Westpac’s new CEO Anthony Miller is ‘fiercely competitive’, but you don’t want to cross him

The banking major’s incoming boss Anthony Miller is prone to telling colleagues he is the underachiever of his family, given two of his siblings represented Australia at the Olympics. He’ll certainly have to revise his talking points.

Westpac's incoming chief, Anthony Miller, with chairman Steven Gregg.

Westpac’s incoming chief executive Anthony Miller is prone to telling colleagues he is the underachiever of his family, given two of his siblings represented Australia at the Olympics. He’ll certainly have to revise his talking points.

Modesty is not a typical investment banker turned retail banker trait to display, particularly while operating within hard-nosed industries that reward drive, ambition and results.

It seems Miller, 54, has both a softness and toughness about him that have served him well throughout his career. He is preparing to step into the top job at Westpac in December, as the bank attempts to rule a line under a litany of compliance and governance failures, overhaul its legacy technology and plot a sustainable path for earnings growth.

“He’s (Miller’s) fiercely competitive. I don’t think you want to cross him,” says a former Deutsche Bank colleague, on the basis of anonymity, who also highlighted Miller’s empathy and skills as a leader.

It’s perhaps no surprise then that while Miller was head of financing at Goldman Sachs for Australia and New Zealand, he was one of just four inaugural promotions to the illustrious partner status at the Wall Street bank in this market. That occurred after 2011 when Goldman bought out employees of the local arm that had owned 55 per cent of the Australian business, meaning it was the first-ever crop of partners at Goldman in Australia.

Miller was joined by James McMurdo, who went on to become Deutsche Bank’s global co-head of corporate finance, now Goldman Australia boss Simon Rothery and Goldman stalwart and advisory director Christian Johnston, in that first intake of Goldman partners from this market.

“He’s (Miller) very smart and also very strategic and determined. When he needs to be strong, he can be very strong,” Johnston says of Miller and his ascension to lead Westpac.

“He really understood markets, but he was also a very good client guy, which is a powerful mix. He was excellent with clients and at problem-solving.

“His ability to come up with other ideas when we hit roadblocks was a function of his intellect to think about those ideas, but also his understanding of markets and his mindset of trying to be solution orientated.”

Westpac incoming CEO Anthony Miller is replacing current CEO Peter King, who has led the “big four” bank for almost five years. Picture: Jane Dempster

A former Westpac colleague says of Miller: “I’ve seen him intervene with values (in leadership meetings), so I think from a cultural perspective he’ll be very good.

“If someone was wanting to do the wrong thing, or wasn’t speaking the right way about somebody, he would say ‘that’s not right’.”

The former Westpac banker, who didn’t want to be named, did note that Miller was ambitious too.

“He’s very good at holding his cards to his chest and politically I think he’s quite smart.”

While at Goldman, Miller worked on an array of financing deals across equity and equity-linked transactions, debt and derivative solutions and commodity linked deals.

The list of customers he worked for across the region included Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Oil Search, Insurance Australia Group, National Australia Bank, Macquarie Group and Origin Energy.

Miller left Deutsche Bank to join Westpac in 2020 as head of the institutional bank. He was moved by incumbent CEO Peter King to run the business and wealth division just last year. That unit was a bright spot in Westpac’s interim results delivering a 7 per cent rise in profit to $1.14bn/

A gap, however, in Miller’s time at Westpac is not having hands-on experience within the retail bank, where intense competition in mortgages has eroded net interest margins.

Some investors were, on Monday, lamenting that Westpac had not gone externally to replace King, given they believe a bigger cultural re-set is required at the bank.

One fund manager says Westpac’s culture remains “pretty damaged” after it paid a record $1.3bn fine to financial crimes regulator Austrac in 2020 and continues to navigate court action against businessman Bill Papas who allegedly defrauded the bank of some $400m.

The prudential regulator this year halved the $1bn additional capital impost it had imposed on Westpac for governance and compliance failings. That shows the bank is making progress but is not yet out of the woods on ensuring risk management, compliance and culture are fixed in a sustainable way.

External candidates including HSBC’s outgoing personal banking and wealth boss Nuno Matos made it to the final stages of Westpac’s CEO succession process, while Westpac’s retail boss Jason Yetton was the other internal candidate being seriously considered. In the end, though, Miller won the Westpac board’s backing, as a known quantity with runs on the board in turning around its institutional bank.

Miller – one of six siblings – enjoyed swimming and rugby union growing up. His brother Paul and sister Gail represented Australia in boxing and water polo respectively at the Olympic Games, making his a high-performing family. Gail even won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Miller spent some of his formative years in the Canberra suburbs of Farrer and Weston Creek before heading to Dubbo and other parts of Australia and ending up in Brisbane at Marist College, during years 11 and 12. He attended around 10 schools growing up.

On tertiary study, Miller completed a bachelor of arts at Griffith University and a bachelor of laws with honours at Queensland University of Technology.

Miller’s parents have run small businesses throughout their lives – including a kiosk at a public swimming pool, an ice cream van, retail stores and a learn to swim centre – which also left a mark on Miller and his sense of the frontline role small businesses play within the economy.

“I feel like that’s also given me a bit of perspective and a bit of balance, and that will also help me in the (CEO) role, because I sort of know … what it feels like to have a small business and to be worried about the cash flow, and to be worried about the payments that you need to make and the payments you need to see come in,” Miller says on Monday. He has been involved in working in, or helping with, the family’s businesses since around 12 years of age including conducting swimming lessons and acting as a lifeguard when required. Miller married his childhood sweetheart Gretel and they share four children -now in their twenties.

He started his professional career as a commercial litigation lawyer in Brisbane at McInnes Wilson Jensen in 1993, before having a stint at Mallesons Stephens Jacques in Sydney and then traversing to investment banking in 1999 at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Miller joined bulge bracket Wall Street firm Goldman in 2001 where he held a range of roles across Sydney and Hong Kong, spanning 16 years. He joined Deutsche in 2017 to lead the firm’s Australian and NZ businesses, and also had a stint as co-head of the investment bank for the Asia Pacific region.

Miller says his time in investment banking helped shape his work ethic, which he draws on at Westpac.

“There’s many things you can accuse investment bankers of, but there’s a work ethic there, and there’s a real determination to deliver outcomes for customers,” he adds.

Miller’s former Westpac colleague backs that view: “He’s very disciplined and he’s got a very disciplined approach to problem solving.

“He’s got the ability to make the tough decisions, he’s just got to be given the support and the freedom to make them.”

At Deutsche, Miller was seen as a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion within the workforce – despite investment banks having a poor track record in this area – and it was often reflected in his hiring efforts and attempts to retain people.