RAISING THE BAR

Since becoming chief executive, Blake Briggs has renewed the Financial Services Council’s influence, expanded the membership base, and strengthened its policy and advocacy credentials. Karren Vergara writes.

- Karren Vergara

Blake Briggs’ career has been defined by periods of change.

At the beginning of his professional life, equipped with a degree in industrial relations, Briggs moved to Canberra and worked on the development of the Fair Work framework, not as a political staffer, but a public servant involved in the legislative process.

This was around 2009, when the Labor government overhauled the nation’s workplace relations system.

Briggs was part of the committee of industrial legislation process, which was much like a formal consultation of all peak bodies as the government completely revamped industrial legislation.

“I always encourage people interested in politics or commerce to study industrial relations because it explains a lot about the underpinning of Australia’s political and economic systems, regardless of political leaning,” he says.

Those types of opportunities littered Briggs’ career, helping him turn what seemed to be disruptions at the time into opportunities.

“When you find yourself in a period of significant change, you learn a lot more and a lot quicker compared to working in an organisation where everything is running smoothly,” he says.

During that time, he also started his Juris Doctor. That took about seven or eight years to complete, partly because Briggs moved from Canberra back to Sydney and transferred universities.

He moved on to join not-for-profit Business NSW before becoming the superannuation and financial services policy manager at the Financial Services Council (FSC) for more than six years, working alongside now-senator Andrew Bragg.

Briggs found himself in another formative period as superannuation policy became increasingly central to national political debates.