Paving the path forward under Kate Galvin's leadership for Victoria's public authority, VFMC
Global Investment Insights
with Kate Galvin, Chief Executive, Victorian Funds Management Corporation (VFMC)
Kate is the Chief Executive Officer of Victorian Funds Management Corporation (VFMC), and has been in the role since October 2021.
VFMC is a public authority responsible for investing AU$75 billion on behalf of Victorians, managing the long-term investments of Victorian State Government entities, comprising of 31 Victorian public authorities and related organisations.
Kate joined VFMC from NAB where she was responsible for NAB’s Health business, leading a national team of corporate and business bankers to provide banking and financial services to the health sector. During her career, Kate has led businesses in global and Australian companies across financial advice, asset management, private, corporate and business banking.
Having settled into her new leadership role at VFMC, Kate shared her vision for paving the path forward for the organisation in this exclusive interview with Global Investment Institute (GII).
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My number one strategic priority is to maintain and evolve the open, transparent and supportive culture we have built.
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Q. What attracted you to joining VFMC in the role of Chief Executive?
A. It sounds like a cliché, but it was VFMC’s purpose that primarily attracted me to this role. Our purpose is to improve the future prosperity of Victoria.
As a proud Victorian who has lived here my whole life, I loved the idea of being able to tell my kids and friends that I was using my many years of experience in financial services to improve the prosperity of our community.
Our aspiration is to be an extraordinary team delivering market leading, long-term returns and we strive to do this every day as we manage in excess of AU$75 billion for Victorian public authorities and related organisations across multiple sectors including insurance, superannuation, health, the arts and more.
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We are a relatively small and non-hierarchical organisation, with significant funds under management.
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Q. What are your top strategic priorities for the organisation, in leading VFMC into its next chapter?
A. Under the Victorian Funds Management Corporation Act 1994, VMFC is required to provide investment services to the State in a commercially effective, efficient and competitive manner. My number one strategic priority is to make sure that we maintain and evolve the open, transparent and supportive culture we have built and that allows us to retain and attract the talented individuals we need to provide our services.
There is incredibly strong knowledge and expertise across our team. I want to maintain an environment that supports our people to perform, grow and transfer knowledge across the organisation and broader industry. This will help us continue to drive open and constructive dialogue, to deliver against our whole-of-portfolio investment approach and make our team even more resilient.
VFMC is also committed to further evolving and embedding our growing data and analytics capability. There is great strength in arming our talented team with the insights we can obtain from multiple data sources through our leading data and analytics tools.
We will continue to mature our approach to investment stewardship, including our roadmap to achieving net zero emissions. We have made great progress over the past few years and are looking to take it to the next level, both through our own whole-of-portfolio approach and by collaborating with peer investors and other industry participants to drive systemic change.
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We will continue to mature our approach to investment stewardship, including our roadmap to achieving net zero emissions.
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Q. What are the biggest challenges facing VFMC and how will your strategic vision guide the organisation in navigating them?
A. Like most organisations, we are conscious of how the tight employment market may impact our ability to retain and attract future talent.
To step into this challenge, we are currently having an organisation-wide conversation about our values and Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to ensure they reflect VFMC at its best and support the work we do.
We are a relatively small and non-hierarchical organisation, with significant funds under management. Our people enjoy easy access to our leaders and investment experts, with the opportunity to grow, challenge, and innovate as part of their roles. We are hearing that they really enjoy working with curious, kind and inclusive colleagues, and being aligned to a meaningful purpose.
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VFMC is also working to improve the proportion of women joining our team through our Gender Equity Action Plan and ongoing commitment to hybrid and flexible work.
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VFMC is also working to improve the proportion of women joining our team, including through our inaugural Gender Equality Action Plan and our ongoing commitment to hybrid and flexible work.
We achieved gender equity across our organisation earlier this year and expect to reach 40% female representation within our investments function in the coming months. VFMC is also supporting initiatives like the Future IM/Pact Accelerate Program to improve female representation across the broader investments industry.
Q. What do you see as the greatest opportunities for VFMC, both, now and over the medium to long-term?
A. VFMC manages a growing pool of approximately AU$75 billion in funds, which makes us an interesting size in the global institutional investment market. It is a real sweet spot as we are big enough to gain access to some of the world’s best investment expertise, whilst choosing to manage certain strategies internally. We are also agile enough to pursue considered investment opportunities at speed, particularly in volatile markets.
VFMC can leverage both our in-house capability and the talent, experience and ideas of our global strategic partners to identify new and emerging opportunities across the whole portfolio – this supports our clients’ investment objectives as well as VFMC’s approach to portfolio management.
Q. What has been the most impactful change you have witnessed during your career in financial services, which has shaped your career and the industry more broadly?
A. The most impactful change I have seen over my career has been the rise of investment stewardship. It has really started to change how financial services organisations operate, not only in terms of managing risk and driving performance, but in ensuring we maintain our social license to operate. The increasing imperative for the finance sector to take a broader view about the impact of investment decisions has helped me find meaning in this phase of my career.
While we have made important progress to date, the pace of ESG change is only accelerating and requires an industry-wide commitment to continually improve and support new frameworks, collaboration and knowledge-sharing. If we work together to achieve this as a sector, we will ensure that, as stewards of capital, we protect against critical risks and take full advantage of opportunities.
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We are agile enough to pursue considered investment opportunities at speed, particularly in volatile markets.
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Kate Galvin, Chief Executive Officer, Victorian Funds Management Corporation
Kate joined VFMC as CEO in October 2021.
Kate commenced her career with eight years of commercial legal practice, before transitioning into management. Kate has led businesses in global and Australian companies across financial advice, asset management, private, corporate and business banking. Before joining VFMC, Kate was at NAB where she was responsible for NAB’s Health business, leading a national team of corporate and business bankers to provide banking and financial services to the health sector. Prior to NAB, Kate held multiple roles with JBWere and Goldman Sachs JBWere, including Managing Director, JBWere and Executive Director and Partner, Goldman Sachs JBWere.
Kate holds Bachelors degrees in Economics and Law and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is currently on the Board of the Mercy Health Foundation.
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