Sean Hughes, who is now the Commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has resigned from his post and will end his term on 3 February. He will join Vanguard Australia as the General Counsel.
Sean Hughes Resigns as ASIC Commissioner
Hughes joined the Aussie financial market watchdog as a Commissioner in late 2018 with a five-year term. He is stepping down ten months before the expiry of his contract on 3 December 2023.
"We are grateful for the contribution Sean has made to ASIC in his role as Commissioner and wish him well in the next stage of his career," said Joe Longo, the Chair of ASIC.
It was the third tenure of Hughes at the Aussie regulator. Previously, he worked as a Senior Executive at ASIC between December 2008 and December 2010, and he was the Director of Financial Services between July 1999 and December 2003. He re-joined the regulator at one of the top posts in 2018 from Tabcorp where he was a General Counsel.
In addition, his regulatory experience expands beyond Australia as he was the Chief Executive of New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority for over three years. In the commercial space, he worked with several major financial giants. He was the Chief Risk & Legal Officer at UniSuper, the Head Of Legal at National Australia Bank, and the Group General Manager for Compliance at ANZ.
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From ASIC to Vanguard
Hughes' appointment at Vanguard Australia came only weeks after ASIC slapped a monetary penalty of AU$ 39,960 on the company for "misleading" ESG claims.
Vanguard Australia's Managing Director Daniel Shrimski highlighted that Hughes "brings a significant depth of experience in law, governance, regulation , financial services, wealth management, and risk into leading this critical function of the business."
He added: "The strong foundations built by Vanguard's Australian leadership over the past 27 years [have] always been guided by delivering on Vanguard's mission, and with Sean's appointment, we continue to focus on building teams led by strong leaders who will ensure that the business remains aligned with the new and changing needs of our clients into the future, to offer them the best chance of investing success."
