April saw a number of high-profile appointments and departures across the financial services sector, with noteworthy additions to Medibank Private, Allianz and neobank Judo.

– Alexis George, ANZ Deputy Chief Executive, has been appointed to lead the AMP group. George assumes the role from Francesco De Ferrari, who announced his departure after two and half years at the helm of AMP.

In a statement, ANZ praised George for her “important leadership role in the continued simplification of ANZ, particularly through the divestments of its Wealth businesses, and was instrumental in ANZ’s response to Covid-19”.

– Medibank Private has appointed from within for its most senior role, announcing David Koczkar will lead the health insurer. He will assume the role effective 17 May 2021.

Previously serving as Chief Operating Officer, the insurer in a statement praised Koczkar as “a champion for our customers… [playing] an instrumental role in the growth and re-positioning of Medibank”.

Koczkar replaces Craig Drummond who announced his retirement as Medibank CEO in February this year.

– Judo Bank has appointed Lisa Frazier (pictured) as its new Chief Operations Officer.

Frazier assumes the role from co-founder and CFO Chris Bayliss, who took on the COO role in an interim capacity.

Frazier previously served as head of the Innovation Group for American banking giant Wells Fargo.

– CBA is reportedly seeking to embed technical information security officers (or ‘TISOs’) into each of its IT platform teams. The TISOs will be tasked with ensuring security and risk controls are natively built-in and kept up-to-date.

“TISO is a new function being established to complement existing Enterprise Services divisions,” the bank said in a recruitment advert.

“TISOs will be embedded in platform teams supporting different business and technology services but will come together as a virtual team to share best practice, technique and information.

– Buy now pay later (BNPL) outfit Openpay has appointed Tim Lewis in the newly created position of Group Chief Information Officer.

The local BNPL provider recently received a $67.5 million funding package, half of which was provided by institutional investors, to pursue expansion in the US.

– Allianz Australia has appointed Phuong Ly as its new Chief General Manager for Commercial.

Ly will lead the insurer’s newly created commercial division which focuses on small to medium enterprises, mid-corp markets, and the insurer’s specialist areas, including underwriting agencies and Hunter Premium Funding.

A 20-year veteran of the insurance industry, Ly most recently served as QBE’s Chief Underwriting Officer.

– Munich Re has appointed Scott Hawkins to the position of Managing Director, Australasia.

Hawkins will oversee the leadership and strategic steering of Munich Re’s businesses in Australia and New Zealand, as well as taking on the role of Principal Officer of Munich Holdings Australasia. Hawkins will assume the role effective from 1 April 2021.

– PSC Insurance Group (PSC) has appointed David Hosking as its new Chief Executive for Australia and New Zealand.

Hosking previously served as the Chief General Manager for Allianz Australia’s Broker and Agency division.

– Zurich has appointed Tim Scott-Young as its Chief Claims Officer for General Insurance in Australia and New Zealand, commencing 17 May. Scott-Young previously served as Marsh National Manager for Claims.

He replaces Hilary Bates, who will assume the role of Chief Operations Officer for Zurich’s Australian Life and Investments business.

– IAG has appointed three EGMs to its Intermediated Insurance Division leadership team, headed by incoming industry veteran Jarrod Hill.

• Damien Gallagher will head the insurance group’s CGU business
• Brad Robson will lead agency partnerships
• and Andrew Beer will lead its WFI business.

IAG Chief Executive Nick Hawkins unveiled the split of the insurance group’s Australian business into two divisions, Intermediated and Direct, last November.

– First Super has appointed Michelle Boucher as Deputy Chief Executive. Boucher formerly served as Group Executive People, Technology and Enablement at fellow superannuation provider Cbus.

– MLC Life Insurance has appointed Lesley Mamelok to the new role of General Manager, Finance & Deputy CFO and Robert Baillie as General Manager, Capital Management & Corporate Finance. Both will report directly to CFO, Kent Griffin.

Mamelok was formerly Chief Financial Officer for Integrity Life as well as serving as the company’s Acting CEO over the past year.

Baillie is a 30-year veteran of the life insurance industry. Prior to joining MLC Life, he was the Head of Actuarial (Capital & ALM) at TAL since 2015.

– Global banking and payments fintech Revolut has appointed Rebecca Greenhalgh as APAC Regional Treasurer.

Greenhalgh formerly served as Treasurer at erstwhile neobank, Xinja, and previously headed pricing and performance strategies at Westpac.

– Integrity Life has appointed Russell Hannah as General Manager of Distribution and Marketing.

Hannah previously served as MLC Life GM of Retail Distribution Partnerships

– Citi announced this month it will pursue an exit from consumer banking in Australia. The move follows a strategic review by the global banking giant, which is also withdrawing from 12 other markets, it says, “to focus its investment and resources to the businesses that can drive stronger growth, deliver scale and improve returns over the long run”.

The sale of its consumer arm will see a full pivot by Citi Australia to its institutional business, shifting all resources into its investment banking, capital markets and advisory, markets and securities services, commercial banking and treasury and trade solutions.

Citi has more than 1,500 employees based across its Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane hubs.

Departures

– AMP Capital’s Boe Pahari is set to depart the organisation entirely following his resignation as equities chief last year, with AMP revealing the demerger of its private markets investment management business.

Pahari stepped down from the top role following a string of controversies, taking on his previous position as AMP Capital’s Global Head of Infrastructure Equity and North West Region.

The news also comes after AMP’s board rejected the takeover offer from US-based Ares Management Corporation.

– Rachel Grimes, Westpac’s Finance GM, will depart from the bank, taking on a new role as Chief Financial Officer at investment firm Challenger.

Grimes had served as General Manager of Group Finance at Westpac since late 2019.

– Energy Super has announced that Chief Executive Robyn Petrou will leave the organisation in July ahead of the super fund’s merger with LGIAsuper.

– Managing Director of Wealth and Private Bank for ANZ Bank New Zealand, Craig Mulholland, will leave the company at the end of June.

Mulholland has been at ANZ NZ since 2011, with roles including General Counsel and Company Secretary.

New Zealand

– Delta Insurance has announced a restructure of its management team, as the NZ-based specialist liability underwriter looks to expand its Asia-Pacific business.

Current NZ Chief Executive Craig Kirk will move into the new role of Director for Underwriting Operations for the wider group; Dinesh Murali takes over leadership of Delta Insurance NZ.

– The New Zealand Super Fund (NZSF) has appointed Paula Steed as General Manager of Finance and Investment Operations. Steed currently serves as Chief Internal Auditor at ASB Bank.

Mark Fennell, currently the NZSF’s General Manager of Portfolio Completion, has been appointed General Manager of Risk.

Board

– The ASX has appointed Damian Roche as Chair.

The appointment follows the announcement that Rick Holliday-Smith will depart as ASX Chair after nearly 15 years on the board, 12 of which were served as Chair.

– Marketplace lender SocietyOne has appointed Melanie Cochrane and Jamie McPhee as Independent Non-Executive Directors.

In a statement, SocietyOne said the appointments bring “significant additional financial services experience to [the business], strengthening its strategy, governance and risk capabilities as it embarks on the next stage of its development and growth”.

Cochrane is a former Senior Vice President at American Express, where she led the Merchant Services business for the Asia Pacific region and, prior to that, Corporate Payments.