Advisory Board - Australia

Vanessa is an experienced Non-Executive Director and ‘C suite’ executive with 25 years’ experience in government, large corporations and the not for profit sector, with specific expertise in finance, strategy and transformational change. Excelling in roles spanning general management, change management, innovation, strategy and organisational development, Vanessa has outstanding leadership and business turnaround abilities and builds high level strategic and stakeholder relationships.

Vanessa is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Banking Association responsible for the development of the strategic direction of the association and optimising the business operations including governance, finance, HR, risk and technology. Vanessa joined the ABA following 3 years leading the YWCA NSW, one of Australia’s oldest charities. Vanessa led a team of 300, through a merger of 10 small entities, from a federated structure to become a national organisation.

Prior to the YWCA, Vanessa spent 16 years with the Commonwealth Bank in several executive roles spanning Strategy, Property, HR, Finance and IT. Responsible for developing a number of business strategies and leading complex change and cultural transformations including the Branch Refurbishment Strategy (2003), the Sydney Metro Corporate Accommodation Strategy (2005), the relocation of 4500 employees to Sydney Olympic Park (2006/8), the relocation and adoption of activity based working by 6200 employees(2010/11), the development of an innovation strategy including new capabilities (Design Thinking, Experimentation, Agile, Data Analytics and Lean Productivity) and creating the Wired for Wonder conference, Unleashing Innovation Fund and Innovation Lab (2012/14).

Vanessa’s last role with CommBank was General Manager, Organisational Development - responsible for developing and implementing culture, diversity, talent, leadership and capability strategies, aligned to the people strategies of the Technology, Finance and Bankwest lines of business, ~14,000 employees.

Vanessa is currently a Non Executive Director of Variety the Childrens Charity and Driveabout World (an Edutech start up) and serves as a Judge of the Eureka Prize.

Carolyn is an experienced leader with more than 20 years in the technology sector, including extensive international experience within the payments, fintech, e-commerce, and telecommunications sectors.

For more than 20 years, she has been actively supporting brands to amplify their presence in relevant markets, elevate their customer experience, and form long-term partnerships. Carolyn’s work within GoCardless, Braintree a PayPal Service, eBay, Vodafone, and Telstra has seen her sharpen her sales, marketing, and leadership expertise, as well as her knowledge in conversion, payments and digital transformation.

Carolyn’s effervescent personality has naturally enabled her to become a sought-after keynote speaker locally and internationally. She is passionate about creating opportunities for local businesses in the region, within areas such as the future of payments and automation. She’s an advocate for workplace diversity and is focused on creating an inclusive working environment. Her primary goal is to empower organisations to drive inclusion and equality through technology and choice.

Her astute leadership and professionalism have resulted in Carolyn being awarded one of CEO Magazine’s’IT and Telecommunications Executive of the Year’ in 2018, Woman in Payments 2019 ‘Advocate for Woman’ and recognised as one of Business Insider's top 20 Women in Fintech APAC

Corrina Davison is the Managing Director for American Express Australia and New Zealand and Chairman of the American Express Australia Limited Board.

Corrina has been with American Express for 19 years in which time she has held various senior leadership roles in Australia and the United States. Corrina’s experience spans customer management, loyalty, business development, strategic partner management, consumer and B2B marketing, operations and change leadership.

Between 2012-2018 Corrina was based in New York, where she was an executive member of a team responsible for defining, building and launching a national loyalty and performance marketing program.

Corrina then went on to lead customer marketing for the US Commercial Services business, driving portfolio growth through product, customer lifecycle management and integrated customer experience strategies.

Before joining American Express, Corrina held leadership roles at Radisson Hotels Asia Pacific and Air New Zealand.
 

Nish Dharmaratne is the Global Head of Product for Global Transaction Banking business at Westpac Institutional Bank based in Australia. In her current role she covers Core Payments, New Payment Solutions, Cross Currency Payments, Domestic & International receivables, Corporate Commercial Cards, Merchant Acquiring , Liquidity solutions and Balance Sheet Management.

Prior to Westpac, Nish has over 23 years of experience in banking across Australia and Asia. She led GTS business in Singapore for Citibank in her most recent role. She has held various roles with Citi leading regional businesses in Liquidity, Payments, Investments, Client Solutions and Relationship Management.

She has a Bachelor of Banking & Finance from Monash University, Australia, Postgraduate from Chartered Institute of Marketing , UK & Master of Business Administration from University of SriJay, Colombo.

She has also completed the High Potential Leadership program at Harvard University & Women In Leadership program at UCLA, USA.

Karen is a Senior Director of Client Relationship Management at Visa, working with leading banking organisations in Australia to deliver innovative payment strategy.

Karen has over 16 years experience across the UK and Australian market, where she has lead key Strategic Partnerships to deliver results across many Credit Card programs working for Financial Services organisations such as GE Money, Santander Bank and Citi.

Some key highlights within Karen’s career have been overseeing the launch of the David Jones American Express Platinum Card and the Qantas Titanium Card, in Partnership with Citi; both premium product offerings with some niche customer experiences and rewards.

Karen thrives on leading relationships, and teams through alignment, transparency and a positive attitude.

Jackie is the Head of Payments Industry within Digital Banking at ANZ. Commencing her career in consulting, Jackie spent 4 years with TP3 (formerly Tactics) consulting to ANZ for a range of projects, including ANZ’s Institutional cash management platform transformation from 2007-2010. Jackie joined ANZ in 2010, and has worked in several roles across Product, Innovation and Industry. Within these roles, Jackie has managed diverse payment product portfolios, and supported the development and management of ANZ’s strategy, standards, and thought leadership in the Industry. Jackie’s strengths include a depth of payments knowledge and experience, combined with a collaborative, and strong customer centric approach.

Monique offers 30 years’ experience in Banking and Finance in Australia. She commenced her career with Citibank, before moving into search in 1992.

To further broaden her experience, Monique spent 12 months in-house with a Big 4 trading bank driving growth within a key business division.

Monique joined Amrop Carmichael Fisher in 2003, as a Founding Partner and is Head of Practice for Banking, Payments and FinTech in Australia. She has been instrumental with the company’s growth and presence in Financial Services and has successfully completed over 350 Executive and Senior Management mandates with a comprehensive network of contacts.

Deeply entrenched in Banking, Payments and FinTech, Monique offers deep market insights in a period of scale and transformation within the Australasian Payments landscape.

Enthusiastic about helping her clients achieve their strategic goals, her focus is creating and building teams to lead, transform and evolve.

Bem is an academic and creative practitioner with a wide range of interdisciplinary interests. Her career spans the creative industries as a creative consultant, brand strategist and writer, and she has also worked at the cutting edge of digital culture. Her work encompasses clients across a vast range of industries, on everything from integrated campaigns, television, film and corporate videos, to radio, press, direct mail, electronic direct mail, websites and guerrilla campaigns. She is also an accomplished novelist, with several novels and short stories published to critical acclaim. She has taught throughout her career, and currently teaches a radically innovative interdisciplinary degree, harnessing the creative passions of students from 18 core disciplines at UTS. In 2001, she received the NSW Premier’s Literary Fellowship, followed by an Asialink Residency to India in 2003, as well as a University of Sydney Postgraduate Award spread over 2007-2010. She has published numerous books and short stories, including The Seduction of Silence (2000), and There, Where the Pepper Grows (2005).