ANZ’s group executive of technology Gerard Florian to retire

ANZ Banking Group’s long-time group technology leader Gerard Florian is set to retire in early August, with a global search underway to find a replacement.

Florian had been group executive of technology at ANZ since January 2017, and had previously spent considerable time at Dimension Data.

Structurally, ANZ has a centralised technology function led by the group executive, with divisional CIOs operating in specific lines of business.

Florian took on an expanded role at the bank in 2022, leading the establishment of business shared services such as payments, retail and wholesale credit, and ‘know your customer’ processes, in addition to his regular technology remit.

Current CIO of the bank’s New Zealand operations Michael Bullock has been appointed acting group executive on an interim basis.

“While I have only worked with Gerard for a short period of time, he leaves ANZ having driven important changes through the organisation,” the bank’s CEO Nuno Matos said in a statement.

“Our customer and banker experience is notably better due to the adoption of cloud services, artificial intelligence and enterprise platforms, championed by Gerard.  

“His focus on making ANZ an organisation easier to partner with has been a hallmark of his time at ANZ.”

Matos said that Bullock was “well placed to lead technology during a period where we will have an intense focus on improving our approach to non-financial risk.”

The change of group executive also comes at a time when the ‘Big 4’ banks are ramping up their use of artificial intelligence and enterprise data.

Florian oversaw the establishment of a group-wide data and analytics function at ANZ late last year.

Under his watch, the bank also set up an ‘AI immersion centre’ in Melbourne and increased its use of generative AI technology, with a forward-facing lens on agentic AI as well.