ASIC's Longo wants boards to question management, boost tech expertise
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The news: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chair Joe Longo wants to see more tech expertise on corporate boards and for board members to question management more vigorously.
In a speech to the Institute of Company Directors today, Longo will also announce the first meeting of ASIC's Regulatory Simplification Group, which Longo announced in November.
The 10-member group, which Longo co-chairs alongside Nicola Wakefield-Evans, includes Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh and Naomi Edwards, chair of the Australian Institute of company directors. ASIC is expected to publish a discussion paper based on the group's work in the third quarter of 2025.
The context: In his speech, Longo will say that last year, around 70% of board members had a legal, finance or general management background, but just 7% had a technology background.
As cyber risks, technological regulation and disruption gathers pace, Longo will say boards need to have a more diverse mix of expertise: "There isn't a single material issue currently facing business – and our institutions more generally — that doesn’t require data, systems, technology."
He is also expected to say board members must support, but also question, management in the wake of recent "well-publicised issues".
"Some of these issues, and many that ASIC deals with, start with poor personal behaviour before turning into more serious corporate misconduct," Longo will say, in the wake of serious allegations against WiseTech founder Richard White and the regulator's ongoing lawsuit against former and current Star Entertainment Group executives and board members.
"Now, not all poor personal behaviour leads to governance issues, but governance issues allow poor personal behaviour to thrive."
ASIC has confirmed it is conducting preliminary inquiries into WiseTech.
"Case law tells us that where a director — non-executive or otherwise — is aware of information that has awakened suspicion in them, they must make appropriate inquiries — and cannot rely on the judgment of management," Longo will say.
The source: ASIC
