01 / WELCOME
Hi there, I'm Adam Wand.
Welcome to my personal website.
Here, I've kept it very simple. You can learn a bit more about who I am and my journey so far, and how my professional life has been built around the central fact that getting and giving good advice is always worth the investment and nothing beats great hospitality.
This platform also provides a way to communicate with me if you have something you want to discuss and you don't already have my contact details. I'm always open to hearing new perspectives and exploring new opportunities to collaborate., so please do reach out.
Cheers
Adam
02 / MY JOURNEY
I was born in suburban Sydney, Australia and am a proud alumni of Hurlstone Agricultural High School, a state selective school. I went on to be awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Government & Public Administration and a Bachelor of Law (Honors) from The University of Sydney, then a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice before starting my legal advisory career serving in the New South Wales public service with a focus on criminal law reform at the NSW Attorney General's Department.
SYDNEY
I then went into private practice, a shift I managed to turn into my first international assignment, relocating to the simply extraordinary city of Tokyo, Japan, where I was an international lawyer at the storied Japanese law firm Anderson Mori Tomotune. The firm was established in 1952 to coincide with the end of Japan's postwar occupation and with a focus on advising international businesses navigating Japanese law (which is essentially still a core part of their mission today).
TOKYO
LONDON
After Northeast Asia it was off to Britain and time to rejoin the academy, mostly. A year at the London School of Economics (LSE) stretched my academic skills to their extreme as I benefited not only from LSE being simply amazing but also from the influx of excellence from the US as many progressive graduate fled the Bush-era (how quaint nowadays!). My Masters in International Relations was all the better for it.
I said 'mostly' above as during my time in London I had the triple privilege of working in the legal field for Freshfields (spending whole weekends doing what AI now does in seconds), launching and co-chairing the Australian Labor Party Abroad organisation (the international wing of the ALP) and working for UK Prime Minister Blair's re-election campaign focused on youth and faith communities policies as part of the The Big Conversation.
The progressivism of LSE was valuable in and of itself but to preserve the balance it was time for a dose of the traditional, and how better than to read for your Law Masters at The University of Oxford. Black gowns, steeped in centuries of history and tutored by the best in the business, my time in college at St Edmund Hall was simply amazing. After a quick sidebar to get married in Berlin (yep that's right), Down Under was calling.
OXFORD
With the retirement of Premier Bob Carr and the formation of the Iemma New South Wales (NSW) Labor Government, I returned to my home jurisdiction and took up my first full-time political advisory role as Chief of Staff to the NSW Minister for Housing and the state’s first ever Minister for Mental Health - big complimentary social portfolios that had never been previously paired, entailing a combined budget of A$1.6 billion (2006-07) and 1,800 staff and one of the largest singularly administered housing portfolios in the world. It was immediately impactful and personally deeply rewarding work. Leading the political office of a very colorful Minister with distinct abilities to attract critical attention certainly honed my crisis management an, Parliamentary strategy and tactics skills. I’m particularly proud of the office I built and retained - great people, smart policy thinkers, deeply dedicated, extraordinary under pressure. Following the 2007 NSW election I then drove economic policy and regulatory reform for the Minister for Ports, Waterways & Regulatory Reform.
These roles allowed me to hone my policy advisory framework - how to distil complex multi-streamed information and data, often divergent in content or proposed reform pathways, into clear, action-oriented and strategic advice.
Key reform outcomes include:
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the most comprehensive reforms to public housing in 50 years via the Reshaping Public Housing reform package,
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the first ever social housing Public-Private Partnership in Australia, valued at +A$700 million,
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a new A$120 million Affordable Housing policy,
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a A$1 billion New Directions in Mental Health for NSW package, the first state to lead with a comprehensive mental health reform funding plan and
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achieving the long sought after approvals for a major expansion of Port Botany to prepare one of Australia’s busiest container ports for critical future growth.
SYDNEY
CANBERRA
The milestone election of the Rudd Labor Government in 2007, a return to Federal Government for Labor after 13-years in Opposition, saw the main policy game shift to the national capital. I made the move to Canberra and took up the role of Chief of Staff to the Minister for Superannuation & Corporate Law, a portfolio that oversaw the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), among other key Australian financial services regulators. This was always going to be a step change in intensity but when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) broke over late 2007 and into 2008, the orders of magnitude scale of that step up became apparent. This period certainly leveraged my crisis and team management skills to their utmost but the management of Australia’s policy response, the product of a small inner group of economics-focused Ministers, advisors and public servants, speaks volumes. The Minister and I undertook frequent international outreach during this time, including via the annual Asian Development Bank meetings, the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings and the Pacific Islands Forum Finance Ministers Meeting, among other fora.
I later held the same role with the Federal Assistant Treasurer, a portfolio predominated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), a far more technical and deeply specialized portfolio that saw my team and I immersed in tax law but also displaying what I see as a skill that is far too rare - the humility to know what you don’t know and to surround yourself with good people who do. Here I was always inspired by the Minister, the Hon Senator Nick Sherry and enabled by my extraordinary and irreplaceable partner in policy reform, my Deputy Peter Downes. It was a privilege to work with and learn from him (rest in peace Pete, I hope you’re playing footy somewhere mate).
Given the truly high stakes in these national roles, the office I led placed a premium on leveraging the deep quality of the advice we commissioned or received from the Australian Treasury and also ensuring a real-time engagement approach was in place for our large, diverse and sophisticated stakeholder set.
Key reform outcomes include:
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Passage of a comprehensive Council of Australian Government's agreement and National Consumer Credit Protection legislative package to enact single, national regulation of all financial services, including a credit licensing regime and responsible lending protections
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Establishment of the “Cooper Review into the Governance, Structure, Efficiency and Operation of Australia's Superannuation System”, the first comprehensive review into Australia's A$1.5 trillion superannuation system
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Passage of the Financial Services Modernization Bill 2009, enacting federal laws to regulate margin lending, debentures and trustee corporations
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Passage of the national regulation of credit rating agencies, a world-first outside the US
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Passage of world-leading short selling laws, endorsed by the international body of securities regulators
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Development of Australia's corporate social responsibility agenda including support for a world-first Responsible Investment Academy, gaining Australian membership of the International Advisory Board to the Global Reporting Initiative and passage of significant reforms to the philanthropic sector
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Devlopment and passage of a range of tax administration reforms,
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including establishing a Tax System Advisory Board to ensure a built-in business voice in national tax affairs, boosting the role of the Board of Taxation and the simplification of personal tax through the development of a $692 million standard work expenses deduction initiative
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Passage of a comprehensive tax reform package to boost Australia as a financial services hub, including a new tax system for Australia’s A$300bn managed investment trust sector
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Passage of a national regime for the regulation of Australia’s tax professionals including replacing inconsistent state-based regimes with the National Tax Practitioners Board
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Passage of new legislation to crackdown on fraudulent phoenix company activity
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Secured Australia’s election as inaugural chair of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information to lead the international fight against tax havens
After a good stint in the public sector I shifted gears and accepted an appointment with the global payments company, Visa.
I led Visa’s government, regulatory and stakeholder affairs investments, starting first in Australasia, then in regional roles throughout the Asia Pacific. Sitting on three sub-regional leadership teams, I ultimately drove government engagement strategies across 35+ countries leading a team of 15+ government relations professionals based in Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Sydney. Whilst heading Public Affairs in Australasia, responsibilities for all corporate relations, media relations, internal communications and corporate social responsibility programs.
Achievements
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Established full-suite Government Relations (GR) functions in Australia and NZ, Southeast Asia and South Asia, all for the first time, ensuring GR strategy across all regions was fully aligned with business priorities, P&L drivers and, where possible, local public policy objectives
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Developed market-level, cross-functional and executive-sponsored strategic GR plans for 15 key markets across Asia-Pacific, all for the first time
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Developed and deployed a comprehensive and bipartisan Political Contributions and Engagement Strategy for key markets
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Named in inaugural Salt & Shein Power50 Report as one of Australia’s most influential corporate affairs leaders
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Specific examples of advocacy success include:
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Developed and successfully executed a comprehensive campaign on the Thai Government’s 2012 Credit Card Business Operations Act, saving Visa US$40 million in revenue
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Partnered with the Lee Kuan Yew School (LKY) of Public Policy in Singapore to establish the LKY/Visa Southeast Asia Regulator Leadership Program
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Achieved government action to impose rules stopping unlimited card transaction surcharging in Australia and create a regulatory level playing field with other card payment schemes
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Managed all regulatory issues associated with Visa’s Myanmar market entry
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AUSTRALIA,
NZ & SOUTHEAST
ASIA
As Visa's Global Head of Public Policy, I established, built and led Visa’s global team focused on the major strategic public policy issues facing the digital payment sector. Built a company-wide culture of shared value between the private and public sector, aligning on key goals that place digital payments at the core of creative public policy. Equipped the company with the thought leadership, policy positions and partnership platforms to shape the future state of digital payment policy around the globe, promoted the expansion of digital payments and financial inclusion and protected critical business and shareholder interests.
Achievements
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Created entirely new function, Global Public Policy – peaking at 22 staff organized into Content/Research & Advisory, Partnerships and Capacity Building teams with an annual budget of US$12m+ and amongst the highest Employee Engagement Scores in company (mid-90s/100) closely supporting our government relations team.
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Established and managed the Visa School of Public Policy, a capacity building, proximity platform to convene and educate regulators, reaching more than 2,500 individuals in 50+ countries
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Established and managed the Visa Policy Strategy Council, a cross-functional senior leadership group guiding Visa’s overall public/regulatory strategy, including enterprise level policy issue prioritization and the establishment of company-wide regulatory intelligence systems
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Oversaw the creation and deployment of numerous major thought leadership and economic research investments, including novel global studies into the national economic impacts of digital payments, the role of cashless and digital cities, the global informal economy, government e-payment adoption best practices and innovation policy
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Created internal global Corporate Diplomacy training platform to build senior management understanding of shared value with public sector and advocacy skills across company
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Regularly presented to Visa Inc. Board and Board Committees on strategic risks and mitigation plans related to public policy/regulatory issues
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Created policy partnerships with Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown and Duke Universities
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Regular global-level media appearances, conference speeches and other high-profile public representations for Visa and digital payments sector
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Executive Sponsor of global Visa Pride ERG groups (2016-2019)
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Member of Visa Environment Social and Governance and Human Rights corporate committees
SAN FRANCISCO / SILICON VALLEY
After a lengthy period in the corporate government engagement space, I decided it was time for a change. It was time to focus on the hospitality and of my passion spectrum. I relocated to the sunshine of Southern California and established Locality LLC, my new holding company, into which I an growing an accommodation and hospitality business. Now being based mostly in Palm Springs, with lengthy stays in Los Angeles, Locality's first major project has been The Twin Palms Art House, a labour of love in the desert of Palm Springs. Developing a range of hands on skills that I never thought within my grasp I've turned this midcentury modern pile into a much sought after short-term vacation rental. Come and check it out!
Depending upon economic conditions, we have more to come.
LOS ANGELES / PALM SPRINGS
