Buy now, pay later specialist Zip Co on the hunt for new tech chief, with fellow BNPL Openpay losing its Group CEO; CBA appoints new marketing head; and IAG poaches Westpac’s GM of risk.

Australia

– The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has appointed Jo Boundy (pictured) as Chief Marketing Officer, with CBA’s latest senior appointee to step into the role from March.

Praised by CBA as “a marketing and communications stalwart”, Boundy’s more than two decades of global marketing experience include stints at Optus, British Telecom, Google, and Qantas, where she “played a key part in the group’s brand and marketing strategies”.

Boundy will report to Monique Macleod, appointed CBA’s Group Executive Marketing and Corporate Affairs last August.

– Aussie payments and BNPL company Zip Co has created a dedicated Chief Technology Officer role for its Australian arm.

Currently recruiting for its new senior tech, the BNPL provider carved out the role from the existing Chief Product and Technology Officer function, which was vacated last October by Patrick Collins.

Collins served two years with Zip, jumping ship to mobile services marketplace Airtasker last November to serve as its Chief Product Officer.

Zip’s dedicated CTO will sit on both the A/NZ leadership team, serving under its A/NZ Managing Director Cynthia Scott, and the global technology leadership team under the US-based Ahu Chhapgar, appointed last November as the company’s first global CTO.

Travis Tyler will assume the other half of Collins’ previous role, appointed as Zip’s dedicated Chief Product Officer.

Tyler was a founding member and Chief Product & Marketing Officer at neobank 86 400, and has previously held senior leadership roles at Westpac and St George.

He commences his new role with Zip on 17 January, reporting directly to MD Cynthia Scott. In the role, Tyler will oversee end-to-end product strategy across the fintech’s Product, Design and Product Marketing teams in Australia.

– BNPL provider Openpay has appointed Ed Bunting as Interim Group Chief Executive, following the announcement of Managing Director and CEO Michael Eidel’s departure from the organisation.

Eidel, who previously served as head of payments at CBA as well as director on both the Australian Payments Council and New Payments Platform boards, joined Openpay in early 2019 as Chief Executive.

Bunting most recently served as Openpay’s Group Chief Operating Officer (COO), appointed to the position seven months ago, alongside his roles as General Counsel and Company Secretary at the BNPL provider.

–  Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has appointed Peter Taylor as Group Chief Risk Officer.

Taylor replaces former CRO David Watts, who last September announced he would step down from the role. Watts will leave IAG on 11 February this year.

Taylor joins IAG from Westpac, where he currently serves as General Manager, Enterprise Risk, responsible for group-wide aspects of risk management, assurance, and governance.

Serving across both the private and public sectors in risk-focused roles across his 30-year corporate career, Taylor was previously at the Commonwealth Bank as EGM and Chief Operational Risk Officer, and Chief Risk Officer Group Business at Services Australia.

IAG Managing Director and Chief Executive Nick Hawkins said Taylor is “extremely well equipped to take on this hugely important role for IAG”.

Tim Plant, IAG’s Chief Insurance and Strategy Officer, will step in as Acting Group CRO until Taylor commences in the role, which is expected in mid-2022.

–  The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has appointed IAG Managing Director and Chief Executive Nick Hawkins as President, commencing his presidency on 1 January 2022.

He replaces QBE Australia Pacific CEO Sue Houghton in the role. Houghton will, however, remain on the ICA’s board.

The ICA is primarily tasked with setting out the general insurance industry’s voluntary Code of Practice.

Houghton said the industry has grappled with “many significant issues” over the last two years, including the implementation of the Hayne Royal Commission reforms, a hardening global insurance market, and the business interruption test case process.

“I’m proud of the way in which the industry, both individually and collectively through the ICA, has responded to these challenges, which has always been constructive and collaborative,” she said.

–  Corporate regulator ASIC has announced the appointment of three senior executives to its Operations group:

• Zak Hammer will serve as Executive Director, Operations (commencing January 2022);
• Peter Dunlop as Chief Financial Officer; and
• Nicole Collins as Chief People Officer.

The new executives will report to ASIC’s Chief Operating Officer, Warren Day.

ASIC Chair Joe Longo said the three newest appointees will help the regulator “better identify and seize opportunities to enhance [its] capabilities to work more efficiently and effectively in an environment that supports our people internally and our stakeholders externally”.

ASIC has also appointed three Regional Commissioners for NSW, Victoria, and Western Australia, joining the existing cohort of state commissioners.

• Mark Adams has been appointed as Regional Commissioner for NSW. He will take on this role in addition to his existing role as Senior Executive Leader of Strategic Intelligence and Coordinator of ASIC’s Innovation Hub;
• John Wallace has been as appointed as Regional Commissioner for Victoria. This is in addition to Wallace’s existing role as Senior Executive Leader of Specialist Services.
• Rhian Richards has been appointed as Regional Commissioner for Western Australia. This is in addition to her existing role in the Modernising Business Registers (MBR) program.

The regulator notes that its Regional Commissioners play an important role in supporting ASIC staff locally as well as maintaining relationships with local stakeholders, including state governments, business, and consumer groups.

–  MLC Life Insurance has appointed Mark Puli as Chief Group Insurance Officer following a number of structural changes within the organisation’s Life Insurance Division.

Puli will join MLC Life Insurance in late January 2022, replacing outgoing Chief Group Insurance Officer, Sean Williamson.

MLC’s latest senior appointment follows a structural rejig within the organisation, with the company opting to make its Group Insurance team a separate, standalone function reporting directly to Chief Executive Rodney Cook.

A 30-year veteran of financial services, Puli most recently served as Chief Executive at ESSSuper, appointed to the role in 2011. Prior to this, he served as ESSSuper’s Chief Financial Officer.

–  The Financial Services Council (FSC) has appointed Blake Briggs as Acting Chief Executive, following the departure of Sally Loane. Briggs most recently served as the FSC’s Deputy CEO.

Loane stepped down on 23 December 2021 after seven years as FSC Chief.

FSC Chairman, David Bryant, President, Pacific Region (and Chief Executive of Mercer Australia), noted that, during his time as Deputy CEO, Briggs has been a “strong advocate for the financial services industry and its consumers”.

“Blake has brought the industry together on key issues, including advocating for reforms to make financial advice more accessible and affordable, and promoted the interests of superannuation and life insurance consumers by bringing an end to occupational exclusions in group life insurance policies,” Bryant said.

New Zealand

–  Westpac New Zealand has appointed Tania O’Brien as Chief Financial Officer, with Martin Gaskell also appointed the role of Chief Transformation Officer.

Westpac NZ Chief Executive Catherine McGrath recognised the pair’s “deep knowledge of the banking industry”, which she said would “deliver great things for our customers”.

“These are two extremely important roles that are central to what we do as a bank and where we want to go in the future.”

O’Brien, who commences his new role on 7 March, joins from ANZ, where she has held a range of senior executive finance roles.

Gaskell was appointed Chief Operating Officer for BNZ Partners in 2007 and then Director of Customer Fulfilment Services.

“[He] designed and led the largest operating model change in BNZ’s recent history to deliver strategic and customer outcomes,” McGrath said. He left BNZ in 2018 to establish a consultancy. He is set to commence his new role at Westpac NZ in early February.

O’Brien takes over from Kerry Conway, who has been Acting Chief Financial Officer, with Gaskell succeeding Su Duffey, who stepped in as interim Chief Transformation Officer.

–  The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) – Te Pūtea Matua has appointed three new Assistant Governors: Sarah Owen, Kate Kolich and Greg Smith.

Head of the RBNZ, Governor Adrian Orr, said the new appointments would be “key to strengthening our leadership team and supporting [our] future strategic direction… as we move to a new statutory Governance Board in 2022”.

In addition to her role as Assistant Governor, Kolich will also serve as the RBNZ’s General Manager of Information, Data and Analytics, commencing in her new roles from February this year. She will be responsible for managing and expanding the Bank’s knowledge, information management, data, statistics and analytics functions.

“The role will ensure that the Bank’s information and data strategy, policy, and processes are future-focused and robust to support evidence-based decision-making across the Bank,” RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr said.

Sarah Owen has been appointed the RBNZ’s first Assistant Governor and General Manager of Risk Compliance and Legal Services in March 2022. She will also serve as the RBNZ’s Chief Risk Officer, Chief Privacy Officer and Anti-Money Laundering Officer.

Owen will be tasked with leading the ongoing development of the central bank’s fit-for-purpose Enterprise Risk and Compliance Framework, ensuring it is “risk-conscious across all [its] functions”.

Greg Smith will also serve as the RBNZ’s General Manager of Finance and Commercial Operations. Smith joined the RBNZ in July 2021 and is currently the Acting Head of Risk.

Smith will replace two-decade veteran of the RBNZ, Mike Wolyncewicz, who is set to leave the organisation in May 2022.

Recruitment for the remaining ELT role of Assistant Governor and General Manager of Money Group is progressing well, the RBNZ said in a statement, with further announcements on these roles to be made in early 2022.

Departures

– Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has announced Craig Olsen, Group Executive Strategic Projects, will leave the organisation at the end of February.

“I am grateful for the significant [contributions]… Craig [has] made to IAG and the personal support [he has] provided to me,” IAG Managing Director and Chief Executive Nick Hawkins said.

– The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s (RBNZ’s) Head of Supervision, Andy Wood, and Head of Financial System Policy and Analysis (FSPA), Toby Fiennes, have announced they will depart the organisation.

Following changes to the structure of the RBNZ’s Executive Leadership Team, with “new roles have been created to support the new leadership structure”, the central bank revealed that both Wood and Fiennes have opted not to pursue roles in the new structure.

“Andy and Toby have both achieved a huge amount in their careers at the RBNZ,” Governor Adrian Orr said.

“Toby has overseen first-class policy advice that has driven a significant expansion of our regulatory responsibilities, and Andy has successfully nurtured talent and led the growth to support our more intensive supervision approach.”

Fiennes will depart in March when the new structure comes into place. Wood left before Christmas, with Scott McKinnon stepping in as Acting Head of Supervision until March.

Recruitment for newly created senior leadership roles will begin this month.

Board

– Bank Australia has appointed Anthony Healy as an Independent Non-Executive Director to its board.

Healy is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Australian Business Growth Fund, a partnership between the Federal Government and several Australian banks. He previously held senior executive roles at NAB, Bank of New Zealand and ANZ.

– The Financial Services Council (FSC) has appointed Scott Hartley and Michelle Taylor to its board.

Hartley is Chief Executive of AMP Australian Wealth Management, while Taylor serves as Chief Executive, People, Corporate Affairs and Strategy for Challenger Ltd.

– The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), has appointed Gary Dransfield to its board. His appointment, for a three-year term, is effective from 1 January 2022.

“Mr Dransfield will bring a wide range of skills from his distinguished executive career and his experience as a non-executive director. We particularly welcome his extensive experience in general insurance, which represents 24 per cent of AFCA’s business,” said AFCA Chair John Pollaers.

“We will benefit both from his deep business experience and from his career-long focus on the customer. We are pleased to have been able to attract someone of his calibre as we refresh our board three years on from AFCA’s inception.”

Dransfield, with 35 years’ experience in the retail financial services sector, most recently served as Chief Executive, Insurance, for Suncorp, having also been Chief Executive of its Customer Platforms and Personal Insurance units, as well as its Vero Insurance business in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Pollaers also thanked outgoing director Johanna Turner for her five years of service with AFCA – which initially commenced on the board of AFCA’s predecessor organisation the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

“Johanna played a really important role in helping AFCA make that transition and in significantly maturing AFCA’s governance, risk and reporting frameworks,” Pollaers said.

– Consumer lender Wisr has appointed Cathryn Lyall as Non-Executive Director, effective 1 January 2022.

Wisr said the appointment Lyall will bring immense financial services and fintech industry knowledge to the company, preparing it for “the next period of growth in 2022”.

Lyall’s 34-year career in the Australian and British Financial Services sectors includes roles at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange.

Notably, she served as Non-Executive Director at Deutsche Bank UK Bank, serving on the bank’s Board Risk Committee (BRC), the Listed Derivatives Risk and Compliance Committee (LDRCC), and the Nomination Committee as Chair.

– Openpay has announced the departure of Non-Executive Director Kelly Bayer Rosmarin from its board.

The company said it will use the “succession opportunity” to appoint a US-based Non-Executive Director “to better support” its US arm, known locally as Opy, and the group’s expansion ambitions in the country.