Don Easter is an accomplished senior executive and company director with extensive experience internationally and in Australia. In his most recent role he was Managing Director of EDS Australia. He has highly developed skills in the understanding and management of the issues related to full service banks.

Don has managed businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA with appointments that have included being the Regional President of EDS, Senior Vice President Private Equity for ABN AMRO and General Manager, Credit and Risk for AGC. He was also a non-executive Director of a private IT company in the USA and is currently a non-executive Director of an ASX listed company. At one time he was also a senior executive at a European private venture capital firm.

Don’s expertise and experience includes sales, product development, operations and risk management. He maintains a strong international network through his business associations and educational experience.

Don holds a Bachelor Computing Science (Honours I) from University of Technology Sydney, a Masters of Science in Management from MIT Sloan School Boston USA and is a member of Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Michael Rowan has had significant experiences in senior management roles in a number of areas in the financial services industry.

He has been a career banker who developed and implemented capital management policies at Westpac Banking Corporation in response to the early Basle Concordat and the outcomes of the Campbell and Martin Enquiries on the deregulation of the Financial Markets in Australia. He designed and originated $120 million of notes drawn on Westpac Properties Limited with convertible options to ordinary shares in Westpac Banking Corporation. He was responsible for origination and distribution of NZD100 million of notes drawn on a NZ subsidiary with option for conversion to ordinary AUD shares in the Bank. He wrote and implemented capital budgeting policies as well as source and deployment of capital guidelines including capital allocation models and managed the Banks USD500m Perpetual Floating Rate note.

Michael worked for Ord Minnett in Corporate Finance where he managed merger and acquisition activity as well as capital raising transactions for publicly listed Australian Corporates. He managed the project to purchase the operations of O’Connor Grieve in New Zealand and merge them with Ord Minnett in Australia. He was a Director of Westpac Ord Pty Ltd.

He has extensive experience in governance and structure of Commercial Banks and is one of few finance executives who have been able to move between debt and equity markets with an understanding of the unique characteristics that apply in each sector.

In 1987 he assumed responsibility for strategic planning and control in the Corporate and International Banking Group at Westpac. He held global responsibility for all banking operations, international acquisitions and performance management systems. He was a Director of a number of holding companies for Westpac and of a number of companies where Westpac had an equity investment. He was the author of the Bank’s Asia Strategy Taskforce report in conjunction with Booz Allen Hamilton in 1993 and responsible for Westpac obtaining a banking licence in Indonesia as part of a joint venture with PT Panin Bank.

As Chief Manager, Commercial Banking Network at Westpac he undertook a process that included the redesign of credit and distribution systems as well as performance management systems. He managed this project with McKinsey & Co until its completion in late 1994 when he became Chief Zone Manager for all Commercial and Agribusiness banking in NSW.

He joined First Commercial Limited in 1997 primarily to provide consulting services to the asset management division of Krung Thai Bank following the Asian crises. He also acted as the banking advisor on the transformation program at Krung Thai Bank in 1998. He has managed a number of major consultancies for FCL on banking, financial sector and general management issues for banks in Australia and in the Asia Pacific Region.

Bernie was Head of SME Business at HBOSA / BankWest in Australia where he was accountable for overall business performance including customer management, profit contribution, balance sheet growth and risk. Previous roles at BankWest included Head of Asset Finance and State Manager NSW and Head of Commercial Banking. He has extensive experience in middle markets, property finance, business banking, retail lending and asset based finance. He was Executive Manager Commercial Banking at Westpac prior to joining BankWest.

Bernie was responsible for delivering on a number of specific initiatives including the re-engineering of the SME credit and sales process to introduce a ‘low-doc’ business loan, a market leading franchise package and an outsourced telesales capability. This included the policy development issues in completing and assessing the project feasibility through an examination of the full financial and operational issues. He has successfully completed various business projects and initiatives and has expertise in growing a business, strategic planning, developing policy and re-engineering risk functions. He was the project leader responsible for the merger and integration of the BankWest Asset Finance Division with Capital Finance Limited involving 65,000 accounts and assets of $2.5b.

At FCL he has completed a number of assignments in relation to securitisation and the credit policies and processes for origination and management of securitised portfolios. Bernie has written credit policy manuals as well credit procedure manuals for the protocols of specific consumer and commercial credits. He has an excellent knowledge and understanding of risk management requirements and was involved in policy development in relation to Basel II Accord and the impact it has on governance and credit assessment.

Bernie holds a Bachelor of Business, has completed the MGSM Strategic Management Program and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

John Vivian has held senior appointments and completed a number of complex consulting assignments in the Financial Services industry over the past fifteen years. He has expertise in managing projects in the financial industry, performing risk reviews and developing policy.

John is a practical banker with a comprehensive understanding of the requirements of both line and support roles in full-service banks. John was a General Manager at Citibank in Australia where he was directly responsible for a number of initiatives including the design and management of the bank’s margin lending (Equities, Trusts, Forex, options and derivatives) business. He was also responsible for the operational aspects of bank’s first securitisation of receivables in Australia, management of the asset systems for the bank and the integration of the of Australian Card Services Limited (Credit Cards). He was a member of the Business Risk Review team for the Asia Pacific region and the Citibank member on the Australian Stock Exchange to convert to the CHESS system (electronic trading, clearing and settlement).

John was schooled in Consulting through his role as a Director with Arthur Andersen & Andersen Consulting’s Strategic Services Practice. He has led major projects for a variety of clients including Sydney Airport Corporation, Harvey Norman, Aussie Home Loans, James Hardie Industries, National Australia Bank, Westpac, Sydney Futures Exchange, Malaysian Banking Corporation in Kula Lumpur and Standard Chartered Bank.

John has also been responsible for some significant assignments for State and Federal Governments including AIDC, NSW Grain Handling, NSW Treasury and NSW Police, NSW Department of Transport, State Rail, Rail Corp and Sydney Water.

Iain Walker was previously Head of IT and Operations for the Australian branch of the Overseas Union Bank (1.3B in assets, now owned by United Overseas Bank). He has extensive experience in banking, operations and information technology cultivated over a twenty year period.

His experience was gained at Westpac, AAP Reuters and at OUB. His expertise includes project management of banking solutions (front to back office), installation of payments systems (RTGS, RITS, SWIFT and Australia) as well as development and implementation of business continuity plans.

Iain has comprehensive management experience in bank operational areas that have included management of exchange settlement accounts, loan draw down and disbursement, settlement of money market and FX deals and accountability for the management and reconciliation of Nostro/Vostro accounts and receivables.

Iain holds an Economics Degree and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Management. He is a Certified Microsoft Systems Administrator and holds an Advanced Certificate in Micro-Computer Technology.

His assignments with FCL have included the design and implementation of a credit scoring system, documentation of user manuals, project management and re-engineering of bank operational systems. He has developed business requirements for a number of assignments and enjoys a high reputation with our clients.

Greg Watson is a senior consultant specialising in Banking and Financial Services. Previously, he had achieved considerable success across a wide range of functions within two major internationally-operating banks: ANZ Bank and Citibank. His last position was General Manager – Branch Banking.

Working with management consulting firms A.T. Kearney and First Commercial Limited over the past six years, Greg has undertaken a number of challenging consulting assignments within the Banking industry in India, China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. During this period he has specialised in the transformation of underperforming Banking businesses, and managed project teams across multiple dimensions including Strategy development and business planning, Core Banking (IT) solutions, BPR, Change Management, and Enterprise Risk Management/risk-based audit.

During his earlier banking career, he effectively and innovatively managed top line and bottom line growth in various banking operations. He grew new business lines, including Business Banking, Payment, Transactional and Trade Finance in Australia, USA and Singapore. He had also consulted internally on telecommunications and information system based projects, and other major business initiatives, including the establishment of new banking operations in USA, Singapore and Vietnam.

Greg has managed client relationships and exercised credit delegations for both commercial and retail customers in Australia and Singapore; managed a National, 24 hour call centre for EFTPOS/ATMs; and was a part-time TAFE College Lecturer in business studies. Greg also conducted a full range of Staff training programmes in Fiji, and later sold customised credit training solutions to large banks in Australia.

Greg’s areas of expertise include, Project Management, Business Management and General Management.

Greg is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Banking & Finance, and earlier Graduated as an Officer in the Australian Army. Further Education includes Australian Management College, Mt. Eliza; and ANZ Bank Executive Development and International Management programmes.