Deborah Ralston

Non-Executive Director, Chair 

I am a Board Chair, experienced Non Executive Director and Professorial Fellow, with over twenty five years of board level experience across commercial and public sectors with particular experience in the banking, superannuation, and education industries. At board level some highlights include being a current Reserve Bank of Australia Payments System Board Member contributing to the control of risk within the Australian financial system, and Chair of the SMSF Association, an independent, professional body representing Australia’s self-managed super fund sector. In 2018, I was appointed by Minister Kelly O’Dwyer to the CIPRs Framework Advisory Committee to advise on a retirement covenant for the SIS Act. As a Non-Executive Director of ASX listed Mortgage Choice, I was responsible, as Chair of the Investment Committee of Mortgage Choice Financial Planning (MCFP), for developing a “post-FOFA” non-aligned advice business launched in 2014. I maintain a key professional and research interest in digital disruption as a member of the YBF Fintech Hub Advisory Board and was until recently inaugural chair of ASIC’s Digital Finance Advisory Committee. In an executive capacity my last role was as Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies, and Principal Investigator of the CSIRO-Monash Superannuation Research Cluster, leading a $9m research program across 10 teams of researchers from four universities and the CSIRO. I was concurrently a Distinguished Professor of Finance and have continued in an honorary capacity as a Professorial Fellow with the Monash University Business School. Prior to my engagement at Monash University, I was Pro Vice-Chancellor of Business, Law and Information Sciences at the University of Canberra and Dean of Business University of the Sunshine Coast. Finally, I have a Doctor of Philosophy in financial regulation, and a Master of Economics in small business finance. I am an FAICD and an FCPA Member.