The Australian Financial Review.
It taught me a lot about resilience, so pretty much anything I've faced ever since that
pales in comparison.
It is where I do my sort of best higher order thinking without deliberately thinking about
Hi, I'm Sally Patton, editor of BOSS from the Australian Financial Review, and welcome
to 15 Minutes with the BOSS, a podcast about success and failure
and everything in between, and along the way we're hoping to get some really great advice
from our leaders.
My guest today is Vicki Doyle, the chief executive of REST Superannuation.
Hi, Vicki, how are you?
Hi, Sally, really well, thank you for having me.
Thank you so much for coming in.
Now, Vicki, as I said, you're the CEO of REST Superannuation, which is one of the country's
biggest super funds, managing $86 billion of investments on behalf of around 2 million
members, and in staff terms, we employ about 650 full-time equivalents.
That is a big responsibility that you bear.
Is it something that worries you, does it keep you up at night?
I love it, actually, Sally.
It is a big responsibility, but those 2 million Australians that we work for is really one
in seven working Australians, and they're anywhere from sort of 15 to 91, and the team
and I are very focused on helping those members really achieve their best in retirement.
So I think having that purpose is the thing that motivates me each day.
Okay, Vicki, we've only got 15 minutes.
Your time starts now.
Now, my first question for you is, what does your morning routine look like?
What time do you get up?
When do you have your first cup of coffee?
I'm an early morning person.
My family is not.
And I blame the Northern Hemisphere.
My husband is Irish, and my two kids, they all love to stay up really late.
So I tend to have to stay up late, and then I naturally wake up around 6.30 in the morning,
which isn't that early, but it is when you have late-nighters, and I would slowly wake
up and read the news on my phone in the morning.
And then I jump up and I get the kids' lunches organised for the day, get everyone on task.
Then I drop my daughter at school, she's in year 12, and I head into the office or
head back home if I'm working from home on that day.
So what time do you all go to bed at night?
It can be a challenge to get them in before 10.30, 11, 11.30.
So are you a breakfast person?
I've recently drunk no coffee and no alcohol.
So I'm having a beautiful cup of tea in the morning and a yoghurt.
And is that a permanent thing, or is that just temporary?
We'll wait and see.
I had a bit of a health scare actually quite a few weeks ago, and I took an antibiotic
and I had a really upper abdomen issue, which created an issue in my pancreas.
So it really was a big wake-up call of just how vulnerable your health is.
So I decided I'm going to try a bit of a health kick, and it was needed in any case.
So I'm enjoying it.
I guess that's one of the things that doing big jobs like you do, is it easy to put health
on the back burner a bit because you've got so much else you've got to do.
I do find that a challenge, but I often say, and I say this to my board, I'm a full-time
mother, even if it's teens, but mentally and emotionally you're there and thinking
And then I'm a full-time CEO after that.
So fitting in exercise around all of that can be a challenge.
The weekends is where I get out in the garden and really do my physical exercise.
I mean, you do arguably have two jobs, that's all you do.
Now, Vicki, my next question is, tell me about a pivotal moment in your career that really
changed the nature of what you were doing or changed you as a leader in some way.
The big moment that stands out for me was around 2003.
It was when I was first promoted from an executive manager into a general management position.
It was my first GM job.
And where were you at the time?
It was everything I'd been dreaming of.
But equally, three weeks into that role, I had the biggest personal tragedy of my life,
where my sister passed away instantly in a car crash.
And she had a three-year-old son that was without any parents.
And so what I recall from that period is, you know, I got a call from my boss at the
She came into the office, closed the door and put me onto my mom.
She knew the news.
And I was told about what had happened in a car crash.
And Suncorp rallied around me.
They put me in a car, sent me down to Byron, where my sister had lived with her son.
And I picked up her son from childcare, you know, and he came back to live with us as
our first child, myself and my husband in Brisbane.
And my mom came back too, because she was quite distraught, obviously, and in a challenging
So she came back to the house.
So it was a big moment to get the job of your career, but at the same time for this personal
But I went back into the workplace and that organisation, it just goes to show the importance
of working with organisations who truly live their values.
And it taught me a lot about resilience.
So pretty much anything I've faced ever since that pales in comparison, because having to
confront both those things and look after a little boy at the time was pretty demanding
and required all of my emotional and physical energy as well as going back to work.
But it also taught me that to really accept nothing less than a company that can support
And I myself want to create organisations like that.
So were there a couple of things that Suncorp did for you that really moved the dial?
There was no pressure, obviously, to come back to work at any point in time.
But when I chose that I wanted to come back in a relatively short period, it could have
been three or four weeks after that, because I wanted to do that and it was important to
me and for my health and wellbeing.
They fully supported that.
Secondly, they offered six weeks leave and said, we want you to go away and take Lachlan
and the three of you go away and spend time together.
And we actually went off to Europe and that was only a few months after starting that
role, but really to just form our relationship and reset and give us the opportunity to step
back. I guess they stepped in where I might not have known how to manage my own emotional
wellbeing as much as they did.
So that to me was really quite impactful.
Yeah, it's really interesting that there was someone inside Suncorp who was thinking outside
the box and could see what you really needed.
Yeah, absolutely.
And they had values at the time that were around honesty, care, respect for others.
And you could feel that in the organisation where everyone rallied around you.
Vicki, my next question is, what's the best piece of career advice you've ever been given?
There are two great leaders I've worked for who provided that advice.
So on the first one from Bernadette Inglis, who has been an ongoing sponsor for me, her
advice to me was basically, you've never failed yet, so just see how far you can go.
And she was quite prepared to let people fail and learn, but she always made sure she had
the right capabilities and you didn't feel exposed.
But she really gave you the opportunity to just have a crack at the role.
Oh, OK. And the second piece of advice?
The second piece of advice comes from Jeff Summerhays, who was my CEO for Suncorp Life
many years after that advice from Bernadette.
He said to me that you are right for this role of the CEO of the Life Division.
And I said, I don't want your role, Jeff, even I really want to be a CEO, because in
the wealth management industry, you need to go to lots of dinners and you're always away
and you're going on trips.
And I said, first and foremost, you know, I'm a CEO of my family.
And his answer to that was, well, you just have to lead it and do it your way, Vicki.
And you shouldn't let that stop you from being a CEO.
Interesting. So how did you manage to fit that role into your life at the
time? I originally thought it wasn't possible, but when you go off on maternity
leave and then you come back and I established some key principles and rules for
myself. So the first one, which was, well, I'm going to need to lead at four thirty
each day and I'm going to work three or four days in the office.
I'm going to work one day at home.
And once you establish that rule and you work out that can work, then all other doors
are open. So there are some things that people will travel and go on lots of tours or
they'll accept all the evening social type events.
I don't do lots of those unless it's really important.
People can meet me for breakfast.
They can meet me at lunchtimes and I still have to travel, but I might go in in the
morning. I might come home in the evening.
I might do one night rather than extending it out for three or four nights.
I'm sort of highly efficient with my time when I do need to travel.
So when you were living at four thirty, did you then log on after dinner each night?
Yes, probably around eight thirty or nine and do a couple of hours then.
So you just said to your team, I'm unavailable between four thirty and eight thirty or
whatever the time was. Yes. Yeah.
Okay. Interesting. All right.
On that note, that's the end of our first section.
We are going to take a short break, but stay right where you are.
We're going to come back and open our delightful chatterbox.
Welcome back to 15 minutes with the boss.
I'm here with Vicky Doyle, the chief executive of Rest Superannuation.
Now, Vicky, as we have been discussing, this is our section called the chatterbox.
In front of you and you didn't believe it before you came in, but it's here.
The beautiful, shiny cardboard brown box.
Inside which there are about 20 questions today.
I'm going to ask you to have a bit of a forage and pick out some questions
and we can continue to chat.
So please have a forage.
There we go. If you had time to learn a new skill, what would it be?
I think I would like to be at the forefront of technology.
Actually, it's not something that I've ever really picked up.
But I am quite fascinated about AI and the sort of revolution that is going on.
But it's not something that I've ever studied.
And you get frustrated, like I do, that this feeling that technology is
progressing a lot faster than than you're keeping up with it.
I think that's true of society.
And that's why I think we're on the brink of something has to disconnect
and there has to be an intervention as such.
And that's why I think it's AI and the possibilities around that
modelling is what could simplify our lives for all of us.
Now, there's no doubt, though, the younger generation and my kids,
they are way more at the forefront than I am.
And you might be, Sally.
And we try to leverage that at everything we do at rest, because we know
they're actually already interacting in a way that is the future.
Whereas we're probably still straddling both at best.
So, Vicki, are your kids teaching you much about technology?
Do you learn much from them?
I think the kids are certainly way more advanced on the social aspects.
And I think it's easy for us to judge is social media the right thing or the wrong
thing, and we're seeing lots of evidence around it, but they are immersed in that.
And they are it is how they live and experience the world.
So that interests me, although I haven't replicated that at this point.
I think in terms of AI, you can see the value of it, but the schools are actually
challenged as well about how do people use it within the schools.
And so I think the kids know and they can use it and they're again, much faster
at adapting to that, whereas it might take me someone to teach me and to show me how
it works or someone at work, they just immediately pick it up.
But I'm not sure they're able to leverage that yet either, because the schools are
still going through such a challenge.
Okay, let's go to the next question.
Have a little forage around in the lovely chatterbox.
What's the one thing that others worry about that you don't or vice versa?
In a work sense, I'm not really a big worrier.
So are you able to compartmentalize quite easy work and home life?
Can you switch off very easily when you get home?
No, they're all integrated for me.
I like when I'm gardening with my tools on the weekend, I'm often thinking bigger
picture about something at work in a very relaxed way.
Oh, so that's your thinking time?
So whilst I'm physically ripping into the garden, it is where I do my sort of best
higher order thinking without deliberately thinking about things.
And I guess that wouldn't be particularly stressful either, because you're out in the
garden and in with nature.
Yes, it's really, it's actually really important.
It's a part of how I manage stress and not become too micro focused on a problem
that you can't see the wood for the trees, not to use the pun that I am out with
the trees, but it is a really good way of thinking about things at multiple levels
without getting too, too obsessed.
I can see how it gives you the opportunity to both reset and solve a few
problems at the same time.
Okay, Vicky, let's pick out another question.
Do you listen to podcasts very much?
And if so, what do you listen to and what speed do you listen to them on?
I don't listen to podcasts very much.
And the reason I think for that is I have always been a avid reader since I was a
And so I still prefer to read as a format rather than listen.
So do you read mainly fiction or nonfiction?
And I have hundreds and hundreds of books in my house, along with Chigsaws, which is
my other calming habit.
I like quite surreal books and people who are quite creative.
So Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer who I love, but I also like just good
So I can read anything from Japanese writers to vampire books, to love stories,
to everything that is well written.
I do like a good literature book.
Vicky, on that note, well done.
You have passed with flying colours the chatterbox section.
I now have one more question to ask you.
And that is if, as we like to say, we were the holiday gods and we granted you a year
off unencumbered, you could do anything you liked.
What would you do?
I might be a typical answer, but I would go and live in some of my favourite places,
which are Maui, where you can swim with the turtles right off the beach.
That is like one of the most amazing experiences.
I love living in Amsterdam for two or three months and just immersing myself in all that
is Amsterdam, mostly riding a bike in the freezing cold.
And I do love the South of France, Saint-Tropez and those sort of areas where you can just
soak up the French sun and all that is French culture.
So I would spend three to four months just plonking myself in those regions and literally
planning nothing and just going with whatever the flow is around me.
And reading lots of books.
And reading lots of books.
So do you fancy yourself on a super yacht in the South of France?
I'm not overly a yacht person.
I prefer to be where the town is and the communities are.
I like going into the local bakery and getting the baguette and then you get to know them
and all you go into their local restaurants and then you get to know the owners.
So I don't know that I'm a yacht person.
I'd be more in the town, I think.
And that is our 15 minutes up.
Vicki, thank you so much for sharing the story about your sister and how you got so
much help from Suncorp at the time, which has gone on to shape you as a leader today.
I really like the advice you were given about making a CEO role your own.
There is more than one way to be a CEO.
I really like the importance you place on physical exercise.
I think that it's a great lesson.
And I think lastly, I really appreciate your need for silence after you have spent so
much of your day talking to other people.
You don't even listen to podcasts, although secretly I do hope that at least you will
listen to this podcast.
So Vicki, on that note, thank you so much for allowing us to spend 15 minutes with the
Thank you, Sally.
It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
Thank you for having me.
And thank you to everyone for listening.
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This podcast was hosted by me, Sally Patton, and produced and edited by Lapfan.
Video and audio assistance and our music theme is by Alex Gao and our executive producer
The Australian Financial Review.