Dear Members,
On behalf of current and past Directors of REI Super and our staff we would like to offer our condolences to the family of Helen Cunningham, who passed away peacefully on 5th February surrounded by her family at Northern Beaches Hospital.
We feel that it is important that we pay our respect to those, like Helen, who have contributed so much to our history yet who have also left wonderful legacies for our current and future members.
Helen was many things – a very strong advocate for women in real estate, a respected member of the real estate industry, a highly successful principal within the LJ Hooker network, in Epping and then Roseville, and a passionate Member-Elected Board Director of REI Super.
Helen joined the REI Super Board as a Member-Elected Director on 14 June 2002. Up until that point the Board had included only one female director since our inception in 1975, a concern at the time given that a majority of our members were female and a view that our Board composition should better reflect our membership. At the time Helen was owner of the LJ Hooker franchise in Epping and was initially reluctant to nominate herself for the vacant Board position. However, fortunately for our members and our fund, Helen did apply and was recommended by the then CEO of LJ Hooker, Grahame Cook. Helen was elected to our Board based on her very strong advocacy for women in real estate, not to mention her decades of experience in running a highly successful real estate agency and many years prior experience as a sales representative for the AMP Society.
Helen was a foundation member of the Death and Disablement Claims Committee (now the Claims Committee) and diligently served on that committee for most of her 12 years as a Director. Helen was extremely passionate about insourcing the claims processing function into the fund, thus ensuring the fund controlled both the process as well as protected the interests of our members and their families at a very vulnerable time in their lives. Helen reviewed the insurance claim files in forensic detail and had a great skill at unpicking the intricacies of our members’ personal situations so the Committee could make the best decisions.
Helen was always a fierce advocate for putting members’ interests first when the Board was making decisions. As many of our members were then, and continue to be, property managers and office staff, Helen always ensured that the membership focus was not just on sales staff, but on all members, when designing products and services.
Unfortunately, health issues led to Helen’s retirement as a Director on 30 September 2014. Past and current Board Directors remember Helen’s diligence in preparing for Board meetings, her strong advocacy for our female members, her frankness in discussions on superannuation and insurance policies and issues, her innate ability to quickly identify where external service providers were not delivering to service standards to the detriment of our members, her collegial support to Beth Stratford who also served on the Board at the same time, her support to Dianne Helmich who replaced Helen as a Member-Elected Director upon Helen’s retirement, and her support to the then Chair, Bill Woolcock.
Helen leaves an amazing legacy for our members at REI Super. Our condolences go to Helen’s family at this very difficult time.
Yours sincerely,
Jarrod Coysh - CEO, REI Super
Claire Higgins - Chair, REI Super