St George appoints new CEO

Commonwealth Bank senior executive Gail Kelly has scored the chief executive officer role atSt George Bank, starting early next year.

Kelly departs theCommonwealthafter four years with the Bank and leaves her post heading up Commonwealth Bank customer service to take up the top position with St George, beginning on January 14, 2002.

St George has been searching for a new leader since mid September when former chief executive Ed O’Neil died suddenly from a heart attack.

St George executive chairman Frank Conroy, who has taken charge over the past few months, says the bank is happy with the search outcome.

“The Board is delighted to welcome Mrs Kelly to the Bank. She is an outstanding executive with the qualities to continue the momentum of high performance within the Bank,” he says.

Kelly joined the Commonwealth in November 1997 as strategic marketing general manager and was appointed to head up the customer service division in January 2000.

Prior to emigrating to Australia from South Africa in 1997, Kelly spent 17 years working for Nedcor Bank, one of the four major banks in South Africa.

At Nedcor, Kelly was personal banking general manager for one year and card division general manager for five. She also spent three years as human resources general manager.

Conroy says Kelly’s remuneration as St George chief executive is broadly in line with that of her predecessor O’Neil, and the inclusion of 100,000 shares under the Bank’s executive performance plan compensates her exit from Commonwealth.

“The purpose of the shares is to compensate Mrs Kelly for long term and other incentive remuneration which would have been forgone by leaving her previous employer,” he says.

The chief executive package also includes the issue of one million options under the executive option plan, with option exercise subject to a performance hurdle related to growth in earnings per share.

Both the shares and options will be issued to Kelly in a number of tranches spread over several years.

Commonwealth Bank Victoria and Tasmania state general manager Eric Kinsella has taken on the role of Customer Service acting head while the Bank begins its search for Kelly’s replacement, expected to be announced in the near future.