(20 August 2012 – New Zealand) Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has announced a new chief financial officer, with the appointment of Adrienne Duarte set to join the bank in September, replacing Ken Christie.Duarte is the bank’s first female CFO and her appointment brings the gender balance BNZ’s executive team up to 50 percent women.
BNZ chief executive Andrew Thorburn said: “I am delighted to welcome Adrienne to my executive team. Following a rigorous search, Adrienne was the clear frontrunner for this role.
“Well respected across the NAB group, she is ideally placed to help lead the bank through the challenging economic times ahead and enable us to continue to perform, and invest in New Zealand.
“Adrienne brings to BNZ a wealth of market-leading experience, having been involved in a number of significant NAB initiatives where she helped drive the ROE and capital efficiency agenda for the group, and consistently delivered outstanding results.”
Duarte joins BNZ from 12 years with NAB where she was most recently general manager, group performance and planning with responsibility for providing insights that enable the group executive to set the performance agenda across the group.
Adrienne’s roles at NAB also included general manager performance management, capital insights; general manager, financial strategy and ROE; and general manager group strategic investments. Prior to joining NAB, Adrienne’s career was based in the advisory world both in the UK and Australia – in corporate finance and strategy consulting.
Christie leaves at the end of the year to take up a role with National Australia Bank (NAB).