Getting to know... Elaine Campbell

Who are you and what do you do?
Elaine Campbell and I am the general counsel at AMP. I’m responsible for AMP legal compliance, I’m also responsible for the broader AMP adviser network compliance with our QFE obligations and ensuring that we are across any new regulatory developments and able to respond to them. Finally, I’m also responsible for our product compliance team - our wealth management arm, ensuring all our offer documents and other materials comply with all the statutory obligations that accompany those.

You’ve been regulator – working at the FMA - and regulated, what do you like most about each side of the fence?
It’s quite interesting reflecting on that sitting in these shoes again now. I like the cut and thrust of the commercial world. You do miss that when you are a regulator. You don’t have the same commercial pressures bringing to bear. It’s a different type of speed. At the regulator, you’re dealing with myriad issues all the time. It’s not that it’s not busy or fast, it’s just different. I guess when you are the regulator, the benefit is when things go wrong it’s not you who has made them go wrong, you’re dealing with other people’s issues and mistakes rather than issues and mistakes arising in your own business which obviously brings its own stress and concerns that go along with that. I like being able to participate in building strategy. You can do that in both guises but I suppose in a commercial world you are balancing what can be competing needs and I think that presents a unique and interesting challenge, particularly when you are the person charged with ensuring those interests are fairly and adequately represented in that strategy. That’s always a fun challenge.

What would you like to change about the industry?
There has to be a recognition by the industry as a whole that it is a regulated profession and to embrace that and try to understand how that can be a differentiator against portions of a market that are not regulated as opposed to constantly fighting a battle that was lost some time ago. I think that actually finding ways to work constructively and pragmatically is something that should be aspired towards. There are certainly factions of the industry that perhaps don’t serve the industry as a whole well by the positions they take on certain matters. We need to look at where we sit as a regulated industry on a global scale and realise it’s reasonably light touch, let’s get on and make it work for the benefit of our clients and businesses.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?
There is no such thing as extraordinary people, ordinary people do extraordinary things. That struck me that actually it’s really just about the effort and hard work that you put in to things that dictate the outcome that you get.