Chair
RIAA Board
Ross Piper is the Chief Executive of Superannuation at Australian Ethical Invt Ltd, with over $8 billion funds under management and over 110,000 members. Previously Ross was the CEO of Christian Super, a $2 billion superannuation fund with over 30,000 members across Australia. He has over 25 years of leadership and management experience in corporate and non-profit contexts. Prior to Ross’ return to the finance sector in January 2018, he was Chief Operating Officer with World Vision Australia and also served with World Vision International for several years in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and various countries of the former Yugoslavia.
During his career Ross has held a number of positions in the corporate sector, primarily in investment banking and mining. He was Head of Corporate Risk for Macquarie Bank for several years, and his early professional experience was gained in Indigenous communities and the mining sector, where he worked in the area of training and community development. For six years he served as a Director and Founding Chair of AgroInvest, a microfinance bank serving rural families in Serbia and Montenegro, and currently sits on various other boards for organisations focused on social enterprise and technology.
Ross’ formal qualifications include a BSc (Geophysics), GradDipEd, and MBA (Deakin University).
Co-CEO
Dean Hegarty
Dean is committed to cultivating meaningful engagement opportunities for members and ensuring the delivery of high-quality membership values that significantly contributes to the sector. Passionate about championing ESG investment, Dean collaborates closely with global and local asset managers, super funds, Kiwisaver providers, financial advisors, and wealth platforms to align capital with sustainable outcomes.
His strategic leadership has played a pivotal role in elevating RIAA’s presence in both Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, resulting in substantial growth and transformative organisational changes. With over a decade of experience leading teams in the not-for-profit sector, Dean has driven remarkable growth in membership and events while forging essential industry partnerships. Dean also serves as a member of the National Advisory Board on Impact Investing in New Zealand and sits on the GovCo of the New Zealand Stewardship Code.
Co-CEO
Estelle Parker
With a distinguished 20-year career at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Estelle Parker brings crucial expertise in government relations, policy-making, and themes important to responsible investors, including human rights and the SDGs. As a leader driving RIAA’s research, certification, policy, standards, and working group programs, her leadership has elevated these initiatives to achieve heightened levels of professionalism, impact, and value delivery for our members, aligning seamlessly with RIAA’s strategic objectives.
Beyond her organisational impact, Estelle is a respected figure in the responsible investment landscape, serving as a strong advocate on influential global and government committees, including the Principles for Responsible Investment’s Global Policy Reference Group, the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance and the Australian Government’s Natural Capital Working Group. Additionally, she serves as the Convenor of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures official Consultation Group for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Steering Committee for the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute. She is also a member of the Council of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (Victoria).
Treasurer
Farren Williams
Farren has 19 years’ experience providing tailored financial solutions to wealthy individuals and families, non-profits and foundations. She is passionate about responsible investing and has tailored ethical solutions for clients for over a decade, developing ethical investing policies, designing portfolios, reviewing exposures, providing impact investing advice and running tailored workshops.
In addition to being a Partner at Koda Capital, Farren is Deputy Chair of the Royal Botanical Gardens Foundation Victoria and on the Investment Committee of the Aesop Foundation. Previously on the Investment Committee of The Myer Foundation, she undertook due diligence on impact investments culminating in the foundation’s first impact investment in 2015.
Farren has been on expert panels for the Generosity Forum, RIAA, Philanthropy Australia ad GiveWell.
New Zealand Representative
Matt Mimms
Matthew Mimms is the Managing Director and Founder of the Investment Store. Matthew has 28 years experience in the investment management and financial services industry both in New Zealand and the UK. Prior to establishing the Investment Store, he was Head of Retail Sales and Service at BT Funds Management.
He has held a number of senior distribution positions and was the Chair of the Auckland branch of the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association from 2000 to 2002.
In 2006, Matthew established The Investment Store, a specialist 3rd party distribution firm that aims to assist boutique and specialist managers to market their capabilities to professional intermediaries in NZ.
In 2010, Matthew was integrally involved in the NZ Responsible Investment Briefing, an annual industry conference aimed at championing the responsible investment movement amongst industry participants in NZ. In addition, Matthew is co-founder of Perfecting Investment Portfolios, a thought leadership conference for professional financial intermediaries. Both events are now regular features in the industry calendar.
He has a business degree from Sheffield University in England and a Diploma in Business Studies (personal financial planning) from Massey University.
Måns Carlsson
Måns leads Ausbil’s ESG team who take an active approach to engaging Australia’s listed companies on environment, social and governance issues, and how they are reported and improved. As a trained equity analyst, Måns also leads Ausbil’s integration of proprietary ESG scoring, research and ratings within Ausbil’s top-down bottom-up valuation approach so that ESG is fundamental in all of Ausbil’s investment decisions. Måns has been with Ausbil since 2015. Prior to Ausbil, Måns was the Senior ESG Research Analyst at AMP Capital, following positions at Carnegie Investment Bank, Macquarie Bank and Accenture, having begun his career in 2004. Måns is well known for producing and presenting consistent, high-quality ESG research covering the Australian market, and he has published numerous, highly regarded insight papers on ESG issues. In 2022, Måns was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for contribution to the responsible investment industry. He received a letter of commendation from Anti-Slavery Australia in 2019. Måns also holds a number of leadership positions in the industry, including Chair of RIAA’s Human Rights Working Group; and is on the steering committee of IAST-APAC (Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking – Asia Pacific). Måns holds a Bachelor of Science (Major in Business Administration) and Master of Finance degree both from Gothenburg School of Economics, and an MBA International from Griffith University.
Francie Doolan
Francie is passionate about using business and finance to shift us to a more socially equitable and environmentally regenerative world.
Francie is a non-executive director at Impact Funds Management, a subsidiary of Impact Investment Group (IIG). IIG is a leading Australian impact investment funds manager and co-investor. IIG offers investments in wind and sustainable property.
Francie is the Chief Financial Officer/Chief Investment Officer at Small Giants, an impact investment family office.
Francie is a Chartered Accountant, Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Australian Psychological Society.
Kathryn McDonald
Kathryn’s professional background is in quantitative investing. She joined the risk modelling company BARRA immediately after graduate school, then joined AXA IM Rosenberg and held a variety of roles from Portfolio Manager, Head of Investments for Australia/New Zealand, and finally Head of Sustainable Investing. She left AXA IM Rosenberg in early 2020. She has since co-founded Radiant ESG, an asset management firm dedicated to ESG and UN SDG-aligned investing.
She is also the founder of Aquanos Collective, a company focused on water risk and innovation in water infrastructure and technology. Kathryn serves on the board of the Big Fix Uganda, and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
Daniela Jaramillo
Daniela is the Head of Sustainable Investing – Australia, at Fidelity International, where she has been since August 2021. Prior to that she was a Senior Responsible Investment Adviser at HESTA, one of Australia’s largest pension funds. While at HESTA, Daniela set up and was the Chair of the investor group of 40:40 Vision, an investor led initiative to achieve gender balance in executive leadership. Daniela has held roles in responsible investment across the UK (Legal and General) and US (Wespath Benefits and Investments) before settling in Australia. She was also a member of the PRI Stewardship Advisory Committee between 2017 and 2021.
Originally from Ecuador, her career began as one of the founding members of a not for profit focusing on improving education and health outcomes in the region. Daniela holds an MSc. in Environment and Development from London School of Economics and a B.A in Journalism from Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Arti Prasad
Arti Prasad is currently Partner, Pacific Client Lead at Mercer. She is responsible for leading sustainable investment practices with clients across the Pacific. Before this role, she worked as a Senior Investment Strategist for the Guardians of NZ Superannuation, a Crown entity that manages the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. During her time at the Guardians from 2017, Arti was responsible for developing and implementing policies related to Responsible Investment, climate change, and corporate governance. Prior to this, Arti worked as the Head of Responsible Investment for the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) for two years. She also served as a Senior ESG Analyst for the Guardians and a Senior Policy Analyst at the NZ Ministry for Environment, where she worked on policies related to business sustainability, water, and climate change.
In 2014 Arti was named one of Chief Investment Officer magazine’s ’Top 40 under 40’ in the asset allocation world.
Helen Skinner
Helen Skinner has worked in financial services for over 25 years, across a variety of sectors and geographies, and spent more than 15 years in responsible investment. In New Zealand, she has held senior positions in Funds Management, Wealth and Trustee Services. She is currently Head of Responsible Investment for ANZ New Zealand Investments Limited, one of New Zealand’s largest KiwiSaver providers. Prior to this, she was Head of Emerging Wealth at Craigs Investment Partners, responsible for KiwiSaver schemes and other retail products, as well as a national adviser network. She is globally experienced in business development and distribution, strategic planning, change and risk management.
Helen is a passionate and active member of the Aotearoa New Zealand responsible investment and financial services communities. She is a member of the RIAA Human Rights Working Group, Nature Working Group, and Aotearoa Collaborative Working Group. She is also a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and a certified member of INFINZ.
Kate Turner
As Global of Head of Responsible Investment at First Sentier Investors, Kate combines a legal background with significant experience in structuring sustainable finance deals and advising investment professionals on applying a responsible investment lens to their strategies.
She is passionate about the potential of the investment sector to support positive change and make well informed investment decisions. Her roles include Chair of the Steering Group for Investors Against Slavery and Trafficking APAC, and membership of the RIAA board and Human Rights Working Group.
Tom May
Tom May is General Counsel and Company Secretary at Australian Ethical Investment where he leads the legal and governance functions. Australian Ethical is a listed investment manager (ASX:AEF) and is committed to responsible investment and making the world a better place. This has been Australian Ethical’s mission and sole focus since its inception in 1986.
Tom is an experienced lawyer having worked in the federal government, private practice in Australia, the UK and Japan and in-house with many major financial institutions. He is a member of Australian Ethical’s Senior Leadership Team that has transformed Australian Ethical into Australia’s preeminent ethical investor. He is passionate in his belief that excellent governance is at the root of all successful organisation as it enables clarity of mission, purpose and decision making.
Liza McDonald
Liza has over 24 years’ experience in the superannuation sector and is a specialist and passionate advocate for responsible investments and sustainable finance. As Head of Responsible Investments at Aware Super, she has led the development and implementation of the Fund’s responsible investment policies, the execution of the Climate Change Strategy and also manages the ESG policy implementation including manager and asset class ESG reviews.
Liza joined Aware Super through its merger partner Health Super in December 2006 as an analyst in the Compliance, Legal and Risk Team. Before joining Aware Super, Liza held various roles at Mercer Legal where her primary focus was on trustee education and corporate secretarial duties.
Liza represents Aware Super on a number of working groups and committees including Investors Against Slavery & Trafficking APAC (IAST-APAC); ESG Research Australia; the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI); 40:40 Vision; the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) and the UN convened Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance (GISD).
Liza holds a Post Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance at Kaplan Education and is a Graduate of AICD.