Westpac Makes Carolyn McCann Permanent Chief Executive, Consumer

Westpac has made acting chief executive, consumer Carolyn McCann's role permanent, in the same week it unveiled a new brand platform, 'It takes a little Westpac', which the banking executive said should last a decade.

The appointment follows the hiring of IAG CMO Michelle Klein, who joins next month as chief growth and marketing officer.

Carolyn joined Westpac in 2013 and has been a member of the executive team since 2018. She has been acting in her now-permanent role since May, following the departure of Jason Yetton; previously, she was group executive of customer and corporate services. That role included a remit spanning operations, scams and fraud protection, customer collections and hardship, property resilience, corporate affairs, and marketing.

“Carolyn is an outstanding executive and I’ve seen firsthand her ability to engage and galvanise high-performing teams to deliver results,” Westpac CEO Anthony Miller said.

“Under Carolyn’s leadership, Westpac’s operations teams have dramatically improved customer outcomes, including mortgage processes, where decision times have been reduced from twelve to five days. Scam protection has been significantly upgraded with market leading solutions reducing losses by 40%, and complaints handling processes have been transformed."

The business appointed creative agency BMF in February, ending a 13-year partnership with DDB Sydney. This week's platform launch is the latest in a string of banking category work to roll out this year from Bankwest, ANZ, and CommBank. Biggest competitor Commbank launched 'Doubt Never Did' last month.​

The Westpac CEO added Carolyn will bring "outstanding leadership skills" to the role, and lead "a team of highly experienced retail banking executives as well as our superb employees across the country. Carolyn’s drive, vision and determination will be an asset to the bank in this role.

​“With the right mix of experience, professionalism, teamwork and energy, we now have the team in place to lead Westpac and I’m excited for what we can achieve together.”