Amara Haqqani

Joining IFM in September 2024 as our first Chief of Staff, Amara shares her experience and achievements so far and what she’s most looking forward to in the near future.

Firstly, when asked to share more about her role, Amara answered:  

“I get asked all the time what The Chief of Staff role is. As it originated in the context of the military or government, it’s still a relatively new function within corporate or not-for profit organisations, and so the mystery surrounding the role is understandable, and it’s not helped by the fact that Chief of Staff roles are defined differently and depend on several factors, such as maturity of the organisation and even the location.

“At IFM, my role supports the CEO in leading the executive management of IFM - its vision, strategy and execution. Explained another way, my role is to help everyone else do their roles and run their parts of the business, as and when required. I also lead our Executive Office, which supports delivery of the CEO strategic agenda, the ELT and committee secretariat work, and key enterprise-wide initiatives.

Speaking of her professional background, Amara has great experience in the financial sector and equally has had some fascinating experiences in other sectors too.

“I’ve had a broad career in the superannuation space, as well as in funds management and financial technology, other sub-sectors of financial services, and lots of different role types. The past seven years professionally were in executive roles, either as a Chief Operating Officer, Chief Client Strategy and Chief Product Officer, and for a brief stint, as Acting CEO of Australia’s main financial advice software Xplan, but most of the depth of my experience is in product and strategy. I therefore consider myself an executive with both specialist and generalist experience, which certainly helps when supporting a CEO and other executive leaders.

“More generally though, there are some big highlights that I’m particularly proud of outside of the financial services sector which include co-writing a piece of legislation that passed parliament in 2022 called the ‘Retirement Income Covenant’ which spelled out more clearly that super funds needed to have an explicit strategy for looking after members’ retirement, in addition to the other obligations they have toward their members. At the other end of the spectrum, I started life as a makeup artist (it’s still a side hustle nowadays), and I once did Naomi Campbell’s makeup as part of being on Estee Lauder’s national makeup team, but that’s a longer story for another day!”

In the six months Amara has been with us, she says she has packed a lot in.

“In the time I’ve been here, it’s included governance elements such as reviewing and analysing our decision-making frameworks and recommending ways we can make this clearer and simpler, as well as helping ensure we’re having early strategic conversations about business planning for FY26 and working with the Internal Communications team on strategy planning. It’s been busy, to say the least – but as a team we did make time to celebrate me passing my probation with the traditional Australian lamingtons!

When asked what makes our company stand out to Amara, she made some positive observations on the emphasis of everyone working together to achieve a common goal, which aligns perfectly to our purpose.   

“Honestly, I’ve worked at a range of fund managers – some very big, some very small and everything in between. So much about IFM makes me proud. It operates as a really strong global fund manager with a fantastic team who always go above and beyond and do amazing work to drive our purpose and aspiration. That might sound cliché, but I have seen plenty of instances where the opposite is true. We have fantastic foundations and a strong culture, and we are constantly striving to make IFM an even better place to work. We value everyone and work to achieve together.”

Outside of work, Amara loves to spend most of her time with her family and friends. This includes cooking, baking and cake decorating, creating and parenting, as well as studying and reading. When asked how she manages to balance it all, she spoke highly of our CEO, David Neal, and how he helps facilitate this.

“IFM’s family-friendly and flexible approach to work is honestly something that I don’t feel is celebrated enough, which is led by Dave himself. It’s something my husband and seven-year-old son are very thankful for. In another way, IFM has brought me home to Melbourne after 15 years, and learning who I am in this place after that time has been a little challenging, but mostly, a pleasant re-discovery of a city and its people, for which I am personally really grateful for.”