The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia has appointed Sarah O'Brien as chief practice officer, the industry body announced on 2 September 2026. O'Brien joins the peak body for the Australian superannuation sector from Rest, where she is head of regulatory policy.
The appointment takes effect on 21 September 2026. The association did not disclose a formal reporting line in its announcement, although chief executive Mary Delahunty spoke to the hire. In the role, O'Brien will lead the ASFA InPractice initiative and take over executive leadership of the Superannuation Cyber and Financial Crime Coordination Framework.
Among her early priorities, O'Brien will lead work on third party vendor mapping under prudential standard CPS 230, which came into effect on 1 July 2026. The appointment follows warnings from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that shared dependencies across the sector can turn isolated incidents into sector wide disruptions. O'Brien will also oversee the initiative's community of practice on the responsible adoption and oversight of artificial intelligence in superannuation.
O'Brien has more than two decades of experience in superannuation regulation and implementation. She has spent more than seven years at Rest, where in addition to her current role as head of regulatory policy she has served as general manager of regulatory and technical services and as head of regulatory affairs. Earlier in her career she held senior roles at Commonwealth Bank and Colonial First State. She has been a member of the national policy committee at Women in Super since November 2019.
ASFA InPractice was expanded in May 2026 to help funds, administrators and other service providers manage regulatory change from the policymaking stage through to practical implementation. From this financial year, all member funds receive the initiative's services as part of their ASFA membership. The association said the new appointment was intended to strengthen its policy implementation work.
Delahunty said the appointment was crucial to turning system change into practical reality for funds. She said system change does not finish when the headlines about new superannuation legislation are published, and that the most complex and costly work begins at that point, as funds work out how new regulations and guidance translate into day to day business. Delahunty added that it was important for ASFA to guide that work as the peak body for the sector, and that the person providing the guidance should have hands on experience inside superannuation. She said few people understand both regulatory intent and the reality of implementing change inside a fund as well as O'Brien does, and that O'Brien knows where greater coordination can take unnecessary complexity and cost out of the system.
O'Brien said the focus on how funds operate was intensifying, making implementation a priority for every superannuation fund. She said she had participated across ASFA's fund community and working groups for many years, describing ASFA InPractice as a non competitive community of practitioners drawn from funds, administrators and service providers, and said she was pleased to be leading that work as part of the ASFA team. She added that when the sector gets implementation right across the board, the members of every fund benefit, and that she looked forward to working with ASFA funds to deliver for the millions of Australians they represent.
ASFA is the peak policy and industry body for Australia's superannuation sector. The association did not name a predecessor in the role and did not disclose the terms of the appointment.
