BOQ Cements Growth Plans With New Appointments
Thursday, 23/02/2012
BOQ has today announced the creation of two new Group Executive roles, reinforcing the Bank’s focus on growing its core banking business.
Matt Baxby has been appointed to the newly created Group Executive, Retail and Online Banking role and Brendan White has been appointed to the new Group Executive, Business Banking, Agribusiness and Financial Markets role.
BOQ Managing Director and CEO Stuart Grimshaw said the Bank was very excited to be welcoming Matt and Brendan to the team especially as they have the skills, experience, talent and drive to lead the Bank’s growth plans in their respective areas of business.
“At BOQ, our focus is on understanding and meeting the needs of our customers, and we created these two new Group Executive roles to really drive growth in our business banking, agribusiness and financial markets area and in the retail and online banking space,” said Stuart.
“Both Matt and Brendan are extremely well-regarded financial services professionals and I have total confidence in their ability to drive and manage this growth story.
“I’m delighted to have Matt and Brendan on board in what I believe is going to be an exciting period for BOQ.”
Matt Baxby joins the Bank after almost ten years with the Virgin group, most recently spending three years as Managing Director of Virgin Money Australia, where he has taken the business through a major transformation to become a recognised player in the financial services sector.
In accepting the appointment, Matt said he was excited to join the BOQ team and looked forward to the challenges ahead.
“I was really drawn to BOQ’s challenger positioning in the market; I know the Bank has a real opportunity to offer Australians a genuine alternative to the major banks and I’m looking forward to helping make this a reality.
“BOQ’s Owner-Managed Branch model gives the Bank a real edge in terms of delivering a truly different ‘in branch’ experience and I believe there is huge scope for further growth and development in the retail banking space, capitalising on the unique benefits of the model.
“There is also significant scope for growth in the online banking space and I’m looking forward to investigating the many exciting opportunities available.”
Brendan White joins BOQ from the Commonwealth Bank, where he has held a number of senior roles over a period of almost ten years. After holding various senior positions in global markets, Brendan was most recently CBA’s Executive General Manager, Regional and Agribusiness Banking, where he had responsibility for a team of 520 agribusiness and regional commercial banking specialists responsible for servicing more than 30,000 clients nationally through over 70 business banking centres.
“Brendan is a fantastic relationship banker with an impeccable knowledge and background in Agribusiness, Regional Banking and Financial Markets. His appointment recognises the focus we will be bringing to these key customer segments,” said Stuart.
Brendan said he was attracted to the huge opportunities for growth at BOQ.
“While BOQ does have a great reputation for offering small business owners exceptional customer service with a real focus on one-on-one relationships, there remains huge potential for growth across its entire business banking portfolio, and particularly in the agribusiness sector.
“I’m looking forward to driving both growth and profitability in this part of the Bank’s business and believe BOQ’s size and flexibility will ensure we can make some real progress across these sectors relatively quickly.”
