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Michelle Winzer has joined Heartland Bank Australia Limited (Heartland Bank) has its new CEO.
Upon joining the bank, Heartland has referred to Winzer as an “authentic visionary leader” with extensive experience delivering cultural transformation, with a strong value-based leadership style, passionate about diversity and inclusion.
Winzer will be based out of Heartland Bank’s Melbourne office and will focus on executing the bank’s strategic priorities for ongoing growth.
She enters her new role with Heartland Bank with over 30 years of experience in banking and financial services and joins from RACQ Bank in Queensland where she was CEO banking.
Prior to this, Winzer was the CEO of Bank of Melbourne and has held senior roles at Bankwest, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), and Westpac.
Geoff Summerhayes, Heartland Bank’s chair and independent non-executive director, said: “The board is thrilled to have Michelle leading our team of high calibre executives. We are ambitious for the new Heartland Bank to continue the growth of Heartland’s specialist business in reverse mortgages and livestock finance.
“Michelle is a strong leader, who has a track record of delivering outcomes. The banking landscape and product set has contracted in recent years, and we believe there is great potential for a focused specialist bank, like Heartland Bank, to meet the needs of underserved segments such as older Australians and livestock graziers with our ‘best or only’ banking strategy.
“The board is excited to have Michelle onboard to lead the execution of Heartland Bank’s strategy.”
Heartland Bank is a provider of reverse mortgages, a specialist provider of livestock finance and was established in May 2024 following the acquisition of Challenger Bank by New Zealand registered bank Heartland Bank Limited.
The bank in Australia was formed when Challenger Bank united with Heartland Group’s Australian specialist finance businesses: Heartland Finance and StockCo.
The announcement of a new CEO comes as Heartland Bank also named Vaughan Dixon to the role of chief technology & operations on 1 July 2024, bringing with him 25 years of industry experience across credit, risk, decisioning, technology, and credit bureaus.
He entered the role with the digital specialist bank after spending three years as the chief information officer at humm group.
Previously, he was the founder of the Decision Intellect business and spent over 10 years at Dun & Bradstreet Australia, where he remained after a post-private equity buyout that saw the company be known as illion, in a number of leadership roles including chief technology officer.
[RELATED: Digital specialist bank appoints chief technology & operations officer]
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