Mr O’Farrell brings two decades of experience as a director and 25 years as a senior superannuation industry executive. He is the Chair of Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) and Clubs Queensland and sits on the Board of the Queensland Rugby League, Stadiums Queensland and the Brisbane Broncos Leagues Club.

As a senior superannuation executive, Mr O’Farrell served as General Manager of Mercy Super and was the Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer for InTrust Super from 2005 to 2021 and City Super from 2003 to 2005.

Brighter Super Chairman John Smith said he was delighted Mr O’Farrell would be joining the Board as an independent director.

“Brendan brings exceptional experience as both a seasoned director and respected superannuation executive, with a strong track record of guiding organisations to deliver meaningful outcomes for their communities.

“His extensive governance expertise – including leadership roles across Economic Development Queensland, Clubs Queensland and the Queensland Rugby League – will further strengthen our Board’s capability as we continue to grow and deliver long-term value for our members. We look forward to benefiting from Brendan’s deep industry insight and commitment to serving Queenslanders.”

Mr O’Farrell becomes the fourth new member this year of the Brighter Super Board following the appointment of Cameron O’Neil in March, Rebecca Girard in April and Corinne Butler in July.

Capping a year of significant renewal, Ron Dewhurst will become Brighter Super Chairman from 1 December 2025 after the retirement of Mr Smith after 12 years on the Board.

Mr Smith, who was appointed to the LGIAsuper Board in 2013 and became Chair in 2016, oversaw the mergers which created a $36 billion superannuation fund with more than 348,000 members. Brighter Super has since delivered consistent strong performance, cut administration fees and emerged as Queensland’s fourth-largest non-government financial institution*.

Mr Smith also thanked Teresa Dyson who will leave the business on 31 December 2025 after acting as a specialist adviser to the Board from 9 July 2025. Ms Dyson assumed the role after stepping down as a director on 8 July 2025 after a combined eight years of dedicated service to Brighter Super and Energy Super.

Kate Farrar Brighter Super Chief Executive Officer welcomed Mr O’Farrell to the Board, congratulated Mr Dewhurst on his forthcoming appointment as Chairman and thanked Ms Dyson for her contribution to the fund.

Ms Farrar said the Board changes would position Brighter Super to embrace future growth and thanked Mr Smith for his 12 years on the Board and nine years as Chair.

“John will leave a strong legacy of resilience, growth and unwavering focus on helping our members live confidently through every stage of life,’’ Ms Farrar said.

“John’s extraordinary leadership and steady hand have been vital as we navigated the merging of three funds over recent years ultimately growing Brighter Super to become one of Australia’s leading member-owned funds.’’

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^*Based on assets under management of non-government financial institutions in Queensland.

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Ms Farrar is an award-winning business leader who has led LGIAsuper for three years. Prior to that, she was the Chief Operating Officer of Ergon Energy Retail, the CEO of QEnergy and a senior implementation leader for McKinsey.

The merger of LGIAsuper and Energy Super will see the funds continue to operate under their existing brands as they form the third-largest profit for-members fund in the state. The organisation will manage more than $20 billion in retirement savings for around 120,000 members.

LGIAsuper chair John Smith said Ms Farrar’s track-record in superannuation, organisational transformation and energy made her the ideal candidate to lead both funds through the merger and integration.

“Kate is an exceptional businessperson whose record of achievement at LGIAsuper is outstanding. In three years, Kate has improved member outcomes and satisfaction, lowered the fund’s cost of providing administration services by 30%, and grown the fund by $2 billion,” Mr Smith said.

“Her history of working in the energy sector also ensures that she understands not only LGIAsuper’s members, but also the industries in which many of Energy Super’s 48,000 members work.  As well as being a current member of LGIAsuper, Kate was herself an Energy Super member during her years in the sector.

“Both boards are confident that Kate will lead our combined organisation to be a strong, boutique, Queensland-centric superannuation fund that will generate better outcomes for members.”

Energy Super chair Richard Flanagan congratulated Ms Farrar and paid tribute to current Energy Super CEO Robyn Petrou, who has led the fund for more than 12 years.

“Robyn has done an outstanding job leading Energy Super during more than a decade of unparalleled industry and regulatory change and delivered great outcomes for our members,” Mr Flanagan said.

“Her contribution to the fund will continue through the planned transition period, and both she and Kate are committed to working together to ensure this merger is a success for our people and our members.

“With Kate leading the next stage of our growth, we will see a continued focus on operational excellence, personal service and an ongoing commitment to improving the lives of our members in retirement.”

Ms Farrar said her new role represented an exceptional opportunity to ‘build a sustainable boutique super fund focused on what our members want, and based on the unique strengths of LGIAsuper and EnergySuper’, and that she looked forward to meeting with members across the state.

“Both funds have similar and complementary strengths and pride ourselves on being Queensland-centric and delivering personalised service to members in their communities and workplaces,” Ms Farrar said.

“Over the coming months, I will be meeting with Energy Super and LGIAsuper members to understand how our combined fund can best deliver for them and help them achieve their retirement goals.”

Work is well underway on the implementation of the merger, with a focus on establishing a joint organisation and single MySuper product to take effect on 1 July 2021.

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John Smith

Two of Queensland’s leading profit-for-member superannuation funds have signed an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enter into merger discussions.

Energy Super and LGIAsuper will commence due diligence to explore the benefits for their combined 123,000 members of joining forces to form a $20billion, Queensland superannuation fund.

The MoU agreement follows a period of high-level discussions and an assessment of both businesses.

The two funds are now commencing a detailed process of due diligence to further explore the synergies and benefits to members identified in the preliminary analysis.

LGIAsuper Chair John Smith said both funds shared a decades-long history of serving Queenslanders, strong investment track record, members-first philosophy, open fund status, and a focus on personalised service.

“LGIAsuper’s strategy over the past three years has been to look for opportunities to achieve the size and scale to continue to deliver excellent financial outcomes and outstanding service for our 75,000 members long into the future,” Mr Smith said.

“While the process with Energy Super is in the early stages, the areas of alignment are encouraging and warrant further exploration to see if we could better deliver for all members as a combined fund.”

Energy Super Chair Richard Flanagan said: “Energy Super is proud of its success in developing leading products and services for our members over many years. The opportunity to grow through a merger like this could help us create even better member outcomes through enhanced services and broader investment opportunities, while continuing to ensure competitive fees.”

Detailed work on the due diligence over the coming months will seek to confirm whether it is in the interests of both funds’ members to merge.

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