At COO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Melbourne based COO’ operating in the Financial Services space. If you think a COO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Anthony Johnson
Chief Operating Officer of Latitude Financial Services
Anthony has more than 30 years’ experience in consumer and corporate banking in Australia, Singapore and Japan. He brings expertise in operations, marketing, strategy and transformation and has a track record of delivering large-scale business model investments. Most recently Anthony was General Manager Strategic Development with ANZ Banking Group Limited, where he focused on developing digital-led ecosystems and General Manager Distribution Transformation where he delivered ANZ’s new digital branch and customer analytics capabilities. Anthony’s career has seen him spend significant time in Asia where he led ANZ’s operations in Japan for four years and worked 12 years with Singapore’s OCBC Bank. There he led their multi-channel and digital transformation; big data and analytics capability and customer experience and service operations. Anthony holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and is married with two children.
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About Latitude Financial Services: Latitude Financial Services operates as a consumer finance provider.
Kathryn Wood
COO and Co-founder of handdii
Kathryn is a curious, passionate and energetic customer experience professional who is driven to solving real business problems with practical solutions. Together with her co-founder Christie Downs they have identified an opportunity to improve the way that customers connect with trades and the exciting vision of handdii was born! Prior to this latest adventure Kathryn lead the Motor and Property Claims division for QBE Australia servicing over 250,000 customers annually and managing a $1.5 Billion dollars claims indemnity spend, leading teams of over 600 FTE across Australia and the Philippines. She has also lead programs of work across Customer Experience, Service Design and Business Improvement and Transformation.Kathryn has worked across a number of industry verticals both locally and internationally within the Contact Centre arena specialising in Workforce Optimisation, Change Management and Organisational Design. She is passionate about delivering innovative solutions that exceed customer expectations whilst returning sustainable bottom line results. Kathryn has an Executive MBA from RMIT University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Monash University. At handdii we are on a mission to put the control back into the hands of the customer and help trades excel at the work they do. Our product is unique and focuses on a specific problem area in claim fulfilment and property repair. We don’t want to be all things to all people but we do want trades to be able to show up, fix the problem, be awesome and free customers up to focus on their lives.
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About handdii: handdii is an online marketplace that connects customers directly with contractors for insurance companies.
Michael Starkey
Co-founder & COO of Athena
Michael has over 20 years’ global experience in financial services and top tier consulting. He was a co-founder of iSelect, and has held directorships at Homeloans Ltd, an ASX listed mortgage manager and New Payments Platform Australia. Michael held several senior executive positions at NAB where he was responsible for deposits, transaction banking and payments.
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About Athena: Athena is an Australian home loan platform that helps to get better home loans.
Dominic Yap
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Zeller
Dominic Yap is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Zelle. He has over 10 years of experience in strategy, operations, and risk management in the Financial Services Industry. He has worked extensively in business case development and assessment, product profitability, and uptake modeling, go-to-market strategy development, operating model design, and large-scale systems deployments.
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About Zeller: Zeller is a fintech that offers to accept payments, track spending, and manage the finances of small businesses.
Zachary Knowles
Chief Operating Officer of U.S. Business Lending
Zachary Knowles recently joined USBL after a merger and was previously the co-founder and a Managing Partner of Millennial Solutions, LLC, the parent company of Global Business Lending (which was recently acquired by USBL), a firm that provides working capital for small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. and Canada. His career and entrepreneurial endeavors comprise sales and customer service, marketing and finance. Zack was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug very early in life as he worked as a sales agent for his father’s business: a travel agency and Greyhound bus line franchise. There, he acquired the knowledge of maintaining and growing a small business. Continuing to hone his skills in finance, he began an internship with Manhattan Trader’s Group, Inc. — a turning point in his career as he sharpened his analytical nature and laser-focus mentality on an aggressive trading floor while studying Finance at Florida Atlantic University.
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About U.S. Business Lending: U.S. Business Lending Inc is a Florida-based corporation, is organized for the purpose of offering small to mid-size business owners.
Ryan Zhou
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of CoinJar
Ryan cofounded CoinJar in May 2013 after successfully raising venture capital investment and over $500 million in trades. Coinjar is a bitcoin exchange personal finance account which uses a service that allows customers to send money to 196 countries, in six minutes, for $0. CoinJar has over 350,000 members and over $785 million in trading turnover to date. With a strong passion for solving problems with technology, Ryan is also a hands-on full-stack software engineer and has been accredited as a Chartered Financial Analyst by the CFA Institute.
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About CoinJar: CoinJar is an Australian bitcoin platform that enables the buying and selling of bitcoins and allows merchants to accept bitcoin payments.
Mark Maglaras
Chief Operating Officer & Sales Director of Novatti Group
Mark Maglaras has worked with the Novatti Group for over 16 years in a range of roles from project manager of operations to head of operations and global sales. Mark has extensive experience in technology and services business. He has previously led a range of initiatives involving the development and deployment of advanced payments and billing technologies and solutions in the Asia Pacific region. Mark has comprehensive knowledge and experience in prepaid telecommunications, billing and payment solutions. Mark spent much of 2012 working with Neural Technologies in the Pacific creating and launching their Mobile International Remittance and Payments project. Mark is a crucial driver of both internal and external operations of Novatti. He manages a global network of channel partners and sales staff, as well as the local marketing team. Mark holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Engineering.
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About Novatti Group: Novatti (ASX:NOV) is a leading digital banking and payments company that enables fast, simple, and secure payments.
Alex Mills
Chief Operating Officer of Optal
Alex Mills brings global strategic and banking expertise to the key company role of Optal COO. Alex has spent 15 years delivering effective strategic programs for organisations across the financial services, telecommunications, pharmaceutical and consumer goods sectors, including implementing a new banking and payments platform destined to become NAB’s core banking system. As a key member of the PA Consulting Group team, Alex worked intimately with global clients to define strategic opportunities and convert ambition into results. He holds Bachelor (Hons) and Master of Engineering degrees from Brunel University London and a Mastère Spécialisé from Ecole Centrale de Lille in France.
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About Optal: Optal operates as a global business-to-business payment solutions provider and virtual card specialist.
Andrew Watt
COO of Moula
Andrew Watt is the Chief Operating Officer at Moula. He was the Director of Structured Credit Solutions at Standard Chartered Bank.
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About Moula: Moula is a loan service company that helps SMEs borrow money to grow their business.
Luke Rattigan
Chief Operating Officer of Household Capital
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About Household Capital: Household Capital is a specialist financial services firm providing longevity income to help senior Australians.
Oliver Garside
Co-Founder & COO of Rounded.com.au
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About Rounded.com.au: Simple Accounting for Freelancers and Sole Traders