Banking on the run puts Gillam on a good wicket

With the banking sector facing increasing disruption, one major lender has come up with a plan to take the business to the customer rather than the other way around.

RUNS ON THE BOARD

NAB executive Ross Gillam is a veteran in the banking sector of many year’s standing.

What’s perhaps less known is that he is also the proud father-in-law of cricket wunderkind Marnus Labuschagne, with the South African-born star marrying daughter Rebekah in 2017.

We hear the veteran banker has become quite the cricket numpty and loves nothing more than discussing the game with his son-in-law and watching him play.

All the time in the open air also has allowed Gillam to come up with a cracking business idea amid the rapidly changing banking sector.

Gillam, who is head of NAB’s mobile banking in Queensland, is trialling a “Bank in a Bus” that allows the lender to bring its products and services to its customers. Venues include new land developments, sport club events or defence family days.

Marnus Labuschagne during the Big Bash League last month.

“We know our customers are increasingly busy so we are using the NAB Bank in a Bus to provide a different way for our customers to connect with us,” Gillam tells your diarist. “It’s all about meeting with our customers at times and in places that suit them.”

Gillam says in the bus customers can meet with home lending specialists, open new accounts, learn about internet banking and speak with NAB bankers about customers and services.

We guess if the Bank in a Bus doesn’t work out it can probably double as a tour bus for Labuschagne and the rest of the Aussie cricket team.

LIFE AFTER LORNA

STEPHANIE Kong, head of global retail at Lorna Jane, has turned her back on a 16-year retail career to co-found a Brisbane-based real estate start up UrbanX.

The Brisbane local worked at the active wear giant for over a decade and a half, eventually becoming head of global retail. She was also responsible for launching Lorna Jane in the US in 2012, relocating to California and opening 42 stores over three-and-a-half years.

But dinner with old school friend Dan Argent sparked the idea of branching out into a new venture. “I’ve grown to reach the top of a mature, global company but being in the founding phase of a new business is thrilling,” Kong says. UrbanX boasts that it allows customers to “escape the traditional big agency franchise and create their own personalised brand.”

A Lorna Jane fashion store.

LOVED UP

WITH Valentine’s Day this week Strathpine-based legal eagle Graham Doessel has some decidedly unromantic advice for young lovers - do a credit check on your prospective partner. Doessel, chief executive of MyCRA Lawyers, says many divorces could be avoided if couples did a credit check on their partner before they tied the knot or moved in together.

“Normally one of the first indications a person gets of what their partner is like with money is when it comes to a wedding,” he says. The average cost of a wedding in Australia these days is $65,482 according to a survey in Bride to Be magazine.

Doessel says some couples are sacrificing everything including their financial future and their credit rating all for one big day and some photographs “Some couples make huge sacrifices including not paying their bills on time which can jeopardize their happiness once the honeymoon is over, due to the stress it will place on them down the track,” he says.

FIRED UP

THE guys and gals from Howard Smith Wharves are certainly doing their bit for fire-ravaged communities around Australia. Howard Smith Wharves director Adam Flaskas tells your diarist that more than $190,000 was raised for fire services and wildlife rescue at a concert and family fun event on Saturday featuring musical acts Samantha Jade, Alfie Arcuri and Lai Utovou . Howard Smith Wharves partnered with Foodbank Australia for the event with corporate partners including Ray White New Farm, Griffith Capital, FORME, Helmsman Invest, BPG Developments, Northshore Group, ABRI Projects and TKM Capital