Rachael McDonald- CEO at Trust Investments Management Limited

Rachael McDonald is the CEO of Trust Investments Management Limited.

She also sits on the board of Life Education Trust NZ, plays hockey and tennis, has ten year old triplets and is poised to lean into Empower Women.

How did your career begin?

I went into law because I saw it as a good all-round degree. I then took an internship at Chapman Tripp which turned into a fantastic job in the banking and finance team. I really enjoyed the first four years of my career there.

My then boyfriend, now husband, and I were keen to head overseas. I can’t remember why but for some reason we weren’t keen on London so chose the Cayman Islands.  I started out there as a corporate lawyer. It was quite the experience and a very different working environment because at that time lawyers were paid on commission. Then a hurricane came through, category 5, life became a little too dangerous, and so off we went to London.

I got a job at Clifford Chance, just before the global financial crisis. I went into a securitisation team, and it was amazing.  We were working on cutting edge deals that were new and novel to the market in a globally recognised team. It was a very inspiring time, but certainly took a chunk of flesh. We worked all the hours under the sun.

After a few years we had a look around offshore and moved to the British Virgin Islands. Like most Kiwis, we thought we’d give it a year and ended up staying for nearly 15. After five, I was asked to open an office for an offshore law and corporate services firm called Mourant Ozannes. There were 50 equity partners, approximately 600 staff with 6 international offices.  It provided a lot of different experiences, way beyond your transactional lawyer stuff. It certainly opened my eyes to different ways of doing business in foreign countries.  Mourant is a highly ethical firm that lives by its values and beliefs and as a result ends up with the best possible outcomes. For me, being part of this really reinforced that it’s never wrong to do the right thing.

We came back to New Zealand in the middle of Covid because it represented an opportunity to raise our kids here and to get to know their grandparents and wider family. After practising law for 23 years, Covid also allowed me to reimagine what my career could look like.  I knew I wanted to be more purpose led and social impact focussed. So, when the opportunity came up to be Chief Executive of a purpose led business like Trust Investments Management Limited (Trust Management) supporting charities through investment products and asset and property management, I thought if I can use what I’ve learnt to drive this business forward that sounds pretty cool to me!

So dream job then?

Coming into the business, it wasn’t quite as I expected. After such a long period overseas, it was quite a culture shock. Living and working here is very different to coming back on holidays. Also, coming from a partnership model to a corporate model was a big change for me. So, what I’ve been trying to do is see if I can mould somewhat of a hybrid model into the business, really doubling down on collaborative ways of working, across teams and throughout the whole organisation to drive engagement and enthusiasm to bring better outcomes for both clients, and employees.

The business has flown under the radar for many, many years – most people say, Trust Management who?! It was originally set up to look after Anglican church related assets, but it soon became obvious that the business could serve the wider charitable sector. The business grew quickly on the back of word of mouth and referrals and relationships. As a result, it’s been very successful, and we now serve a range of different community focussed clients.

What we haven’t been good at is telling people about how we support organisations in the for purpose and charitable sector. You can’t sell a secret.  So next year, I’d like to shift the dial. 2025 will be all about us sharing the good news!

Can you tell us about your team?

I work with highly motivated people who are really fun to work with. I also work with a very competent and supportive board of directors which makes a huge difference to a CEO and management team. That’s more than half the job, enjoying the people you work alongside.

Last year we were recognised at INFINZ as a Finalist for the Diversified Fund Manager of the Year award, together with Milford Asset Management. That was a great effort by our investment team headed up by Matthew Goldsack. He and his team have done a great job bringing ethical standards and a very deep environmental, social, and governance focus to our portfolio investment entity (PIE) funds, and our highly experienced property team, headed by Garry Anderson, has really grabbed hold of that. I’m really proud of what we do in this space.

We have just released our first climate report. It’s not a mandatory disclosure, but we’ve taken the view that we’ll do a voluntary report that’s broadly aligned with the standards, our values and how we approach investment.

One of our big challenges now is upping our capability on the digital side and making sure we’re managing our cyber risks around that. AI is here and we are in a knowledge and data business. Like all our competitors we’re looking at how AI can help us in our day jobs but also deliver some insights for the benefit of our clients.

How does SHIFT fit in?

We’ve used SHIFT Compliance a number of times. Firstly, when we needed to provide some support into our risk and compliance function. The regulatory landscape has been increasing and expanding and as a managed investment scheme manager we obviously have some hefty regulatory obligations. Our PIE funds are retail funds, so we have the highest of obligations to fulfil.

SHIFT helped us get organised, review our policies and create some great frameworks. It was fantastic having support to take our compliance function to the next level and set us up for future success.

SHIFT Compliance has also assisted us with climate disclosure reporting and provided support with our client secretariat. We support a couple of our client boards with company secretarial services. It’s not something we specifically do but we can deliver this extra service for  key clients when we support their boards with an integrated property and investments and finance function. SHIFT has brought a level of legal and corporate secretariat experience to the business that  has been very helpful.

What is it that you like most about the SHIFT model?

I think some of the most underutilised and underappreciated talent out there is among those who can’t necessarily work full time for various reasons. And there’s so much talent and creativity lost from your work force because businesses for whatever reason might not be open to looking at different types of working arrangements or contract models.

Having had children and then 10 months off when they were babies, I really appreciated the flexibility that my firm gave me, as well as the support coming back to work – asking me what would work for me. It not only garnered my loyalty but also my engagement and enthusiasm for my role. It’s such a no-brainer. Innovation and being open to different ways of working is good for everybody.

What advice do you have for those looking to embark on a similar career path?

Don’t pigeonhole yourself, and definitely surround yourself with fun and supportive people. Always be open to learning and get involved in lots of different things.

Read a lot or listen to podcasts if that’s your thing. Think broadly and widely. Learn about people and be curious and never stop.

Never think you know everything. The trick is to always work with people that know way more than you.

Someone said to me to be a good CEO you need a good mentor, a good coach and a psychologist. That’s probably about right.

What does 2025 hold for you?

I’ve had a couple of years of head down understanding how business and corporates work in Aotearoa New Zealand, and now I feel like the time has come to really get in behind supporting women in leadership. Because it’s a hard old slog.  It’s not easy for anyone.

I’m very keen to help Prue and Tracey with the Empower Women network. Tracey and Prue’s energy, optimism and focus is very inspiring.  They are real role models for many of us, and I’d like to help get more of us on board – men and women.

I feel very privileged to be in the position that I am in. Part of wanting to get stuck in with Empower Women is to give a little bit back. I’m 47 and I’m not going to be around forever and I have two daughters. We have some amazing people coming through, how do we lift them up and keep them going?

I think confidence for women is a really big thing. It’s not even imposter syndrome, it’s purely confidence. We’re not good at blowing our own trumpets, but we should be. We should be very proud of what we manage to do day in and day out because we’re awesome!