At AMPEAK 2025, Jason Galloway, Commercial Business Partner at the Illawarra Retirement Trust (IRT), joined AssetFuture’s CEO, Domenic Fonte for a fireside chat on how to communicate the value of asset management to leadership and boards.
Jason shared insights on how IRT moved beyond compliance to adopt best-practice asset management, aligning data-driven strategies with business objectives and using predictive maintenance for future growth. Importantly, Jason – as a finance professional - highlighted the foundational importance of demonstrating return on investment (ROI) and cost savings to the Executive.
Moving Beyond Compliance to Good Practice Asset Management
The journey to good practice asset management begins with recognising that compliance alone is not enough. For IRT, the catalyst for change began with the 2021 amendment to the NSW Retirement Living Act, which introduced compliance requirements. Up until then, asset management was rarely challenged – cash flow delivered positive returns, so there was little need to engage the skillsets required to manage assets.
With the tightening market, property development returns have reduced, and resident needs have increased. These shifts required more meticulous management. Rather than just meeting the regulations, IRT chose to embrace asset management.
Aligning Asset Management with Business Strategy and Goals
IRT faced three key challenges to getting executive and board-level buy-in for asset management:
Competing priorities: Aligning asset management with broader business objectives (financial performance, risk management, and service delivery).
Demonstrating budget optimisations: Overcoming the view that asset management is just about maintenance costs.
Cultural shift: Moving from reactive maintenance to proactive asset optimisation required internal change management.
Data-Driven Insights: Predictive Strategies and Leadership Buy-In
Data is the cornerstone of modern asset management. By adopting predictive maintenance, IRT gained insights that demonstrated cost savings, enhanced efficiency and reduced risks.
Data-driven insights resonated strongly with leadership. By linking asset management to improved resident experiences, compliance, and long-term sustainability, the data showed direct financial and operational benefits.
One clear example was the analysis of reactive versus proactive maintenance spending, which highlighted the financial and operational advantages of shifting toward a predictive maintenance model:
30% reduction in reactive work orders (WO)
5% reduction in follow-up WO to close out task
Leadership buy-in continued to grow as the board saw the connection between data-driven asset management and improved outcomes and reinforced the strategic value of asset management as a long-term business driver.
Embedding Lessons to Drive Strategic Growth and Optimise Asset Management
As IRT grows, they're not only aiming for improved financial outcomes, but also elevating the quality of the assets they build. Over the next five to seven years, the organisation plans to deliver a significant volume of property developments.
By embedding continuous improvement and refining data analytics capabilities, they ensure that the customer experience is front and centre, aligned with the evolving expectations of residents.
"Asset management is still developing in our sector, but there’s huge potential to unlock value through smarter use of data. I’m working to embed that strategic, insight-driven approach across the business." - Jason Galloway, Commercial Business Partner, IR