Government picks super fund guardians

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Business Herald columnist Brian Gaynor has been named as a prospective guardian of the Government's superannuation fund.

The board of guardians will set the fund's investment policies and appoint its managers.

The cabinet yesterday approved the membership of the board, to be headed by David May, but it must consult other political parties before recommending the appointments to the Governor-General.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen said he had written to the other political parties giving them a week to comment on the proposed membership.



May, the proposed chairman, is deputy chairman of the Government Superannuation Fund Authority and a former managing director of the Colonial Group.

The other proposed appointees are:

* Sir Douglas Graham, former National cabinet minister and chairman of the Lombard Group. He would be deputy chairman.

* Dr Michaela Anderson, director of policy and research for the Association of Superannuation Funds in Australia.

* Ira Bing, a private investor with an investment banking background in Britain and with Merrill Lynch in Europe.

* Brian Gaynor, Business Herald columnist, independent investment analyst and a director of the NZ Investment Trust.

* Bridget Wickham, chief executive of University of Auckland Developments and an experienced company executive.

Cullen said that to ensure the board's independence the Government had to appoint from a list of nominations that had come from a special nominating committee.