Bibby appoints new Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand
Sydney, February 6, 2013 – Bibby Financial Services, the leading global debtor finance specialist, has appointed Mark
Cleaver as Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand. Mark has worked for Bibby Financial Services for the past 16
years and is relocating from Europe were he is currently Regional CEO of the European business. Mark will officially
commence in his new role in Australia in April 2013.
Ian Watson, CEO, Asia Pacific, Bibby Financial Services commented, “Mark’s experience and successful track record of
growing businesses within the Bibby Group makes him ideally suited to take up this position and build on the success the
team has already achieved.
“Bibby’s Australian business has grown at an average rate of 20% pa in recent years and we anticipate further growth of
20% in 2013 due to increasing awareness of debtor finance,” Mr Watson said.
On his appointment, Mark Cleaver said, “The Australian and New Zealand operation is one of the biggest amongst the 25
businesses within the Bibby Financial Services Group, providing over A$120m of funding to small and medium sized
businesses. Despite its impressive scale, there remains considerable opportunity for further growth in the market and I
look forward to steering the business on the next stage of its journey.”
For the past six years, Mark has been responsible for managing and overseeing the performance of Bibby’s European
countries, ensuring that the overall company strategy was implemented across these territories. As the European CEO,
Mark transformed a 3-market region into a 7-market region, significantly expanding the business in Central and Eastern
Europe. Previously, Mark held various leadership roles at Bibby for 10 years including as group managing director of
Bibby’s UK-based companies.
“Mark has extensive knowledge of the management challenges confronting SME owners and understands how structured working
capital solutions can assist businesses to grow over the long-term. There are tremendous opportunities in the debtor
finance market in Australia as business lending is expected to increase as a result of lower interest rates and a more
optimistic economic outlook by business owners. I look forward to working with Mark to implement our global 2020 growth
strategy in this market,” Mr Watson said.
ENDS