told Professional Planner in July she hoped her legacy would be fostering industry collaboration.
She oversaw the renaming of the association and has spent the past few years advocating to change the education standard to better recognise specialisations.
“I feel like we’ve lost a generation of advisers, it would be great to open that pathway again so that mid-career professional who has a great degree can step into the industry,” Fox said earlier this year.
“New entrant pipelines had completely collapsed, and if that was happening in any other profession it would be front page news. I’m really proud of the fact that there has been recognition that we need to get that pipeline working again, which means recognising people’s degrees so the ecosystem can thrive.”
