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Gail Kelly (née Currer) is a South African-born Australian businesswoman. In 2002, she became the first female CEO of a major Australian bank or top 15 company, and in 2005 was the highest-paid woman in an Australian corporation. She is the former CEO of Westpac, a role she held from 2008 to 2015. In 2010 Kelly was named 8th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes; in 2014, she was listed in 56th place.

Early life and education

Gail Currer was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Currer attended the University of Cape Town where she undertook an arts degree, majoring in history and Latin, as well as a Diploma in Education.

She married Allan Kelly in December 1977.

Career

Teacher

The couple moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she taught Latin at Falcon College while he served in the Rhodesian Army. They returned to South Africa, where Allan Kelly studied medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand and Gail Kelly taught at a government high school.

Banking

Kelly started work at the Nedcor Bank in 1980 as a teller but was fast-tracked into an accelerated training program. She started an MBA at Wits Business School, the graduate school of business administration of the University of the Witwatersrand in 1986 while pregnant with her oldest daughter and graduated with distinction in 1987. In 1990, she became head of human resources at Nedcor (after having given birth to triplets five months earlier). From early 1992 to 1997 she held various other general manager positions at Nedcor, including cards and personal banking.

The Kellys were becoming disillusioned with South Africa in the middle of the 1990s and were looking to move to a different country. In June 1997, she flew to Sydney where she held interviews with four of the major banks and was appointed to a senior position at the Commonwealth Bank in July 1997.

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.

Her performance at the Commonwealth Bank led her to be recruited as CEO of St. George Bank (after the death of the incumbent CEO from a heart attack). She commenced in January 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 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 AO, 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.

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. She started work as Westpac CEO on 1 February 2008.

On 12 May 2008 Kelly announced an $18.6 billion merger between Westpac and St. George Bank. The merger was approved by the Federal Court of Australia and finalised on 26 May 2008. The merger resulted in the new combined Westpac Group having 10 million customers, a 25% share of the Australian home loans market and with $108 billion investment funds under its administration.

In October 2010, Kelly announced a target to have women occupy 40% of the top 4000 managerial positions at Westpac, a task reported by The Australian newspaper to have been almost achieved by March 2012.

On 13 November 2014, Kelly announced that she would retire as CEO of the Westpac Group on 1 February 2015. Brian Hartzer, the head of Westpac's Australian financial services group, was appointed as her replacement.

Book

In August 2017, Kelly's memoir, Live Lead Learn: My Stories of Life and Leadership was published by Viking. The book details her experiences of being a high-profile businesswoman and a mother of four.

Impact and influence

In 2010 Kelly was named 8th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes; in 2014, she was listed was 56th place.

Ranking

Forbes - Most Powerful Women in the World

Fortune - Various

Financial Times

The Australian Financial Review/Boss Magazine

Other Australian newspapers

Other publications

References

1. "The 100 Most Powerful Women: #8 Gail Kelly". Forbes. 6 October 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
2. ^ "CEO who gave birth to triplets". The Age. 3 July 2005. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
3. ^ "Westpac Media Release August 2007". Westpac. 17 August 2007. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
4. "Simply Gail". Wits Alumni Relations. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
5. "Kelly resigns from St.George". Archived from the original on 3 September 2007.
6. ^ "St George, Westpac agree on merger terms". ABC News. 13 May 2008. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
7. "St George and WBC sign merger deal, NEWS.com.au". 26 May 2008. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
8. "Westpac chief Gail Kelly's new kind of women's liberation". The Australian. 8 March 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
9. "Westpac chief Gail Kelly steps down, to be replaced by Brian Hartzer". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
10. "Be bold, have a go, Gail Kelly urges women". SBS World News. 2 August 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
11. "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
12. "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
13. ^ Cappiello, Emily. "Gail Kelly". Forbes. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
14. "World's Most Powerful Women List 2010 - Forbes". Forbes. Archived from the original on 3 January 2012.
15. "Gail Kelly in Forbes list of world's 10 most powerful women | The Australian". www.theaustralian.com.au. 7 October 2010. Archived from the original on 8 October 2010.
16. "The 100 Most Powerful Women sorted by Rank - Forbes.com". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 August 2008.
17. "The Most Powerful Women of Asia-Pacific | Fortune". fortune.com. 18 September 2014. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019.
18. "50 Most Powerful Women In Business 2013: The Global 50 - Fortune Magazine". Fortune. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
19. "Most Powerful Women in Business 2012". CNNMoney. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
20. "50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2009: The Global 50 - FORTUNE on CNNMoney.com". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
21. "50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2008: The Global 50 - from FORTUNE". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
22. "The Global Power 50 - Gail Kelly (28) - FORTUNE". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
23. "News Archive | Morningstar Australia and New Zealand - Morningstar Names John Martin of Gilead Sciences as its 2014 CEO of the Year". corporate.morningstar.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2016.
24. "Australian Women Online Julie Bishop Tops List of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Australia". Australian Women Online. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
25. "The eight most powerful women in Australia". womensagenda.com.au. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.

External links

• Crown Content, Who's Who in Australia 2005, North Melbourne, page 1050
• Melbourne Age profile of Gail Kelly, 2 July 2005
• ABC Australia Business Breakfast transcript 7 May 2003
• Sydney Morning Herald article on Kelly's contract extension at St George in November 2004
• Weekend Australian story about Kelly being a favourite to succeed David Murray at the Commonwealth Bank

• Living people
• Australian women in business
• People from Pretoria
• South African emigrants to Australia
• University of Cape Town alumni
• Westpac people
• White South African people