Westpac has announced that Ann Pickard will take a senior independent non-executive Director at the company’s board. Ms Pickard’s appointment will take effect from the beginning of December.

 

Ms Pickard will bring 25 years of local and international experience as a senior manager in large corporations, with particular experience in major corporate transformations, maximising return on assets and complex negotiations.

 

Ms Pickard is broadly respected as possessing extensive experience in large scale development projects and strategic planning.

 

“Ann’s deep global experience will complement the skills of the existing directors and bring a valuable new dimension to the Board’s thinking. We are very much looking forward to her joining us,” Westpac Chairman Ted Evans said.

 

Ms Pickard was appointed to Executive Vice President of Royal Dutch Shell’s upstream business in Australia, before having her role expanded to Country Chair of Shell in Australia.

 

The announcement of Ms Pickard’s appointment comes as the company has made a number of executive team changes.

 

Westpac’s CEO Gail Kelly announced that Peter Hanlon, currently Group Executive Human Resources & Transformation, will take on increased responsibility for accelerating productivity programs.

 

“Productivity improvement is critical Group priority, and although we have made significant progress in this area since we briefed the market on productivity initiatives last October, we have decided to lift the pace,” Mrs Kelly said.

 

Mrs Kelly has also announced that Christine Parker will assume the position of Group Executive Human Resources & Corporate Affairs.