Governance and Leadership Team

Board of Directors

Trustees Executors is governed by a Board of Directors with a range of commercial experience and a deep understanding of the special fiduciary responsibilities involved, they are:

Laurence Kubiak, Independent Director (Chair)

BMus

Laurence is Chief Executive of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, Chair of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, a Director of Northpower, and Trustee of several philanthropic organisations.

Before returning to New Zealand, Laurence lived in Europe for 25 years, and held a series of commercial and strategic roles for FTSE-100 companies active in international markets, including British Telecom, Shell and BP Amoco. Laurence’s international career spanned the ICT, telco, aviation, infrastructure and energy sectors, and included roles in strategy, economics, regulation, country management, operations, business development and general management.

Graeme Kirkpatrick, Non-Executive Director

M.Com, BBusSci

Graeme has over 15 years of experience in providing advisory and assurance services to the financial services sector.

Prior to joining Trustees Executors, Graeme held senior positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and Allied Irish Banks. He has a proven track record of leading and executing complex projects on governance, risk and compliance in financial services.

Victoria Grace, Non-Executive Director

BA, MA

Victoria Grace is an entrepreneur, engineer, scientist and award-winning researcher. Dual-degree Stanford University graduate in computer science, neuroscience and music, she is a technology specialist with experience founding and building an innovative software company from the ground up.

She has strong skills in operations, strategic planning, business development, market research, product and project management, product design, product development, team assembly and recruiting, marketing, algorithm design, digital signal processing, intellectual property (IP) generation and patenting.

Richard Klipin, Independent Director

MBA, BA, DipEd

Richard is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Council – New Zealand.

He has extensive experience in leading and transforming Industry Associations, Life Insurance manufacturers and Financial Advice businesses, having held senior leadership roles in all sectors over the past 16 years. Organisations include Sovereign Assurance, ANZ Banking Group, Association of Financial Advisers and ING.

Richard is known as a community builder, skilfully engaging and influencing a diverse range of stakeholders to create common purpose, connection and enable collaboration.

Ryan Bessemer, Executive Director

PLDA (Harvard), GCBA, MAICD, AACS

Ryan was appointed to the Board as Executive Director in October 2019. Ryan is the CEO of Trustees Executors and previously served as COO of Equity Trustees, Australia’s largest independent trustee company. Ryan has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector, with a strong focus on general and technology management, investment operations, project management and people management. He has a proven track record in delivering successful business growth through organic growth initiatives and M&A.

Ryan has completed the Programme for Leadership Development (PLDA) at Harvard Business School, where he was selected to achieve lifetime Alumni status.

Group Leadership Team

Ryan Bessemer

Chief Executive Officer, PLDA (Harvard), GCBA, MAICD, AACS

Ryan joined Trustees Executors as Chief Executive Officer in April 2018. Previously he served as COO of Equity Trustees, Australia’s largest independent trustee company. Ryan has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector, with a strong focus on general and technology management, investment operations, project management and people management. He has a proven track record in delivering successful business growth through organic growth initiatives and M&A.

Ryan has completed the Programme for Leadership Development (PLDA) at Harvard Business School, where he was selected to achieve lifetime Alumni status.

Stuart McLaren

Chief Financial Officer, BCom, CA

Stuart has over 20 years business management and accounting experience in the service, wholesale and retail industries. He has a further 12 years involvement in product and service administration and development across various industry sectors. Stuart joined Trustees Executors in 2009 and leads the both the corporate finance and trust administration & accounting teams as well as supporting the business units in various financial matters, projects and advisory services.

Geoff Rimmer

Chief Operating Officer

Geoff was appointed to the new role of Chief Operating Officer in October 2019 with the responsibility for overseeing the Company’s daily operations and business strategy. Geoff has more than 25 years’ experience in the Australian trustee and financial services sector, and has deep leadership experience in strategic planning, finance, operations, sales and marketing, business development and M&A.

He was previously executive general manager of trustee and wealth services at Equity Trustees, an ASX-listed trustee company. Prior to this, he was the founding CEO of Financial Services Partners, a Top 20 dealer group that had funds under advice of $4.5 billion.

Robert Sloan

Chief Risk Officer, BCom (Hons), GDL

Rob joined Trustees Executors as Chief Risk Officer in November 2019. Previously he was Head of Capital Markets Disclosure at the Financial Markets Authority. Prior to that he spent 14 years working for major New Zealand, UK and United States law firms advising clients on M&A, private equity and major projects involving the energy, defence and transport sectors. Rob brings a deep understanding of New Zealand’s regulatory and compliance frameworks alongside a track record of focused strategic thinking and leading high performing teams.

Matthew Band

General Manager, Corporate Trustee Services, BCom, INFINZ (Cert)

Matthew was appointed General Manager in May 2018, having joined the Corporate Trustee Services team in Auckland in January 2005. Prior to this he held banking, treasury, fund administration and operations positions in the finance sector in New Zealand and in the UK. He has had previous experience supervising Managed Investment Schemes, Non-Bank Deposit Takers, Debt Issuers and Retirement Villages.

Sarah Thorpe

Chief People Officer, BA

Sarah joined Trustees Executors in 2018. Sarah is a commercial HR leader with 20 years’ experience across the full breadth of Human Resources capability. Sarah brings to Trustees Executors extensive experience in leadership coaching and growth, strategic workforce planning, change and transformation, culture, talent management and project delivery. She has a diverse background across a number of different industries including Financial Services, Technology, Telecommunications and Public Sector.

Geoff Cheeseright

General Manager, Investment Administration

Geoff was appointed General Manager, Investment Administration in 2019. He originally joined Trustees Executors in 1996 and from 2001 managed the Custody team servicing the Funds Management industry. Prior to Trustees Executors, Geoff worked in the Banking and Financial Services industry in Wellington.

Justin Fox

General Manager, Private Wealth, PGDip, InterBus. ANZIFF, (Senior Assoc) CIP

Justin is responsible for leading the Private Wealth team, which includes Investments, Trust and Estate planning services. He has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services and other growth industries, most recently in the retirement sector. Justin brings wide ranging experience and proven track record at leading large network business units, building high performance teams and delivering strong growth objectives across service distribution channels. He has extensive strategic and people leadership, experience in developing key commercial partnerships and is passionate about delivering a great client experience.

Percy Morales

General Manager Transformation and Change, MBA, AIM. Eng.

Percy joined Trustees Executors as Programme Director Institutional Clients in September 2019 and in December 2019 was promoted to General Manager Transformation and Change. Previously he had the role of Programme Director Corporate at OneVue in Australia in charge of the Project Management Office overseeing an extensive list of initiatives. He had earlier spent 15 years working for EQT Trustees, Link Market Services, IBM and others in the United States and Peru. Percy, who brings extensive experience in project/programme management and leadership, change management and process improvement, has a Degree in Industrial Engineering and Project Management, an MBA and is a member of the Australian Institute of Management.