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.

Laurence also serves on the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee.

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.

Graeme serves on the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and is currently the interim Chair.

 

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.

Richard also serves on the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee.

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.

Trustees Executors is a trustee company under the Trustee Companies Act 1967, allowing it to be appointed to act as trustee, hold other fiduciary positions and to establish Group Investment Funds. The Trustees Executors Act 2002 also provides the company with powers in relation to acting as an executor.

The company holds licences under the Financial Markets Supervisors Act 2011 and Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.  All licences are issued by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), and are for a five year period.

Current licences held are:

1. Corporate Independent Trustee Licence
2. Discretionary Investment Management Services Licence, and
3. Supervisors licence.

These licences allow Trustees Executors to act as:

●  A supervisor in respect of debt securities

●  A supervisor in respect of registered schemes

●  A statutory supervisor in respect of retirement villages

●  Act as a corporate independent trustee (for restricted schemes)

●  Provide discretionary investment management services.

Trustees Executors Board

The Board sets the strategic goals of the Company and oversees the execution of business strategy.  Some of its oversight is delegated to the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and to the Corporate Trustee Services Board. The Board operates according to a Charter, which can be viewed here.

Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee

Monitors financial, operational and compliance risk, including with respect to licensed activities. Its Terms of Reference can be viewed here.

Corporate Trustee Services Board

Pursuant to provisions 20 and 21 of the Trustee Companies Act 1967, the Board of Trustees Executors has delegated some of its supervisory function of its corporate customers to a ‘local’ Board of Directors.

The Local Board is comprised of non-executive Directors who do not sit on Trustees Executors’ Board.  This allows the local board to focus on Trustees Executors’ compliance with its licensed supervisor obligations. 

The Corporate Trustee Services Board Terms of Reference can be found here.

Further details can be found here.

Investment Committee

Trustees Executors has appointed an Investment Committee to supervise the management of investment portfolios managed on behalf of our Private Wealth customers. 

This includes Group Investment Funds managed by Trustees Executors, and portfolios managed under the Company’s Discretionary Investment Management Service Licence. Further details can be found here.