Trevor Rowe is chairman of the BrisConnections consortium who are preparing to build Airport Link but he is also chair of the Queensland Investment Corporation, a state-owned funds manager the manages the superannuation funds of Queensland Public Servants. The Queensland Investment Corporation have bought into Airport Link and have already lost a lot of money as a result. Perhaps if you're a public servant in Queensland you should be concerned about whether your money is really going into good investments. Read an article about this topic from the Courier Mail below:

Tony Grant-Taylor and James McCullough

August 09, 2008 12:00am

Courier Mail

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,20797,24148775-3122,00.html?from=public_rss

TREVOR Rowe sailed into Queensland in the 1990s on his $15 million 33m yacht Lady Janine, and was soon a major force in the local business community.

But his latest chairmanship, of toll road builder BrisConnections - whose stock exchange float sprang a nasty leak when the group's units debuted on the Australian Securities Exchange last week - has sparked questions about conflicts of interest.

It also puts a spotlight on the close links between Queensland's business elite and Rowe, whose mates range from former prime minister John Howard through to former premier Peter Beattie.

Rowe also chairs the state-owned Queensland Investment Corp, the huge funds manager which looks after the superannuation of Queensland public servants.

The QIC pumped $25 million into the BrisConnections float at $1 a unit - and has bought more units since. It also is committed, like other investors, to buying two more installments, of $1 each, over the next 18 months, to take its investment to more than $75 million.

Rowe says he sees no conflict and that any potential conflicts have been covered by proper procedure.

At the heart of the matter is whether he raised the potential conflict of interest with the QIC board, something he says he did in plenty of time. Fellow board members this week refused to comment.

Some observers question if there is still a conflict of interest, particularly as QIC continued to buy BrisConnections stock as the share price slid.

Rowe this week rejected any implication that the process which led to QIC's decision to invest in BrisConnections did not meet the highest probity standards.

He says he did not take the decision for QIC to invest in BrisConnections, nor was he involved in any way. It was a decision of "the QIC investment team, which comprises members of QIC's senior management". Rowe was backed by Treasurer Andrew Fraser's office yesterday, with a spokesman saying, "the QIC board itself is not involved with decisions relating to acquisitions of investments of this type", and pointing out that the QIC had a statute-backed policy for the declaration of potentially conflicting interests.

Rowe says: "The decision to invest in BrisConnections was taken in December 2007, approximately six months before I was appointed BrisConnections chairman on May 23, 2008."

And he says that "upon being approached by the project sponsors to take on the role of chairman, which from my recollection occurred in the month prior to my actual appointment, myself and fellow QIC director John Allpass took all appropriate and necessary steps to ensure the strictest probity measures were upheld.

Rowe has been in the lucrative business of investment banking for more than 25years. He has owned seven luxury boats since the mid-1980s, and recently upgraded to the 27.5m world cruiser Mabuhay Lima, which he bases at the Gold Coast.

The son of a Perth bricklayer and now the Chancellor of Bond University, he didn't study for a university degree.

Instead, he became an accountant by training at Peat Marwick (now KPMG), then moved into broking and was recruited in 1983 by Salomon Bros, later Salomon Smith Barney and now part of giant Citigroup.

Rowe later spent time at Salomons in New York, and then many years in Asia - advising governments, local companies and international agencies. He came back to Australia, as local chairman, in 1998.

During his time at Salomons/Citigroup - he moved in 2005 to competitor Rothschild Australia where he remains chairman - it became a major local player.

A prime part of investment banking, together with the skills of the dealer and trade, is broad connections - and Rowe forged very useful contacts. Former Liberal prime minister John Howard is a long-time Rowe mate. And Howard turned to Rowe, informally and sometimes as a formal adviser, on the sales of Telstra, Commonwealth Bank and Sydney Airport.

Not that he was unwelcome on the other side of politics, as is evidenced by his appointment by Queensland's Labor government in 2001 to replace Jim Kennedy as QIC chairman. And Rothschild won the much-sought-after mandate to advise the Beattie government on the sale of Queensland's retail electricity assets.

Rowe also chairs several QIC associates, with his present QIC term set to run to September 30 next year.

He also chairs engineer and infrastructure builder United Group, and now BrisConnections; retains his ASX seat; and is chairman of the Enhance Group and Careers Australia, the local company at the centre of the Scott Flavell CMC investigation. As well, he is one of the "Board of Guardians" who oversee the Federal Government's massive Future Fund.

In 2004, Rowe was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) "for service to the investment banking sector and as a contributor to the formulation of public policy, to higher education and to the community".

Investment bankers are well paid. What Rowe makes at Rothschild isn't known. But he makes decent pocket money from his public company directorships. His base fee at BrisConnections is $210,000 a year plus $10,000 for chairing remuneration and nomination committees.

His 2006-07 fees from QIC were $146,000 and in the same year, United Group paid him $283,620, while the ASX chipped in $144,970. Meanwhile, the seven-person Future Fund board of governors shared $640,000 in fees in 2006-07.