NAB’s chief operating officer will take on added responsibilities for digital, data and analytics, with the banking group announcing that incumbent data chief Angela Mentis will retire by month’s end.
Les Matheson, NAB’s current group chief operating officer, will now add ‘group executive digital, data’ to his title.
In this expanded role, Matheson will oversee the bank’s digital, data and analytics division and its digital-only offering ubank, as well as the group marketing, product improvement and governance functions, NAB said.
Matheson was appointed NAB’s group COO in early 2021, after serving more than a decade at UK banking giant NatWest, including a nearly seven-year tenure as its CEO, personal and business banking (UK and Ireland).
NAB chief executive Ross McEwan acknowledged Matheson’s “global experience and leadership”, adding that he would be “invaluable in creating solutions for customers and colleagues”.
McEwan also heaped praise on the outgoing Mentis, recognising her as an “exceptional banker and leader who inspired colleagues working alongside her”.
“Angie [Mentis] has always shown what it means to put customers first and has delivered outstanding results by doing that very well during her career,” he said.
Mentis served two years as NAB’s inaugural group chief data, digital and analytics officer.
At the time of Mentis’ appointment, NAB said the role would be responsible for ensuring that “the extensive data collected by NAB is used to create better customer experiences and deeper personalisation”.
Mentis first joined NAB in 2006 as part of the group’s wealth arm, stepping in to lead the private wealth and business banking function in 2013.
Between 2018 and 2021, she was managing director and chief executive of NAB’s New Zealand subsidiary Bank of New Zealand.
Mentis commenced her career at Macquarie Bank in the mid-1980s, before a six-year stint at Citibank.
She joined Westpac’s Institutional Bank for nearly a decade, from 1995, and served as head of premium wealth services at BT Financial.
Mentis will formally retire from full-time executive roles, electing, McEwan said, “to spend more time with her family”.
