APRA exec promoted to politburo 01 July 2013 4:49PM Ian Rogers The government has for the first time picked an existing employee of APRA to become one of its three governing "members".Helen Rowell will start a term of five years from today. She is the first woman to serve on the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's executive group. She replaces Ross Jones, the current deputy chair.Rowell is currently the executive general manager of the supervisory support division at APRA. She joined APRA in 2002 as general manager of industry technical services. She was general manager of the diversified institutions division from October 2006 to March 2010.Before joining APRA, Rowell was a partner at Towers Perrin and is a former president of the Actuaries Institute of Australia.In April, the government announced that Wayne Byres will replace John Laker as APRA's head from July 2014.