Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart on leadership, purpose and building organisations that thrive

Aware Super is Australia’s third-largest super fund and an institutional leader in the nation’s financial services landscape. With more than $200 billion under management and 1.2 million members, the fund plays a central role in shaping the long-term financial wellbeing of Australians across the country.

Guiding this multibillion-dollar organisation is Deanne Stewart, the CEO of Aware Super. Before joining Aware Super, she built her career through senior roles at MetLife, BT, Westpac, Merrill Lynch, and McKinsey & Co. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to undertake her MBA at Yale University. Her expertise in strategy, member experience, and transformation places her among the industry’s most influential leaders.

At UNSW Business School’s Meet the CEO event, Ms Stewart reflected on the pivotal experiences that shaped her path to lead one of Australia’s most purpose-driven financial institutions. “Any decision is better than no decision," she said. "In the end, you make a choice, and you move forward."

Roots, values and the making of a leader

Ms Stewart began by reflecting on her childhood in Bathurst, describing it as foundational to her leadership today. “I have to say it was idyllic growing up in a country town, and when I reflect on it, it's really shaped who I am,” she said. “There's a saying you can take the girl or the kid out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl. That is so how I feel.”

Having teachers for parents also instilled a strong sense of curiosity and purpose. “Education was a really big part of my value set… I know that that is why I have had such a burning ambition to make a difference in the world, because I saw the difference that they made in their students,” she said.

Her academic interests in human behaviour and economics led her to complete a Bachelor of Commerce at UNSW Sydney, through the UNSW Co-op Program – a scholarship that “made that dream a reality,” she said – and later to the Yale School of Management, where she found the ideal blend of strategy and social impact.

Courage, growth and the sometimes difficult realities of leadership

Ms Stewart was candid about the difficult and unpredictable path to becoming a CEO. “It was not a bed of roses, my lead up to being a CEO by any stretch of the imagination,” she said.

She reflected on the blend of determination, resilience and luck that shaped her career. “We're all human, and I think every person has such potential inside them; it's often how you unlock that, and sometimes it's also luck,” she said. “For me, getting to be CEO was certainly a degree of hard determination. It was hard knocks, and it was a bit of luck.”

Photo gallery: Meet the CEO with Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart

The difficult times were also the ones that shaped the person and leader she is today. “I think it was actually, in some ways, the hard knocks that got me to be able to be far more resilient and take on a role like this… I had moments where I nearly burnt out, and learning how to cope with that when you're taking on bigger and bigger roles, in a weird, perverse way, made me a better person and a better CEO.”

One defining experience occurred at Merrill Lynch. Initially hired into a marketing role, she soon realised she was being recruited for something else. “They essentially were like, 'Ah, it's a McKinsey and Company person. That's a cheap way of getting them to do a strategy,'” she said.

Her analysis led to an unexpected opportunity from her boss. “He literally said, ‘Right, will you go and run this international business unit now?’” she said. 

This came as a big shock. “At that time, I cried. I said, No, I can't do it,” she said. But she then decided to lean into the encouragement she received, which transformed her self-belief. “Deanne, stop thinking so small, think big. You've got it in you,” she had told herself.

But things didn’t always work out. Ms Stewart also described a period in her career when misalignment with an organisation’s values left her depleted. “I was really not aligned with the values, the culture and the leadership of the organisation. And it was really draining and sapping me,” she said.

Subscribe to BusinessThink for the latest research, analysis and insights from UNSW Business School

Now, her leadership is grounded in energy management and authenticity. “There are things that give you energy… and then there are things that sap that energy,” she said, encouraging others to think about what authenticity looks like for them.

“When you meet someone, do they appear authentic? Do they seem like they have strong values and high integrity? I would say the exact same of organisations,” she said. “Are they true to label when they say they'll do something, do they do that?” she said.

She also emphasises the value of humanity in professional settings. “Most people have real highs and lows going on in their life… sometimes, actually just being really human in a meeting can make such a difference,” she said.

Purpose, stewardship and leading for the long term

Ms Stewart’s leadership philosophy is clearly anchored in long-term strategic thinking – something that is essential for a super fund in which some members may not retire until the 2070s. Such a long time horizon shapes the fund’s decisions across climate resilience, cybersecurity, diversity and organisational integrity.

Speaking on climate risk, Ms Stewart said: “We’re not smart enough to work out when pure play thermal coal players are going to be just complete stranded assets, so that is actually a really good risk to protect our members from.”

On cybersecurity, she said: “I suspect there is no such thing as being perfect on cybersecurity. It's not a matter of if something’s going to happen, it's a matter of when,” she said. “We cannot do enough.”

Another point she spoke about passionately was the importance of diversity and fairness: “Why would you go and play with half a deck of cards?” she said. “Two-thirds of our members are women. You absolutely need an organisation that is reflecting the member base that you serve,” she said.

“There’s a 25% gap in the retirement balances of men and women. That is not exactly what you'd call a fair system,” she said.

Finally, on purpose and what it means to lead a super fund with a stewardship mindset, Ms Stewart said: “We’re just stewards of this moment in time. What do we want to be known as?”

And despite decades in executive leadership, she said she remains committed to continual learning. “There’s almost not a day that doesn’t go by where you aren’t learning something,” she said.

Hosted by UNSW Business School, the flagship Meet the CEO series offers insights from extraordinary business and public leaders. Previous guests include UNSW alumni such as Anna Lee, CEO, Flybuys; Alexis George, CEO, AMP Limited; Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO, Glassdoor; Moses Lo, CEO, Xendit; Shemara Wikramanayake, CEO, Macquarie Group; and Matt Comyn, CEO and MD, Commonwealth Bank of Australia.