NAB has announced the appointment of current group executive, strategy and innovation, Nathan Goonan as its new group chief financial officer (CFO) beginning from 1 July.
Mr Goonan is set to replace Gary Lennon, who will retire from NAB on 1 October after spending 15 years with the bank, including seven years as its CFO.
In a statement released on Tuesday, NAB chief executive officer Ross McEwan described Mr Lennon as an outstanding financial executive and said that he would be deeply missed by his colleagues.
“Gary’s deep experience, calm leadership and wise counsel has been critical to helping NAB lift its performance for customers and shareholders. He has been instrumental in helping the bank navigate a number of key challenges,” said Mr McEwan.
“From July 1, I have asked Gary to support Nathan’s transition into the role and to work with me on a number of initiatives until his final day on October 1. I am delighted he will stay on to do that.”
Mr Goonan began his career in banking as a graduate in NAB’s mergers and acquisitions team before working in investment banking at Lazard and Goldman Sachs in London and Australia.
After rejoining NAB in 2013, Mr Goonan served as executive general manager for corporate affairs and then executive general manager group strategy and development, with responsibility for the global execution of the bank’s corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions activity.
During this time, he led several of the bank’s major strategic initiatives, including playing a lead role in the divestment of NAB’s UK and US businesses, its group strategy refresh in 2019-–20, and the acquisition of Citigroup’s Australian consumer business.
He then joined NAB’s executive leadership team as group executive, strategy and innovation, in April 2020. As part of the changes to its executive leadership team, NAB confirmed that Mr Goonan’s existing role will not continue.
“Nathan is a very talented executive who led the development of our NAB Group Strategy and has played a key leadership role in all our major strategic moves in recent years,” commented Mr McEwan.
“During his three years on the executive team, Nathan has driven a much sharper focus on accountability, performance and execution within NAB and our customers, colleagues and shareholders have experienced the benefits of this.”
Mr McEwan noted that Mr Goonan will work over the coming months on the best future model for the teams within the bank’s finance and strategy and innovation divisions.
