Chris Whitehead
Chief Executive Officer
BSc (Hons)

Chris joined CUA in August 2009 bringing the benefit of over 20 years experience in a broad range of organisations and roles. He commenced his career in the UK IT industry working in a large number of banks and building societies and gained an in-depth understanding of process design and management. Chris led a number of significant innovations including the development of a new core banking system eventually used to process over one third of UK mortgages. Since moving to Australia in 1990, he has had roles in a number of regional banks including Chief Executive – Retail Bank for BankWest between 2001 and 2006.  Chris is passionate about customer service and is committed to CUA continuing to lead positive changes for members, the financial services industry and the community in general.

Geoff Grant
Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary
B.Com, CA, F Fin

Geoff has extensive experience in the financial services industry developed over a 24 year period holding various treasury and finance related roles particularly in the regional banking sector.  He has a combination of operational and strategic capabilities being utilised across the CUA group.  His major areas of responsibility include accounting, treasury and corporate services.  In addition he is Company Secretary to CUA and all group entities.

Andrew Hadley
Group General Manager Strategy & Marketing
B.Com., F Fin

Andrew's knowledge and understanding of the financial services industry is derived from two decades working in a broad and diverse range of retail banking positions. He has executive experience in both front and back office divisions and has played an integral role in the development of the key strategies that sees CUA today, as the undisputed leader in the mutual financial services sector. He is committed to positioning CUA as a genuine alternative to the major banks. His current areas of responsibility include Strategic Planning, Brand, Corporate Affairs, Market Research, Communications, Project Portfolio Management and Business Change.

Darrin Northey
Group General Manager Distribution

Darrin commenced with CUA in April 2010 with a background of over 18 years in the banking and finance industry, across a broad range of roles. The past decade has been spent in senior leadership positions within both business and retail banking, most recently with Westpac as Head of Local Business Banking for QLD, and prior to this, as State General Manager for South Australia & the Northern Territory. Darrin has extensive experience leading distribution teams and a strong passion for customer service. His areas of responsibility include our branch and mobile lending network, CUA Financial Planning, CUA Direct, Bank@Work, corporate investments, member group alliances and CUA’s digital services.

Barry Los
Chief Information Officer

Barry has over 30 years experience in the information technology industry. He has a strong background in systems and operational development, business systems analysis and IT strategy. His passion is for supporting business needs and helping IT provide the technology services to assist in keeping CUA functioning smoothly.

John George
Group General Manager Service Operations

John draws on over 30 years experience in the banking, finance and property industries. His deep, practical understanding of operational management, customer service, systems integration, change management and process re-engineering has led him to develop a passion for the creation and implementation of quality management systems. His major areas of responsibility include lending operations, credit risk management, continuous improvement and special projects.

Elissa Trafford
Acting General Manager People & Culture
B.Bus

Elissa's experience in the financial service industry focuses around building human resources functions in both the retail banking and funds management sectors. Since joining CUA in 2006 as Human Resources Manager, and then People & Culture Manager, Elissa has worked with the People & Culture leadership and Executive teams to enhance people initiatives across the organisation, thereby enabling CUA leaders to better attract, perform and retain employees. Elissa stepped into the role of Acting General Manager – People & Culture from February 2010 and is passionate about investing in people to enable CUA to remain the member-focused banking alternative for Australians.

Royden Juriansz
General Manager Risk & Compliance
BBus, FCPA, CISA

Royden has over 30 years experience in the financial services industry having worked in a number of banking institutions overseas prior to joining CUA. While he has had significant exposure to retail banking operations over his long career, he has focussed his attention to governance and risk issues in recent years. Royden has been instrumental in rolling out key fraud mitigation strategies and governance frameworks including Risk Management and Compliance across the group.  His responsibilities include Internal Audit, Compliance, Operational Risk, Credit Risk, Fraud Management, Business Continuity and Crisis Management.