Westpac NZ Confirms Changes To Executive Team

Westpac NZ has made a number of changes to its Executive Team as part of a continued focus on improving products and processes to better serve its customers.

The changes will help Westpac NZ serve the evolving needs of New Zealanders and succeed in a competitive business environment, says Chief Executive David McLean.

“We are fortunate to have a high quality and cohesive executive team that has been stable for a long time, and we’re taking this opportunity to refresh some of their roles and responsibilities,” he says.

“These changes will help us continue our mission of achieving great customer outcomes, improving and streamlining our products and services, and keeping the bank strong, with quality deposits and lending.”

Two new recruits join the leadership team and several other of Westpac’s senior executives have taken on changed roles.

Andrew Henderson has joined the bank as Chief Information Officer and is responsible for key technology functions including engineering, architecture, IT risk and maintaining tech standards and disciplines.

“Andrew is a Hawke’s Bay boy and we’ve lured him home to New Zealand after 16 years overseas in senior technology roles at ING and JPMorgan Chase,” Mr McLean says.

“We are very pleased to have someone of the calibre of Andrew, who has been working at the cutting edge of best practice technology in global banks, bringing that expertise back to Westpac New Zealand.”

Marc Figgins has accepted a role as the new General Manager of Human Resources, and comes to Westpac NZ from Air New Zealand, where he has worked most recently as the General Manager of People for Revenue and Operations.

“We have a significant focus on human centric design and adopting new ways of working that support the potential of our people, in the context of a rapidly changing future of work. This is an area that Marc is passionate about, so we look forward to him bringing this to Westpac,” Mr McLean says.

The appointments of Andrew Henderson and Marc Figgins are subject to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand having no objections.

GMs with changed roles:

• Karen Silk takes up the role of General Manager of the Experience Hub, which is the Agile division of Westpac NZ that focuses on developing and improving products and services. Karen was previously the General Manager of Commercial, Corporate and Institutional Banking;
• Simon Power takes on the role vacated by Karen Silk as the General Manager of Commercial, Corporate and Institutional Banking, having been General Manager of Consumer Banking and Wealth;
• Gina Dellabarca has been appointed as General Manager of Consumer Banking and Wealth, replacing Simon Power. Gina was most recently General Manager of Human Resources and Corporate Affairs;
• Leanne Lazarus takes on a new role as General Manager of Customer Outcomes, which has been created to focus on delivering a consistently outstanding experience for all of our customers, reflecting that our highest priority is delivering consistently good outcomes for our customers. Leanne, previously GM of Operations and Contact Centres leads a team which focuses on resolving complex complaints, addressing the root cause of complaints, bringing a customer focus to all our decisions across the business. addressing the root cause of complaints, and bringing a customer focus to all our decisions across the business.
• Ian Hankins, CFO, has also taken on Property and Commercial Services, which previously reported to Leanne Lazarus; and
• Mark Weenink, General Counsel, has added External Relations, which includes our Media, Social Media, Government Relations and Sustainability teams, which previously reported to Gina Dellabarca, to his responsibilities.

New leaders:

• Marc Figgins joins Westpac NZ as the General Manager of Human Resources.
• Andrew Henderson joins Westpac NZ as the Chief Information Officer.

Unchanged Executive Team roles:

• David McLean is the Chief Executive Officer.
• Carolyn Kidd is the Chief Risk Officer.

© Scoop Media