NAB's new chief Andrew Thorburn has acted quickly to turn around the Australian bank's flagging tech transformation project, replacing enterprise services head Lisa Gray with Renee Roberts, former chief risk officer of NAB-owned Bank of New Zealand.
Roberts is one of four new appointments to the executive management team at NAB made on Thorborn's first day in the job. She is joined by Angela Mentis as group executive business banking, Anthony Cahill, group executive, products and markets, and David Gall as chief risk officer.
Roberts will take over a ten-year, multi-billion dollar tech transformation project covering all aspects of NAB's IT architecture. The project, which was initially planned to take just five years, has stuttered as NAB's chief competitors have progressed with their own core tech replacement programmes.
Gray, the former head of retail banking at NAB who was appointed to the role in March 2013, has elected to leave the bank following an appropriate handover period.
"Selecting a leadership team is one of the biggest decisions a CEO makes, and I have taken the time since my appointment was announced in April to consider who are the best people to take NAB forward," says Thorburn. "These individuals are banking professionals with experience in business and retail, product, risk and technology and share a desire to work as part of a team leading sustainable change across our organisation."