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The Board

  • Rob Thomas

    Rob Thomas

    BEc, FSIA
    Chairman
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mr Thomas was appointed to the TAL Limited Board in August 2007. Mr Thomas has in excess of 30 years experience in the investment and securities industry. He was CEO and subsequently Chairman of Citigroup Australia and New Zealand, Corporate and Investment Bank from the late 1990's until his retirement in 2004.

    Mr Thomas is presently the Non-executive Director of Heartware Limited, Virgin Blue Holdings Limited, REVA Medical Limited, O'Connell Street Associates Pty Limited and a member of the Advisory Board of Nomura. Mr Thomas is Chairman of the Stockbrokers Association of Australia and President of the Library Council of New South Wales. He is resident in Sydney, Australia.

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  • Jim Minto

    Jim Minto

    CA
    Managing Director

    Jim Minto was appointed Managing Director of TAL Limited in November 2006 following the separation of the Australian and New Zealand businesses of the TAL Limited group. He had previously been Group Managing Director of TAL Limited, overseeing the trans-Tasman TAL businesses and reporting to the TAL Limited Board.

    Mr Minto joined TAL Limited in 1988 in New Zealand, as head of the Group's Trust business and led several other TAL businesses in New Zealand (including the Managed Funds and Health & Life) before taking on the role of Chief Executive Officer of TAL New Zealand in early 2002. He left the New Zealand business in November 2002 to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer of TAL and then in March 2005, he was appointed Chief Executive of the trans-Tasman TAL Limited group.

    A Chartered Accountant, Mr Minto is a Board member of the Association of Super Funds of Australia (ASFA) and Non executive Director of Australia Finance Group Limited. He resident in Sydney, Australia.

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  • Fiona Balfour

    Fiona Balfour

    BA (Hons), MBA, Grad Dip Information Management, FAICD
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mrs Balfour was appointed to the TAL Limited Board as an independent Non-executive Director in October 2010. Mrs Balfour has more than 30 years executive experience across a wide range of businesses including Financial Services, Health Administration, Aviation, Education and Information and Telecommunications Services as well as a range of not-for-profit organisations.

    She is a Non - executive director of Salmat Limited and Metcash Limited. She is also a Councillor of Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga, a member of the advisory board for the IT Faculty at Monash University, and a Non-executive Director of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She is resident in Sydney, Australia.

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  • Don Findlater

    Don Findlater

    BCom, ACA
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mr Findlater was appointed to the TAL Limited Board in 2008. Mr Findlater was a partner at KPMG for 27 years and has over 40 years of professional audit, accounting and advisory experience with a wide range of Australian financial institutions. Throughout his career at KPMG, Mr Findlater was the APRA approved auditor for a significant number of life and general insurance companies. He is resident in Sydney, Australia

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  • Roger Garrett

    BSc, FIA (London), FIAA
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mr Garrett joined the TAL Limited Board of Directors in August 2011. He is well known to the Australian life insurance industry having been the Head of Life for Munich Re from 1997 until his retirement in early 2011. Mr Garrett joins the TAL Limited and TAL Life Limited Boards with strong actuarial and re-insurance experience. He has previously worked for NZI Life and NZI Bank in New Zealand, before moving to Australia as Head of Life for Munich Reinsurance Group.

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  • Tetsuya Kikuta

    Tetsuya Kikuta

    BCom, MBA
    Non-executive Director

    Mr Kikuta was appointed to the TAL Limited Board in December 2008. Mr Kikuta is the Managing Director of Dai-ichi Life International (Asia Pacific) Ltd. He is currently responsible for Dai-ichi Life's business in the Asia-Pacific region with particular focus on the expansion of new business development and was involved in and responsible for all of the Dai-ichi Life’s business expansion deals in Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Thailand and Australia.

    Mr Kikuta joined Dai-ichi Life in April 1987 and has significant experience particularly in the investment area. He has also had six years of experience working for Dai-ichi Life International (U.S.A.) in New York. He is resident in Hong Kong.

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  • Takayuki Kotani

    Takayuki Kotani

    BA (Law), MBA
    Non-executive Director

    Mr Kotani was appointed to the TAL Limited Board in December 2008. Mr Kotani is the General Manager, International Business Management Department of The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Limited. He is responsible for the management of Dai-ichi Life’s entire international business, including new business developments and management of the existing international businesses in Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Thailand, and Australia.

    Mr Kotani joined Dai-ichi Life in 1982 and has held important positions in both international and domestic planning and research areas. He is resident in Tokyo, Japan.

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  • Ralph Pliner

    Ralph Pliner

    BCom, LL.B, LL.M
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mr Pliner was appointed to the TAL Limited Board in December 2006. Mr. Pliner was a partner of Baker & McKenzie for over 20 years where he was involved in a wide range of corporate and Merger and Acquisition transactions and also advised a number of Boards of public listed companies.

    Mr. Pliner is presently a Non-executive Director of Herzog Services Australia Pty. Limited, Iroko Cardio (Australia) Pty. Limited, Public Interest Advocacy Centre Limited and Australian Char Pty. Limited. He is resident in Sydney, Australia.

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  • Elana Rubin

    Elana Rubin

    MA, BA (Hons), FAICD, F Fin, FAIM
    Non-independent non-executive Director

    Ms Rubin was appointed to the TAL Board in November 2007 and is Chair of the Investment Committee and a member of the Audit, Compliance and Risk Management Committee.

    Ms Rubin has extensive experience in the superannuation and investments sectors. She is presently Chair of AustralianSuper and a non-executive Director of the Mirvac Group Ltd, and the not-for-profit food rescue organisation, SecondBite.

    Ms Rubin is also a member of the Infrastructure Australia Council (Commonwealth) and Evans & Partners Advisory Board.

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  • Tatsuya Yasukawa

    Tatsuya (Tachi) Yasukawa

    BA (Law), MA
    Independent non-executive Director

    Mr Yasukawa was appointed to the TAL Limited Board of Directors in August 2011. He is presently Managing Director of TY Japan Consulting, a company he set up in 2003 to provide corporate advisory and consulting services to Australian companies wishing to do business in Japan and vice versa. Mr Yasukawa has spent a large part of his career in investment banking and has also had several years experience in property investment and development.

    Before establishing his own consultancy in March 2003, he has worked with The Industrial Bank of Japan (now Mizuho Bank) and SG Warburg (now UBS), both in London and Tokyo, and Matsushita Investment & Development in Sydney and the Gold Coast.

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