Rob Goudswaard will step down as CUA’s chief executive, opting not to renew his five-year contract with the Brisbane-based credit union.
CUA Chair Nigel Ampherlaw praised Goudswaard for his stewardship over his half-decade tenure, steering the company through a period of rapid digital innovation and industry change.
“Rob will be leaving CUA in a much better place than when he joined us, Ampherlaw said. “He’s set us on a journey to not only become a stronger and more member focused credit union, but for CUA to build on the trust that will enable us to continue to challenge other larger banks into the future.”
Goudswaard was instrumental in securing a number of important digital partnerships for CUA, including an exclusive resource sharing deal with global innovation cooperative Pivotus – a human-centred design and digital innovation collective which includes Dutch banking heavyweight De Volksbank and the UK-based Nationwide, the world’s largest building society.
Under Goudswaard’s headship, CUA also became the first Australian banking service to support AusPost’s Digital iD scheme, an Australian-first electronic identification service.
The CUA chief also spearheaded the rollout of the credit union’s own iM CUA app – a one-to-one digital messaging service that allows customers to contact their personal CUA adviser directly.
Speaking at FST’s Future of Financial Services conference last year, Goudswaard said he remained a stalwart advocate for the hybrid model ‘human-digital’ design approach for digital projects.
“We are not in the camp that members just want everything done by computer; there are a number of people happy to do that and we don’t dispute that. But we’re of the view that members will want to, at some point, speak to a human. We call that ‘human digital’,” he said.
Prior to joining CUA, Goudswaard served as chief executive and Director of the Rural Finance Corporation of Victoria and Chair of the Young Farmer’s Finance Council.
He has held a variety of senior positions at ANZ including CRO, Institutional Global; Managing Director, Regional, Rural & Small Business Banking; General Manager, Pacific & Personal Banking Asia and COO, Small to Medium Business Australia & New Zealand.
Goudswaard currently serves as Director for digital payments services Cuscal as well as the Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM).
Last year, he was named Financial Services Executive of the Year by CEO Magazine.
Details on Goudswaard’s departure date and transition to a new chief executive are as yet unconfirmed by CUA.
CUA said an extensive search will be undertaken over the coming months for either an internal or external successor for the role.
