Popular bank exec to lead CoreLogic’s Australian business

Mortgage Business can confirm that after 27 years with ING Direct, the bank’s executive director, customer delivery Lisa Claes will leave the foreign-owned lender in October to lead CoreLogic’s Australia and New Zealand business. Meanwhile, current CoreLogic boss Graham Mirabito will head up the group’s global operations as CEO international.

Mr Mirabito explained that the key hire reflects the group’s rapid expansion — in 10 years CoreLogic (previously RP Data) has grown from 70 staff to over 700 and from 6,000 customers to over 20,000 today, with 150,000 end users.

“We have a lot of very important customers both here and in New Zealand, which is the lion’s share of what we do,” he said.

Locally, the business provides critical real estate data to Australia’s banks and is an important component in the domestic mortgage market.

CoreLogic acquired RP Data in early 2011 for $194 million. The California-based group has since given its Australian business accountability for opportunities in Asia and other international markets such as Europe.

“With that accountability and the size that we have grown to, it is the perfect time for someone like Lisa to come in and run Australia and New Zealand for us,” Mr Mirabito said.

“Her background and experience at ING Direct, being a digital bank, brings a lot of skills in operational efficiency and customer focus that will take us to the next level,” he said.

“We have a lot of opportunity left in Australia in our core markets of finance, insurance and real estate. Lisa obviously knows these markets well and knows how to build scalable businesses. That is where we are at now. We need to scale faster to keep up with the opportunity and improve the range of services for our customers.”

ING Direct confirmed that Ms Claes would be joining CoreLogic in October but could not provide comment.

[Related: ING Direct identifies female referral trend]