Leadership Summit: Women in Finance

TANYA SALE

Tanya is the Founder, CEO and Managing Director of multi-award-winning, national Aggregator group, Outsource Financial. Tanya is the only female CEO / Managing Director of a mortgage Aggregator in Australia. Having extensive banking and finance experience, Tanya pioneered the third-party mortgage sector, by creating diverse models to change the way lending was conducted in Australia.

In 2019 Tanya appeared on the expert’s panel, for a new television show on Channel 9, called Secrets of the Money Masters. A series featuring some of Australia’s biggest sporting celebrities who learn about financial strategy and security. Additionally, in 2019, Tanya won ‘CEO of the Year’ at the Women in Finance Awards and was named as one of MPA’s Global 100.

VERONICA DUNCAN

Veronica Duncan is a banking and finance professional, bringing 18 years’ experience to bear on her current role as Head of Business Banking Transformation for Bendigo Bank. The Transformation Team has responsibility for engagement, operations and continuous improvement functions. Its purpose is to significantly improve customer experience, the efficiency of our business model and engagement of our staff.

Prior to joining Business Banking, Veronica spent five years in executive positions in agribusiness banking with Rural Bank, charged with responsibility for operations, change, technology and risk portfolios. A strong communicator, she focuses on long-term business planning and disciplined execution for sustainable success – ensuring success is built on resilient teams and a robust risk culture that balances the interests of customers, community, staff and shareholders.

With a background in law, Veronica has also held a range of operational, customer-facing, people and product management, legal and risk roles over her career with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Tower Trust, National Australia Trustees and BT Financial Group. Veronica holds a Bachelor of Laws & Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Economics, both from the Flinders University of South Australia.

ANA MARINKOVIC

Ana Marinkovic is a senior executive whose career spans more than 15 years in financial services. Her current role is Executive, Business Direct and Small Business at NAB, where her team looks after the financial needs of five hundred thousand businesses across Australia, through a suite of products and services to support every stage of a business’ journey.

Throughout Ana’s career in financial services, she has held senior roles across consumer and commercial banking, portfolio management, digitisation and product development. These roles have seen her lead the delivery of enterprise wide transformations, complex technology programs and manage large-scale businesses.

Ana is a passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity and believes in hard work, broad engagement and curiosity as foundations to authentic leadership. She is an advisory Board Member for the Brilliant Women Global organisation, advocating for diversity and inclusion in Australia and internationally.

DIANE TATE

Diane’s core mission is to ensure that AFIA drives a culture of integrity, transparency and fairness across its membership. She is responsible for working with industry leaders on developing the strategic direction of AFIA and driving the performance of AFIA.

Diane has over 25 years of experience in financial services, stakeholder engagement, industry reform and public policy. She has represented the Australian banking and financial services industry in numerous international forums and has advocated for strong governance, balanced regulation and consumer protection and the importance of financial literacy for the wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and economies.

Prior to joining AFIA, Diane held various senior executive roles at the Australian Banking Association, including Deputy Chief Executive Officer, where she led the industry through the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry and was the architect of the Banking Reform Program announced in 2016. She has also worked in the Federal Government, AUSTRAC, ASIC and the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA).

Diane holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from Macquarie University and is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, Australian Institute of Company Directors, and FINSIA. She is a passionate activist for women in leadership roles, particularly in the financial services industry.

CARINA PARISELLA

Carina Parisella is a technology and business executive with extensive background in leading high performing teams, technology enablement, large program delivery, media and communications.

At ANZ, she’s leading the Technology Workforce Tribe, a team of cross-functional squads to build a more effective and adaptive workforce by accelerating the development of key capabilities including early talent, ways of working and overseeing the execution of the technology workforce strategy.

A passionate diversity and inclusion advocate, Carina and her teams have been recognised globally for their work across various initiatives focused on leveraging untapped talent like the ANZ award-winning Return to Work program and the highly successful Spectrum program for autistic individuals.

Closer to home, Carina is helping to build the centre of sports and recreation in Docklands as the President of the newly established Docklands Sports Club. The vision is to help young people of all abilities thrive through sport and community connection.

Prior to her current role, Carina has held a number of leadership roles across banking, media, communications, innovation and partnerships and plays an advisory role in the innovation and start-up economy. She’s a regular in the Australian speaking circuit and passionate about increasing awareness of diversity in business and untapped talent. A relentless optimist and business creative, Carina loves working with people and technology to bring ideas and solutions to life.

LISA DAVIES

Lisa has an extensive background in Business Performance Optimisation, having worked on the transformation and leadership of large-scale teams, to drive customer centric outcomes. 

As leader of transformation for Equifax, Lisa’s focus is on driving improvements in customer and consumer outcomes through customer centred design of our products and service propositions. This will also include a strong overlay of risk management, with security and operational risk elements embedded in the transformation journey. 

Lisa built her early career with GE Australia in key transformation and business leadership roles, before moving to a COO role. She has had P & L responsibility for market facing businesses in both financial services and consumer products. Lisa has extensive knowledge in leading local teams within a global organisation and in-depth experience in digital, customer experience design and continuous improvement

SHERIFF HUSSEIN

Sherif is an executive leader with 26+ years of experience and expertise delivering best-in-class digital customer experiences across managed shared services teams comprised of sales, legal, finance, operations, call centres, onboarding, billing, credit, and collections. She has worked with companies across diverse industries

With years of senior business leadership experience, Sherif successfully manages operations, improves processes to achieve operational excellence and drive transformation, and leads development of teams and new business units. Sherif’s expertise includes helping organisations exceed their financial objectives by leading customer success initiatives, enhancing collection techniques, reviewing credit policy, and ensuring compliance with debtor factoring and debtor insurance obligations.

Across her career, Sherif has been known for leading and transforming strategies and processes. As the Head of Client Success at illion, Sherif is responsible for developing and executing strategy to ensure overall performance outcomes and financial objectives across the division. Sherif additionally has successfully delivered a wide range of technical programs including CRM and ERP implementations as well as various digital transformations. As a Billing & Credit Manager at Interactive, Sherif optimised the company’s billing and credit team processes, including creating a new client servicing solution and managing a complex transformation which minimised uncollectable debt, maximised cash flow, and reduced DSO by 20 days.

Sherif has extensive experience collaborating with C-Suite executives to improve workflows, increase efficiency, and change the direction of the credit departments. At REA Group Limited, Sherif oversaw Salesforce implementation which allowed for a range of solutions and digitised customer experiences which improved operations and cash flow. At Riordan Fuels, Sherif brought her skills in leading process improvements to mitigate bad debt risk and increase cash flow $7 million in one month, ultimately increasing cash flow by $15 million.

Sherif is passionate about empowering teams and building trusting relationships with clients, customers, employees, and company leadership. Sherif creates positive team cultures with a commitment to accountability and an unwavering level of support for her staff.

A Certified Credit Executive, Sherif Served as the President of the Victorian and Tasmanian Division of the Australian Institute of Credit Management for 4 years up until last year. Sherif is passionate about Women in Credit and as been advocate, on the committee and supported the event in Melbourne since 2015.

JULIE HOGAN

She has two roles. A programme delivery and portfolio management professional with 25+ years’ experience in the finance sector and a mum of 2 beautiful kids. She builds and leads great teams to deliver innovation through technology and process change, with a passion for projects with real customer focussed outcomes.

The programs delivered across the CBA group have covered regulatory change (making sure all customers are treated equally), remediation (making our customers whole again) and transformation (making the processes and systems our customer use, even better).

She is currently involved in the digitisation of essential customers services, by uplifting our customers online journey to interact with CBA. She works to foster a collaborative, energized team environment where openness, communication, fun and support for one another is key.   As a leader  she strives for effective cohesion across multiple teams/divisions and creating a 1 team environment where individuals can thrive. 

Her key driver is facilitating people in working well together, allowing them to play to their strengths to deliver the best results for the business.

She is an active sportsperson; my interests currently involve dragon boating, softball and getting into the surf whenever she can try to and stand up on a board. She proudly captains and coaches the women’s dragon boat team who made it to the world champs in 2018 and plan to do so again in 2024.

SANGEETA VENKATESEN

Sangeeta is an experienced banker, board advisor, investor, and entrepreneur. She currently serves on several boards including as Chairman of RSL LifeCare, one of the oldest age cares in Australia, with 56 retirement villages and age care homes across NSW and ACT, President at Women in Banking and Finance (WiBF), and Investment Committee Member at EG Funds Management.

Sangeeta has worked with some of the most prominent and globally recognised firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, and The Commonwealth Bank of Australia across the globe including London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney, in senior roles. As the co-founder of FairVine superannuation fund, she won the ‘Innovator ofthe Year’ award at Money Management and Super Review’s Women in Financial Services Awards 2019, and the Finance Monthly Women in Finance Awards 2020, and was featured in the CEO Magazine for her contribution to women in business.

Sangeeta is a highly sought-after speaker and thought leader and has covered topics including fintech, ESG, and cognitive diversity, and is a regular judge at Finance Asia annual awards.

KATRINA DORAN

Kathrina holds a B.Sc. (Pharm) from Trinity College, Dublin, an MBA from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, and is a graduate of AICD.  She is a Non-Executive Director in both private and Not-for-Profit sectors.  Prior to illion, Kathrina held executive roles in several large global and local organisations in the healthcare, business process optimisation, professional services and finance industries specialising in client centric operating models to deliver sustainable growth.

As the Chief Commercial Officer at illion, Kathrina leads our client engagement team that leverages data and technology to deliver optimal value for our clients, from solution design to exceptional client experience delivery.   She has a passion for projects that combine smart technology, clear insights and real, actionable outcomes.   A strong advocate for the ‘smarter, not harder’ mindset, Kathrina is an experienced leader that brings energy and know-how to projects with customers and industry partners.

TRENNA PROBERT

Trenna  is the founder and CEO of Super Fierce, a wealth advice platform and social enterprise that aims to close the gender wealth & retirement gap in Australia.

The Super Fierce vision is a world where financial security is equitable and sustainable. Its mission is to close the 47% gender superannuation gap in Australia through affordable financial advice that is accessible to all.

Trenna previously accrued three decades of experience designing institutional investments, running strategy for Macquarie (a global private bank), as GM for an independent advice business, working with global CEOs at Amex, and spending more than a decade as an entrepreneur. She founded three highly successful businesses, and secured one exit.
Trenna’s deep career experiences combines with a fiery passion for harnessing the power of finance for good. She is fiercely determined to empower Australians to age with dignity, and women to control their financial futures. 

Vivacious, bright, and intense, Trenna is all about creating change. Meaningful change. Except when it comes to champagne. Champagne doesn’t need to change one little bit.

MARIA TRINCI

Maria has been a partner at KPMG for over ten years.  Maria works with financial services companies and has held several leadership positions within the firm as well.   She has led the Capital Markets business and the Digital transformation of the assurance and risk business.

Having started with the firm in 2000, Maria has been fortunate to live and work in New York, London, Edinburgh, Singapore and Hong Kong.  Her focus has always been in risk, accounting and process change.

She is known as an empathetic leader who likes to help her clients achieve their objectives in the right way. She is passionate about being a leader that champions the success of the people she works with.

Outside of work, Maria is mum to a 4 year old boy and enjoys being a mentor to Commerce students looking for their first career move.  Previous to her last move to the UK, Maria was the chair of the cancer council and remains passionate about cancer prevention, detection and support.