October saw a number of key appointments and departures across Australia’s financial services sector, with noteworthy additions to ING Australia, ANZ Bank, and IAG.

Australia

– ING Bank Australia has appointed Melanie Evans to the position of Chief Executive. Evans, currently ING’s Head of Retail Bank, succeeds Uday Sareen as CEO, who has been promoted to Head of Wholesale Banking for ING Europe, Middle East and Africa. Both appointments are effective 16 November 2020.

– Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has announced it will split its Australian arm into Direct Insurance Australia and Intermediated Insurance Australia divisions. The structural rejigging will see Michelle McPherson appointed as the company’s next Chief Financial Officer, with IAG’s Chief Executive Australia Mark Milliner to depart the business at the end of November. Milliner served in the role for just over three years.

– IAG has also appointed Alastair Robertson as Executive General Manager Customer Technology. Robertson formerly served as Qantas Loyalty Chief Information Officer.

– Statewide Super has appointed David Cook to the position of Chief Technology Officer. He formerly served six years as Sunsuper’s technology and security chief, departing the role in 2016.

– Bank First has appointed Michelle Bagnall to the position of Chief Executive. Bagnall, previously Chief Executive of RACQ Bank, succeeds outgoing Chief Executive William Wolke, who retires after 18 years at the bank.

– ANZ Bank has appointed John Corrin to the newly established position of Head of Corporate Finance, International, overseeing the Bank’s corporate financing business outside of its home markets of Australia and New Zealand.

– QBE has appointed Richard Pryce as interim Group Chief Executive while the insurer continues to seek a permanent replacement for Pat Regan, who resigned in September following an investigation into his workplace communications.

– MLC Life Insurance has appointed Sean Williamson to the position of Chief Group Insurance Officer.

– State Super has created an Academic Oversight Body (AOB) to manage, improve governance and develop tools to support AI and machine learning. Inaugural members of the AOB include Michael Kollo, David Michayluk, and Alex Antic.

– Suncorp has made a number of additions to its claim operations, following the split of its insurance business into two divisions. Anna Cartwright has been appointed EGM Motor Claims, responsible for the end-to-end claims experience; Alli Smith will assume the role of EGM Home Claims; Luke Whenman will become Head of Commercial Property & Specialty Claims; and Michael Miller takes on the position of EGM Personal Injury Claims.

– IOOF has promoted ClientFirst GM Chris Weldon to the position of Chief Transformation Officer.

– iSelect, a comparison website, has appointed Warren Hebard to the position of Chief Executive. Hebard most recently served as the company’s Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer.

– Rice Warner, an actuarial consultant, researcher and technology solutions provider, has appointed Anthony Saliba to the position of Head of Fintech and Product Data. Seliba most recently served as senior actuary for superannuation and investments at CommInsure/AIA Australia.

– ClearView Wealth has announced several newly created senior roles as part of a major business realignment: Gerard Kerr has been appointed General Manager, Life Insurance. Kerr joins from Zurich Financial Services Australia; Deborah Lowe, currently ClearView’s General Manager, People and Operations, has been appointed General Manager, Wealth Management and Chief Human Resources Officer; and Nadine Gooderick has been appointed General Manager, Transformation.

– AMP Australia has appointed Angela Papas to the position of Head of Incidents, Issues and Breaches. Papas previously served as Executive Manager of Risk and Compliance at CommInsure.

– Rabobank has appointed Deborah Maskell-Davies to the position of Regional Manager, Southern Victoria and Tasmania. Maskell-Davies succeeds Hamish McAlpin, who will take on the role of Head of Relationship Management for Rabobank’s Southern Victoria and Tasmanian region.

– Vision Super, an industry super fund, has announced the appointment of Michael Wyrsch to the newly created position of Deputy Chief Executive.

– Westpac has amended Chief Executive Peter King’s employment contract, removing the initial two-year term limit.

New Zealand

– Suncorp has been appointed Jimmy Higgins to the position of Chief Executive Suncorp New Zealand. Higgins has served as acting CEO of Suncorp New Zealand since July this year. He has held a range of senior and executive positions across Suncorp, including New Zealand CFO and EGM Claims.

– Fidelity Life has appointed Melissa Cantell as Chief Executive, effective January 25. Cantell joins Fidelity from IAG NZ, where she currently serves as Chief Operating Officer.

Departures

– MLC Chief Executive Geoff Lloyd will depart the organisation at the end of October. The move follows the sale of MLC Wealth to IOOF.

– Suncorp has announced the departure of National Manager Technical Commercial Property & Specialty Claims Mohinder Kumar, with Suncorp Technical specialist Nickolas Horton also announcing his departure from the Queensland financial services giant.

– Fiona Horan has announced her departure from Australian Ethical, after more than seven years with the wealth manager and super fund.

Board

– QBE has appointed Melanie Willis, former NRMA Investments Chief Executive and David Curran, former Westpac Chief Information Officer, as non-executive directors to its Australia Pacific board.

– The Financial Services Council (FSC) has elected David Bryant, Mercer Australia Chief Executive and Pacific Zone Leader, to the board as Chair. Bryant replaces Geoff Lloyd, Chief Executive of MLC Wealth Limited, who stood down as Chair due to his resignation from MLC Wealth.

– FSC has also announced Acting Chief Executive of AMP Australia, Blair Vernon will join the FSC board as a director.

– ING Australia has appointed Lisa Gray as a non-executive director.

– CBA-owned Colonial First State Investments has announced Anne Ward will retire from its board at the end of December 2020, having served eight years as a Non-Executive Director and Chair.

– Media Super has announced the retirement of Gerard Noonan as Chair. Susan Heaney has been announced as Noonan’s successor.

– Police Bank has announced the appointment of Julie Osborne as Director on its board, effective 7 October 2020.