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When you consider that she flew into Sydney in 1997 to have interviews with all four big banks and then in the space of a little more than ten years:
Kelly started work as the General Manager of Strategic Marketing in the Commonwealth Bank in October 1997. By 2002, she was head of the Customer Service Division responsible for running the Commonwealth Bank's extensive branch network. [1]
Her strong performance at the Commonwealth Bank led her to be recruited to St. George Bank in 2002. At the time, St. George was seen as a possible takeover target (especially after the purchase of Colonial State Bank by the Commonwealth Bank) but Kelly has increased the bank's profitability and achieved much higher levels on return on assets. In November 2004, St. George Bank gave Kelly a pay rise and extended her contract indefinitely with the capitalisation of the bank having risen by $3 billion since the start of her term as CEO. The Australian Banking & Finance magazine gave her an award for Best Financial Services Executive in 2003 and 2004.
Due to her success at St George, there was extensive media speculation in June 2005 that she would return to the Commonwealth Bank as CEO on the retirement of David Murray, but Kelly said that she was committed to remaining with St. George. Murray was replaced by Ralph Norris, the former CEO and managing director of Air New Zealand. It was reported by News Ltd on the 2nd of October 2006, that Gail Kelly is on a yearly salary of $18.5 million.
On Friday 17 August 2007, she announced her resignation as CEO of St. George Bank to take up the same position in Westpac from 2008. [2]
She started work as Westpac CEO on 1st February 2008.
A Westpac takeover of St. George Bank was announced on May 12th. This is the first time, in Australia, that the CEO of a Bank has led the takeover of another Bank of which they had previously been CEO.
It would seem that she has some powerful financial management skills one way or another - all power to her!
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