From Ford to CBA - Kiersten Robinson
Commonwealth Bank has lured two women with extensive international business experience to join its top management team, which will be overhauled in light of upcoming retirements.
Emma Bunnell has been appointed Chief Operations Officer at CommBank.
Bunnell joins CBA from HSBC UK where she is CEO, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
Before that Bunnell was the Chief Operating Officer for HSBC UK where she held responsibility for financial crime operations, as well as the technology, operations and fraud functions. Prior to that, Bunnell was a partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group, where she spent 14 years providing strategic, operational and technology advice to the financial services sector.
Kiersten Robinson has been appointed Chief People Officer following a long career, mainly in HR, with Ford. Most of her management service was with Ford in North America though Robinson headed labour relations for Ford in Australia from 1999 to 2002.
Two retirements are the background to a round robin of top executive appointments announced yesterday by CBA managing director Matt Comyn.
Sian Lewis, Group Executive Human Resources, will retire from CBA on 16 February 2025. Lewis was promoted to her current role in August 2018.
Nigel Williams, Group Chief Risk Officer, will also retire from CBA on 16 February 2025.
Williams, ex ANZ, has been with CBA for six years “and played a fundamental role post the APRA Prudential Review, embedding sustainable improvements to the Group’s governance, culture and risk management practices to deliver better customer outcomes. Nigel was also instrumental in safely adapting our risk appetite to support CBA’s customers through the pandemic” the bank said.
Andrew Hinchliff has been appointed Group Chief Risk Officer.
Andrew has been with CBA since 2015 and was promoted into his current role of Group Executive Institutional Banking & Markets in August 2018.
Sinead Taylor has been appointed Group Executive Institutional Banking and Markets in his place.
Taylor has been with CBA for more than 20 years and was promoted to Chief Operations Officer in October 2021 with responsibility for all banking, markets and group regulatory operations across CBA. Prior to this, she was Executive General Manager of Bankwest, having led the business since 2019.
Offshore hires into Commonwealth Bank, such as those of Emma Bunnell and
Kiersten Robinson have a history of not working out too well; think Ed Federer and Priscilla Brown.
Maybe this time will be different. CBA have badly needed a replacement for the discredited Sian Lewis as head of HR for some time.
Most interesting is Comyn’s choice of Emma Bunnell as COO, and thus one day, maybe, in contention to replace him as CEO.