ANZ appoints Michelle Jablko CFO

The appointment will see Michelle Jablko become one of the nation’s most senior female business leaders.

In late 2013, Michelle Jablko made the difficult decision to leave local investment banking giant UBS after almost 14 years to join boutique corporate advisory house Greenhill.

Two and a half years on, the seasoned investment banker has been named by ANZ chief Shayne Elliott as chief financial officer of the $73bn Melbourne-based bank after making the easier decision in recent weeks to accept the lofty opportunity.

Upon taking up the job on July 18, Ms Jablko, who has known Mr Elliott professionally for some time, will become one of the nation’s most senior female business leaders and the lone female finance chief among the big four lenders.

Ms Jablko, 43, who is based in Melbourne, will have responsibility for finance, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations.

She enters the pivotal role at a critical time as Mr Elliott undertakes an overhaul of the bank including running down low-returning assets in Asia, restructuring the institutional arm and selling off non-core businesses.

After a spike in bad debts and a $717m charge to “reposition” the bank, ANZ this month became the first bank since the global financial crisis to cut its dividend. Ms Jablko’s move also marks a loss for Greenhill of one of its major revenue writers.

“I am very pleased to have Michelle join the leadership team at ANZ. Her experience at Greenhill and UBS means she is strongly qualified to lead what is a broad strategic, financial and business role at the bank,” Mr Elliott said.

The appointment ends an extended search by Mr Elliott, the bank’s former CFO who was promoted to succeed Mike Smith as CEO in October. After beginning as chief in January, Mr Elliott made a string of internal changes, appointing Mark Whelan to run the group’s large institutional banking arm and Fred Ohlsson to lead the Australian retail and commercial banking operations.

He snared Google Australia boss Maile Carnegie to oversee digital developments, while former wealth chief Joyce Phillips and institutional boss Andrew Geczy have departed ANZ.

“With Michelle’s appointment and Maile Carnegie joining as group executive digital banking in July, it’s great to have now filled all the positions on the group executive committee,” Mr Elliott said.

“This completes an outstanding team drawn from a diverse mix of experience and new talent from inside and outside ANZ.”

After starting as a lawyer at Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks, Ms Jablko earned her investment banking stripes at UBS where she spent time advising financial services companies.

In 2014, she joined Greenhill to co-head the advisory firm’s Australian business alongside Roger Feletto after the departure of Simon Mordant and Ron Malek, who originally co-founded the business under the Caliburn brand.

In an internal memo to staff, Mr Feletto — who will become sole head — congratulated Ms Jablko on the “prestigious appointment”.

“From a Greenhill perspective, we will all be sad to see Michelle leave the firm. However, as you all know, the fundamentals of our business are strong and the momentum over the recent times has been outstanding,” he said, albeit noting it could lead to ANZ becoming “another important client”.

“I would like to thank Michelle for her considerable contribution to our business, in both continuing to develop our Melbourne office and helping us achieve the strong momentum we have.”

The departure of Ms Jablko, who helped advise Slater & Gordon on its recent troubled UK acquisition, comes after Greenhill Australia slid to a $4.9m loss last year, according to accounts filed with the regulator. Its US parent also wrote down the value of the operations after spending almost $200m in shares to buy Caliburn six years ago.

Ms Jablko’s appointment will see ANZ acting CFO Graham Hodges revert to his prior role as deputy chief executive, responsible for selling the bank’s investments in lenders in Indonesia, Malaysia, China and The Philippines. She will be aided by Shane Buggle, the bank’s long-term deputy CFO. Ms Jablko declined to comment.