Mr Ian Silk

Ian Silk is the Chief Executive of Australian Super, a position he’s held since the fund was formed in 2006 following the merger of Australian Retirement Fund and Superannuation Trust of Australia. It’s now the largest superannuation fund in the country, with 2.2 million members and $140 billion in members’ assets.

After graduating from Monash with a Bachelor of Economics, he began work with the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) in an industrial relations role.

In 1982, he joined the Victorian government’s Office of Industrial Relations, then moved into a role as a senior policy officer, and was the state government’s wages policy specialist, and advocate in national wage cases.

He was appointed head of the building and construction industry division of the Department of Labour during the building boom of the mid-1980s, and was then seconded from the public service as a ministerial adviser to labour ministers in the state government. He returned to the public service as director of the Department of Labour’s industrial relations division.

After 20 years in the public service, he was appointed chief executive of Australian Retirement Fund, before its merger with Superannuation Trust of Australia.

He’s also chair of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), and a director of Industry Super Australia and Basketball Australia.