Episode Details

In this episode we hear from Geoff Lloyd, CEO and MD of Perpetual Limited.

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ABOUT GEOFF

Geoff joined Perpetual in August 2010 as Group Executive of Perpetual Private and led the development and implementation of the growth strategy for this business. He took on the additional responsibility of Head of Retail Distribution in September 2011 and was appointed Managing Director and CEO in February 2012.

Geoff was previously General Manager of Advice and Private Banking at BT Financial Group following the Westpac Group merger with St.George Bank. Before the merger, he led St.George's wealth management portfolio. He held many senior positions at BT Financial Group, including Chief Legal Counsel and Head of the Customer and Business Services Division.

Geoff is the Chairman of the Financial Services Council, an Advisory board member of The Big Issue and the Patron of the Financial Industry Community Aid Program. He is a Patron of Emerge Foundation and is also Chairman of the University of Technology Sydney Law Advisory board.

Key Questions and Answers from Geoff (curated for clarification and brevity):

What did you learn from the police force?

In the police force, I got to learn a lot about people and what I still take with me is that you don't judge too quickly. Take the time to step back and see what else might be going on, what's driving an outcome, because what you see is normally just the surface of a thing. When it involves people in complex environments, there's always emotion. So that's something I've tried to take with me where I don't judge too quickly, stand back, ask questions and observe.

What did you learn from your first move interstate to Sydney with ASIC?

It was the first time I learned about stretching myself out of what you might call a comfort zone, and how it can lead to just so many unforeseen, unplanned, unexpected outcomes. And so for me, that was probably the first time I've learned that as you actually stretch yourself and take real risk, it is not just a little bit that comes from that. It is quite amazing and you really don't know what you can achieve until you've tried.

What drives you internally? You're this,very aspirational man, you want to grow again and take your game to another level. What drives that?

I've learned for a long time that there's always evidence of how you can keep getting better and you just don't know what you can achieve. And so having that mindset, of being curious…if you aren't finding evidence and keep getting better, then you're going to plateau. And so for me it's about that looking forward, being curious. If I don't have a 110 percent passion and energy for something, it becomes 50 percent and so I need to be operating at that level to truly find rewarding outcomes, whether it's philanthropic, social, business or family.

Do you have in moments when you doubt your abilities? What do you in do in those moments to keep going?

Yeah, I do. You know, if you don't, if you can't look in the mirror and get a bit paranoid, then you're probably not able to really find evidence of how to keep getting better. I've tried to find different times in my career where I've hit inflection points and probably the most successful times the more paranoid I get.

You've got to have enough confidence to know you're going to be able to follow on to what the next challenge is… I get energy from others. So, getting access to and making sure I've got the right network, that's really important. But equally I've always had this philosophy that you've got to hire the best people you can listen to them, trust them, invest in them and then make sure you're having some fun along the way, you know, because it's, it's a very serious game that we play.

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