Speakers at Next Generation Lending 2015
Kareem Al-Bassam
General Manager
PayPal Credit Australia
Kareem Al-Bassam is a payments industry veteran with more than fifteen years of global financial services experience. In his role as PayPal's General Manager of PayPal Credit Australia, Kareem leads PayPal’s fledgling credit business in Australia, including the Merchant Working Capital offering launched in late 2014. With PayPal since 2011, he has held several leadership roles in Business Development, Innovation and Delivery. Prior to PayPal, Kareem led S1’s (now ACI) profitable Payment Services group, one of the largest US bill payment consolidators. Prior to S1, Kareem worked with NetSpend and Card Tech Limited (now TSYS) in an innovation capacity with postings in Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Sunil Aranha
Chief Executive Officer
ThinCats Australia
Chief Executive Officer and Director – qualified with a B.Com. and an MBA, has 25 years of international and local SME sector banking experience with general management roles within Citibank, EFIC and Commonwealth Bank. Also established a successful technology start-up in the entertainment technology sector in early 2000.
Heidi Armstrong
Media Presenter
Sky News Business & Radio 2GB
General Manager Marketing and Communications
Liberty Financial
Heidi Armstrong is a media commentator passionate about showcasing smarter business ideas and technologies that have the power to disrupt business as usual for existing market players. Since selling her highly awarded online non-bank lending business in 2014, Heidi has become a story teller of business success in Australia.
As host of “The Entrepreneur Show” on Sydney Radio 2GB and “Business Success” on Sky News Business, Heidi is passionate about showcasing entrepreneurial talent that inspires others to achieve greater business performance. With a conviction that there are more innovative ways for financial services to connect with consumers and SME’s, Heidi has teamed up with Liberty Financial to explore new boundaries within the industry.
Recognised as a leader who brings ideas to life Heidi was awarded Best Industry Thought Leader at the 2014 Australian Lending Awards. Heidi holds a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Laws and a Diploma of Finance (Mortgage Finance).
In her spare time Heidi enjoys sailing, water skiing, being a sideline mum watching her kids play sports and updating her blog moneytolove.com.au
Cory Bannister
Vice President, Head of Distribution
La Trobe Financial
Cory Bannister has been with La Trobe Financial since January 2000, specialising in credit assessment, lending operations, portfolio management and the management of delinquent loans.
From 2011 - 2012, Cory was Head of Credit for La Trobe Financial, having overall responsibility for the origination, approval and settlement of institutional and retail loans. In this role he was a key member of the Origination & Credit Committee, lead in the implementation of the National Consumer Credit Code and manager of group originations. Since 2007, Cory has the highest level of delegated lending authority in the La Trobe Financial Group.
Cory's portfolio management experience extends to the selection and allocation of assets for multiple wholesale mortgage portfolios in excess of $1 billion. He has been responsible for the management, review, risk profiling and audit of wholesale asset pools. He has had conduct of the relationships with substantial wholesale and retail investors and been responsible for overseeing reporting in relation to these.
Cory has now been appointed Vice President and Head of Distribution, and is deputy chairman of the Origination & Credit committee ("OCC"), and a member of the Pricing and Liability Committee ("PLC"0).
Daryl Bateman
Executive General Manager, Sales & Distribution
People’s Choice Credit Union
Daryl is the key Executive leading the sales and service delivery at People’s Choice - one of Australia’s largest and most successful credit unions. He quietly admits to starting his retail banking career at a time when customer accounts were manually stored and reconciled at the local branch. Back then, there was no Westpac, NAB or ATMs – and trading hours were 10am to 3pm, Monday to Friday.
Today, Daryl’s responsibilities include retail banking, financial planning, business lending, member experience and relationship programs, and various market growth initiatives. In support of each of those, he has lead the development and delivery of the People’s Choice ‘Digital Branch’ strategy. As a growth-focused mutual, People’s Choice is strongly committed to expanding its Digital Branch on an “anywhere, anytime” basis, for the benefit of their current and future members.
Richard Burns
General Manager, Customer Experience & Technology
Aussie Home Loans
Richard Burns is Aussie Home Loans’ General Manager Customer Experience & Technology, leading a team of more than 60 responsible for Aussie’s brand, marketing, digital presence, customer retention, data, IT architecture and operations, and the project office.
Richard joined Aussie in February 2015 after 15 years in Online Trading covering marketing, product development, strategy, digital and user experience. Richard spent seven years with CommSec, Australia’s largest online broker, in a variety of roles including Head of Strategy, Head of Marketing and General Manager Customer Experience. Prior to his time at CommSec, Richard was Head of Marketing, Client Services & Product Development at E*TRADE Australia.
Richard is a passionate leader with proven ability to rapidly grow businesses through innovative strategy and effective execution. He has deep experience in online retail financial services and investment markets and brings a strong sense of customer focus to the teams which he leads.
Helen Campbell
Co-founder
Change Management Institute
Helen specialises in Organizational Change, Change Management and Change Leadership.
She is a Master Accredited Change Manager (ACMM), author of Managing Organizational Change, co-author of The Effective Change Manager’s Handbook, teaches Change Leadership at Macquarie Graduate School of Management and is frequently invited to speak at conferences and on expert panels. In addition to a successful change management career Helen is co-founder of the Change Management Institute (CMI) and was a Board member for eight years. She chaired the Change Management Body of Knowledge Global Advisory Panel and is CMI Chief Assessor.
She has a passion for helping people design, implement and sustain change so that it delivers a return on investment, minimises disruption to staff and customers and builds capability.
Lisa Claes
Executive Director, Distribution
ING Direct
Lisa has over 20 years’ experience at an executive level in the banking, wealth management and insurance industries, following an earlier career as a barrister. After practising, she was appointed to the role of Senior Counsel for ING Group’s Australian and New Zealand entities.
Lisa currently holds the position of Executive Director, Customer Delivery at ING DIRECT responsible for the bank’s revenue generation through leadership of its diverse retail distribution channels (digital, direct and third party).
Additional to her local executive responsibilities, she holds global accountabilities and several not for profit directorships.
Andrew Cornell
Managing Editor BlueNotes
ANZ
Andrew Cornell is managing editor of BlueNotes, the ANZ newsroom, a forum for financial services and economic news, opinion and analysis.
Cornell is a multi-award winning journalist, most recently the 2014 Citi Award for Economics writing. He was the 2010 Walkley Award winner for commentary and analysis for a series on how Australia’s financial system survived the financial crisis and is a multiple Walkley finalist. Cornell won the Citigroup/Columbia University Award for Excellence in Business Journalism for analysis of Japan’s economy. He was a recipient of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade North Asia Research Scholarship.
Cornell was formerly associate editor, senior writer and columnist with the Australian Financial Review, covering business, economics and general culture, including a weekly financial services column and regular magazine essays. He was the senior staff writer for the AFR’s award winning monthly magazine.
From 1998 and 2002 Cornell was the AFR’s North Asia Bureau chief based in Tokyo. Prior to Japan he was a banking and finance correspondent and from 1995 to 2002 he was also Australia and Japan correspondent for the Lafferty Group, specialising in payments and retail banking.
In wider writing, Cornell was the inaugural editor of NewSouthPress’s “Best Business Writing” anthology. He has written and contributed to several books including Australia-Japan: Friendship and Prosperity, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of formal Australia-Japan economic relations, and the Japan Australia Foundation-sponsored report “Australia and Japan: Beyond the Mainstream”.
Cornell’s career in journalism spans three decades, including 20 years at the AFR. He started his business reporting career in 1987 at the Sun News Pictorial and later moved to the Sunday Herald Sun as business editor and AAP as Melbourne finance editor. He also spent five years as a film reviewer for the Herald and Weekly Times and has authored books on financial planning and business management. Cornell is a Graduate of Melbourne University, BA (Hons) medieval literature and BSc (Genetics).
Kevin Davis
Professor of Finance
University of Melbourne
Panel Member
Financial System Inquiry
Kevin Davis is Professor of Finance at the University of Melbourne, Research Director of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies and a Professor of Finance at Monash University. His primary research interests are financial regulation, financial institutions and markets, financial innovation and corporate finance. He is co-author/editor of16 books in the areas of finance, banking, monetary economics and macroeconomics and has published numerous journal articles and chapters in books. He is the Deputy Chair of SIRCA, a member of the Australian Competition Tribunal, and has undertaken an extensive range of consulting assignments for financial institutions, business and government. Professor Davis is a Senior Fellow of Finsia, a Fellow of FTA and holds Bachelor of Economics (Hons I) from Flinders University of South Australia and a Master of Economics from the Australian National University. He was appointed by the Federal Treasurer in December 2013 as a panel member of the Financial System Inquiry chaired by Mr David Murray.
Steve Dunn
Founder and CEO
Itero Labs
Steve is a former corporate intrapreneur turned startup investor, advisor and co-founder, and brings his unique perspective as an experienced senior technology executive to corporate enterprises seeking competitive advantage through technology disruption, lean startup and entrepreneurship.
Steve has over 20 years’ global experience in financial services, wealth & asset management and investment banking and specialises in the strategic use of business model innovation and information technologies.
Steve has led major technical programs and corporate development in Australia, US, Latin America, Asia and Europe for global companies including BlackRock, Barclays, Bank of America, ING Barings and was Managing Director of Macquarie Wealth Management at Macquarie Bank.
Today Steve leads a team of technology futurists and corporate strategists applying insights to create opportunities for enterprises from ‘the other side’.
Erik Fenna
Chief Information Officer
P&N Bank
Erik Fenna has been involved with mortgage origination on the technical side for around 15 years, he was the Head of IT at AFG working on the Trident electronic integration project with mortgage brokers, he was the CEO of LIXI for six years, and is now the CIO at P&N Bank in WA.
Craig Fenwick
Executive Manager of Retail Lending
Suncorp Group
Craig joined Suncorp Group in 2006, and since then has occupied various management roles across Bank Strategy, Deposit and Transaction Banking before being appointed in 2013 as Executive Manager of Consumer Lending. As the National Manager of Small Business, Craig will lead the small business teams nationally to deliver effective solutions for small business customers in a consistent way. He is passionate about developing people, building sustainable relationships and supporting his customers to achieve their financial and business goals.
Daniel Foggo
Chief Executive Officer
RateSetter Australia
Daniel holds extensive finance experience. Prior to joining RateSetter he was a Director of the investment banking division of Barclays Capital, the global investment bank, based in Sydney. His prior experience includes advising on mergers and acquisitions at NM Rothschild based in London.
Daniel holds a Bachelor of Commerce (with Honours) in Economics and a Master of Business (with Distinction) in Finance.
Phil Gray
Garage Director - AFS Transformation and Delivery
Westpac
Phil Gray is the inaugural Director of ‘The Garage’ – Westpac’s internal accelerator and disruptor that is helping Australia’s first company think and act like a 200-year-old start-up.
Prior to starting in ‘The Garage’ he led the Change Management function for the Australian Financial Services division of the group, which includes the St. George, BT, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia, RAMS and Westpac brands.
Before joining Westpac on his return to Australia from the UK in 2009, Phil’s was an accomplished entrepreneur who launched a number of high profile ventures. The technology services business he co-founded in 1998 won the prestigious KPMG European Business Innovation Award in 2000.
Through his various business ventures he has worked with clients across multiple sectors including; BP, Tesco, NHS, PWC, Pfizer, the Ministry of Defence, Royal Mail, CSC, HBoS and Fujitsu on a range of large scale people and technology transformation projects.
Lee Hatton
Chief Executive Officer
UBank
With over 15 years in the financial services industry, Lee Hatton has as a breadth of financial services experience.
Beginning her career as a graduate at Westpac Banking Corporation in New Zealand, Lee has held a number of roles during her career to make her a well-rounded banking executive.
She has held executive leadership positions across marketing, strategy, payments and risk (in particular the Regulatory functions), and has lead large teams in Retail and Business Banking. Lee has worked in New Zealand, the UK, the USA and Australia and has recently been appointed as the CEO of UBank based in Sydney (UBank is fully owned company of National Australia Bank).
In addition, Lee is also an Executive Director of BNZ Investment Services, and Non-Executive Director of XeroLimited (listed on the NZX and ASX).
Siobhahn Hayden
Chief Executive Officer
Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA)
Prior to accepting the CEO position at the MFAA, Siobhan was at Finware Australia for eight years and has an extensive knowledge of the mortgage broking industry.
Finware Australia provides specialist software solutions to the mortgage broking industry in Australia and New Zealand and has been successful in delivering market leading solutions to clients.
Prior to this Siobhan was a Senior Project Manager with Woolworths, which included negotiating with one of the biggest unions in Australia.
Siobhan has 15 years’ experience within the Finance and Logistics sectors developing operational and people strategies to ensure business success. She is passionate about leadership and has seen the benefits of aligning the motivations of team resources to the implementation of business strategy, an approach she will continue with in her role as CEO of the MFAA.
Clive Kirkpatrick
General Manager Mortgage Broking
St. George Banking Group
Clive Kirkpatrick is the General Manager, Mortgage Broking, St.George Banking Group, having joined St.George in 2011 after heading up the RAMS Franchise business. Clive has had around 30 years’ experience in banking and financial services both in Australia and offshore. Experienced in strategy formulation and execution, business management, sales management and people leadership, Clive has a generalist background with sound understanding of marketing, product development, legal and compliance. Clive also has specialist knowledge and demonstrable capability in distribution.
Matt Lawler
Chief Executive Officer
Yellow Brick Road
Matt Lawler is the Chief Executive Officer at Yellow Brick Road and has been with the company since May 2011. He is responsible for leading the business in the implementation of key strategies for the company’s overall success. Matt has over 25 years experience in the financial services industry with expertise in investments, insurance, mortgages and financial planning. Before joining Yellow Brick Road, Matt was the Executive General Manager of NAB Partnerships, and prior to that he was the Executive General Manager of MLC Advice & Distribution.
Belen Lopez
Head of Portfolio Optimisation
Westpac
Belen Lopez is the Head of Portfolio Optimisation at Westpac. Her background is in actuarial science and she dedicated majority of her career understanding customer’s behaviours from an analytical perspective. Her 10 years’ experience in the mortgage industry across Product, Marketing and Portfolio Management in different size organisations such as Aussie Home Loans, Citibank and Westpac; provides her with great knowledge on customer behaviours from a diverse range of segments and through different sales origination channels.
Mario Rehayem
Director of Sales & Distribution
Pepper Financial Services Group
Mario is the Director of Sales and Distribution at Pepper where he is responsible for leading the teams that manage, sell and distribute Pepper’s portfolio of retail home loan products via direct, white label and third party mortgage broker distribution channels.
Prior to this time, Mario was Westpac’s State Manager, Mortgage Broker Distribution – WA and SA. In that role, he managed a team of Business Development Managers and led third party distribution strategy within these two states. Prior to Westpac, Mario was a State Manager for Pepper in NSW.
A well regarded and accomplished executive, Mario has had over 13 years of experience in financial services and in this time has been a champion of mortgage broker education and growing the specialist lending category, culminating in Pepper’s recognition as Australia’s Best Specialist Lender in 2013 and 2014. Mario has a reputation for service and imparting insightful practical advice for brokers garnered from many years spent as both a broker and a lender.
Michael Saadat
Senior Executive Leader
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Michael Saadat is Senior Executive Leader for ASIC's Deposit Takers, Credit and Insurers (DCI) team. The DCI team has primary responsibility for oversight of retail banks, credit unions, building societies, insurance companies, credit providers, mortgage brokers and other credit intermediaries, trustee companies in their traditional activities, non-cash payment facility providers, and ASIC's Indigenous Outreach Program.
Prior to this, Michael worked as Director and Head of Compliance for Citigroup's Consumer Bank in Australia. He has also previously worked at ASIC as a senior lawyer and senior manager, and as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Sydney.
Michael has Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Macquarie University, a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics, and an Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School.
Jason Serafino
General Manager Innovation
Liberty Financial
As General Manager of Innovation, Jason is the catalyst within the business that drives innovative practices and initiatives that challenge, change and deliver better results for customers.
Prior to his current role, Jason led Liberty’s team of technology professionals with responsibility for the design, development and management of Liberty’s technology platforms including risk assessment and analysis, portfolio servicing and funding systems.
With over 14 years operating his IT businesses prior to joining Liberty, Jason has broad experience across many sectors including finance, retail, telecommunications, government, manufacturing and internet. Jason’s skills include strategy, architecture, design, infrastructure planning and project management and implementation.
Chris Severn
Managing Director
The Customer Experience Company
Chris is a successful strategist, facilitator and project director, and has conceived and delivered successful results across internet services, customer service, contact centres, CRM and Customer Experience strategy and customer culture change. His recent projects are in Tier 1 Banks, Telcos, Insurance, Logistics and Government departments.
Prior to CEC he was 5 years in a 'Big 5' consulting company at Principal/Director level, 10 years in a global telecoms operator and outsource provider in technical, sales and marketing roles. Chris holds two degrees: Electronic Systems Engineering and an MBA.
Stuart Stoyan
Chief Executive Officer
MoneyPlace
Stuart Stoyan is founder and CEO of marketplace lender MoneyPlace.
MoneyPlace is an online marketplace that connects credit worthy borrowers with investors, providing fairer, more affordable loans for borrowers, and the opportunity to earn higher fixed income returns for investors. MoneyPlace is in the process of gaining regulatory approval and expects to launch in early-mid 2015.
MoneyPlace is a team of former bankers who understand the risk inherent lending. By combining this knowledge with the latest technology, MoneyPlace is able to originate and manage loans more efficiently, sharing the savings from lower operating costs and splitting the wide bank margins with borrowers and investors.
Prior to founding MoneyPlace, Stuart was the Head of Strategy for NAB Business. Prior to that he was a management consultant, helping large corporate clients solve complex problems across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the United States. Key areas of focus included market entry, growth and performance improvement with an emphasis on retail and business banking.
Matt Symons
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
SocietyOne
Matt is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of SocietyOne. Prior to co-founding SocietyOne, Matt was the CEO of Memetrics Ltd., a profitable, rapid growth data and analytics technology business based in San Francisco. After managing the successful sale of Memetrics to Accenture in 2007, Matt spent 4 years as the Partner responsible for leading Accenture’s marketing data management and analytics team from San Francisco. Matt's practice was centered around large-scale digital transformation projects with a focus on innovative technology adoption within the enterprise.
Matt is also an active angel investor with 10 current investments and a couple of successful exists (including the sale of Quotify to Telstra in 2011). Matt graduated with a law degree from the University of Melbourne and has worked as an attorney for both Korea's largest law firm, Kim & Chang, and one of Australia's largest law firms, Minter Ellison.
Joanne Thrift
Chief Marketing Officer
Pepper
Joanne (Jo) Thrift joined Pepper in November 2014 in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Jo is a senior marketing professional with over 20 years' experience in Financial Services across a range of products/sectors including Mortgages, Credit Cards, Insurance, Superannuation, Wealth Management, Advisory, Business Banking and Investment Banking.
Prior to joining Pepper Jo’s most recent role was Marketing Director for Macquarie Bank where she was a member of the Banking & Financial Services Group's Executive and Operations Committee, leading the marketing program to grow the bank's retail client base in Australia.
Prior to her Banking & Financial Services Group role, Jo held other senior roles at Macquarie, including Head of Marketing for the Business Banking division, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Lloyds Insurance Corporation in the UK and she has also worked as a marketing consultant for Endgame Communications in Australia.
Bruce Treloar
Chief Executive Officer
LIXI Limited
Bruce is the CEO of LIXI Limited, an entity that develops and manages data messaging standards for use in the mortgage lending industry. Bruce has worked within the banking and finance industry for most of his career as an external auditor, internal auditor, project director and senior relationship manager. He was the banking industry representative on the National Electronic Conveyancing Systems (NECS) Steering Committee, where he chaired the Banks Conveyancers Lawyers working group. In addition, he has consulted to a number of participants in the mortgage lending and payments industry.
Bruce holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney; is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a member of the Governance Institute of Australia.
Josh Walther
Head of Direct Distribution
ING Direct
Josh is responsible for the leadership of ING Direct’s direct to consumer sales and service channels, including Customer Contact Centres; Direct Mortgage Sales; Mortgage Retention; and Customer Feedback teams. Key focus areas include delivering an industry leading service experience to their 1.5million customers; driving continual improvements to sales performance and efficiency; managing risk and quality; and underpinning all of these, cultivating an outstanding culture and people.
Josh has over 16 years experience across strategic management consulting and retail financial services, with a particular focus on customer and channel strategy and leadership. Prior to leading ING Direct’s direct sales and service channels, Josh also lead the Digital business, and was the Head of Strategy & Planning for ING Direct in Australia. Josh has previously worked with Aussie Home Loans, KPMG Consulting, Andersen Consulting, PWC and Macquarie Bank.
Mark Woolnough
Head of Third Party Distribution
ING Direct
Mark began his banking career under the graduate program at ANZ, where he worked for ten years across all aspects of the retail bank.
In 2000, Mark joined ING DIRECT as a Relationship Manager where his passion for service quickly led him to a senior leadership position.
Mark has held the roles of Head of Direct Mortgages, NSW State Manager (Broker) and Head of Partnerships (Broker) before being appointed Head of Broker Distribution in 2011 and more recently as Head of Third Party Distribution in October 2012.
Andrew Zanchetta
CEO Group Funding and Lending
Yellow Brick Road
Andrew Zanchetta is the CEO Group Funding and Lending at Yellow Brick Road, having joined the group in January 2014, following YBR’s acquisition of Resi Mortgage Corporation and VOW Financial. Andrew is responsible for leading the quest to provide innovative lending products to the YBR group. As part of the leadership team, Andrew oversees YBR’s Mortgage Manager Capability and is accountable for all lending, including pricing, credit assessment, customer service and funder engagement. Before joining YBR, Andrew held key leadership roles for Moody’s Investors Service and ABN AMRO Bank.
Speaking oppportunities are still available at Next Generation Lending 2015
Next Generation Lending 2015 is an outstanding opportunity for vendors to showcase their products, solutions and services to a targeted and high-profile gathering of senior-level decision makers from the retail lending sector.
Present your company, showcase your leadership and demonstrate how you can help the lending industry by speaking to this senior gathering of lending, marketing, IT, loan originations, and business strategy and development professionals from banking and non-banking institutions.
Use this unique forum to demonstrate your value to the biggest players in the retail lending industry. Speakers will assert themselves as leading advisors and solution providers to the sector.
If you have a solution for the retail lending sector, this is your platform to:
- Keep your brand awareness top-of-mind and associate your business solutions with an industry gathering of the highest standard
- Nurture existing customer relationships and build your lead generation for your sales team
- Demonstrate how your products, services and solutions fill a need for customers and sell to them at a time when they are engaged and actively seeking solutions
- Increase your marketing return on investment by tailoring a sponsorship package that directly aligns with your sales goals
For speaking, sponsorship and exhibition opportunities at Next Generation Lending 2015, please contact Oli Russell-Cowan today on +61 (0)2 8188 7536 or olir@questevents.com.au.