The Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) share price is under the spotlight after the bank announced a new CFO.
Westpac hires new chief financial officer
The ASX bank share announced the appointment of Nathan Goonan as the new chief financial (CFO), subject to regulatory approval.
Goonan joins Westpac from National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), where he has been since 2013. He is currently the NAB Group CFO, where he oversees finance, group strategy and related activities.
Westpac CEO Anthony Miller said Goonan has “extensive experience” in financial services, both locally and globally.
Goonan has worked in the finance industry for over 20 years, starting his career in mergers and acquisitions at NAB before moving into investment banking.
He rejoined NAB in 2013 and has been a member of NAB’s group executive leadership teams since 2020. Before becoming NAB’s CFO, he was the group executive of strategy and innovation. Before that, he had various roles across NAB in the fields of strategy, innovation, corporate affairs and mergers & acquisitions.
The current CFO of Westpac, Michael Rowland, will remain in his role until Goonan joins Westpac later this year.
Management comments
The Westpac CEO Anthony Miller said:
Nathan is a seasoned financial services executive, with more than 20 years’ experience across all aspects of banking. I’m delighted to appoint someone of Nathan’s calibre to this role. His breadth of knowledge across many areas, coupled with his deep expertise in finance, makes him an ideal fit.
Final thoughts on the Westpac share price
This seems like a win for Westpac to be able to capture the CFO of one of its main banking rivals.
Westpac must highly rate Goonan to go to this effort to get him to join after so many years at NAB. NAB may have been thinking he was a future contender to be the CEO.
The CFO role is particularly important at a bank, so it’ll be interesting to see how he and Westpac as a whole performs in the coming years.
At under $30, Westpac shares are cheaper than they have been for a while. But, if I were targeting blue chip shares, I’d rather invest in something like Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) or Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) due to their stronger profit growth outlook.
