St George Stalwart Takes The Top Job

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 21, 2008

Danny John

A 25-YEAR veteran of St George Bank, Greg Bartlett, has beaten at least two of his senior colleagues to the top post - running retail and business banking - under the bank's new owner, Westpac, and its former chief executive, Gail Kelly.

Mr Bartlett, who started at St George in the early 1980s when it was a relatively small Sydney building society, worked under Mrs Kelly during her five years at the Dragon's helm.

He will manage the slimmed-down operations following the departure this week of the bank's chief executive, Paul Fegan.

Mr Bartlett was recently manager of the institutional and corporate banking division. Mrs Kelly described him yesterday as the "perfect choice" to head Westpac's new subsidiary.

"He is deeply steeped in the St George traditions and in the fabric of the bank," she said.

Mrs Kelly praised his role in taking the Dragon's share of business banking from less than 3 per cent to nearly 10 per cent during his nine years in charge of its corporate division.

Mr Bartlett's long-standing links with St George and his track record as a "business builder" helped him to pip the recently appointed head of retail banking, Les Matheson, to the post.

Mr Matheson had been recruited by Mr Fegan in June from the Australian arm of the US banking giant Citibank, where he had been divisional head. He was left without a job in the management reshuffle following the $16 billion merger of the two banks and as a result will leave St George on December 1.

Also in the departure lounge is the other candidate for the top post, Michael Cameron, who has been the Dragon's chief financial officer.

Mr Cameron ran the Commonwealth Bank's retail banking network and was its finance director before that, when Mrs Kelly poached him to St George just before she left for Westpac.

He is understood to have been interested in a broader role at the merged entity and now expected to take a long holiday before looking at senior positions in a range of industries.

Mrs Kelly, who announced the combined group's managerial structure yesterday, has left in place the line-up of Westpac senior executives.

But the 12-strong management team contains some extra St George influence, with Peter Clare, who was technology chief at the Dragon before joining Westpac in March, elevated to product and operations chief.

Mrs Kelly also found room for the remaining five St George divisional bosses at the next level down in the combined management structure.

The managing director of Bank SA, Rob Chapman, will also keep his role in the new structure, staying on to run the Adelaide operations as a separate brand, as with the "Dragon".