George S.

Robinson
Strategy - Finance - Business Transformation - Leadership
https://www.linkedin.com/in/grobinson1/ - georgerobinson@me.com – M: +61 413109580

Value Proposition
Accomplished record of delivering exceptional commercial outcomes in complex and fast moving environments
by aligning multiple stakeholders behind innovative strategic and operational plans. Brings to the table 20+ years
of global expertise across financial services and technology, and is an ethical and socially responsible
leader. Strong background in finance, operations, strategy and general management implementing sustainable
growth roadmaps while fostering a culture of team inclusion. Creating, leading and developing teams is a
personal passion.

Skills
 Structured problem solving  Risk management & controls
 Growth mindset  Financial budgeting, planning & analysis
 Thought leadership  Strategic planning
 Constructive Challenge  Stakeholder management
 Exceptional judgement  Team leadership

Known for…
 Driving business growth through effective prioritisation of opportunities
 Creating commercial action plans from strategic priorities
 Distilling data into simple and helpful insights
 Driving large scale change in complex organisations
 Building and leading highly engaged teams
 Communicating plans to Boards and Executive Teams
 Investing in long term stakeholder relationships

Education
University of Colorado, Boulder: Bachelor’s Degree in Finance
University of Maryland, College Park: Masters of Business Administration, Finance & Strategy
Stanford Business School: Residential program: Strategy
Harvard Business School: Residential program: Leadership

Summary of Experience
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Sydney, Australia) – 8 years
General Manager, Business Transformation (current)
General Manager, Corporate Strategy
Executive Manager, Capital Investments

Citibank (New York, NY & Sydney, Australia) – 4 years

Chief Financial Officer, Operations and Technology
Chief Financial Officer, Technology

American Express (New York, NY) – 1 year

Director, Corporate Planning & Analysis

Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA & Portland, OR) – 4 years

Director, R&D Lab Operations
Executive Advisor, Office of the President, Intel Capital
Finance Director, Research & Development

Cowen & Company (New York, NY) – 3 years

Analyst, Investment Banking
 george.robinson@cba.com.au 0413109580 https://www.linkedin.com/in/grobinson1/

Detailed Experience
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sydney
General Manager, Business Transformation
Colonial First State (NewCo) Jan 2019 – present
Report to: EGM, Colonial First State. Company: One of Australia’s leading wealth management firms offering investment,
superannuation and retirement products. NewCo is a portfolio of brands that intends to list on the ASX.

Highlights:
 Strategic Product Reviews. Charged with conducting a strategic review of the existing product portfolio
and providing recommendations on a coordinated structured path forward. Involves a deep
understanding of the current state, competitive environment, pricing, cost structure and operational
model. Also includes relationship building with potential external and ecosystem partners, customer
centric design and data teams to work out a best in class product and customer experience offering.

General Manager, Strategy, Corporate Affairs May 2018 – Jan 2019

Report to: EGM, Corporate Affairs. Company: Australia’s leading financial services institution. Corporate Affairs: responsible
for CBA corporate narrative and key reputation drivers.

Highlights:
 Reputation Management: Corporate Affairs strategy: Working across teams, created 3-horizon strategic
plans for our communications, political engagement and corporate responsibility functions;
operationalised strategy through transparent connection between team initiatives and the new CBA
purpose. Marketing strategy: Engaged directly by the Chief Marketing Officer to clearly articulate the
purpose, short-term vision and long-term value proposition for the Marketing function.
 Group Super: Engaged by the Board of Group Super to conduct a thorough analysis of the product
offering, operating model and governance structure. Working closely with the Chair/board, highlighting
future value proposition with related options and outcomes.
 CBA School Banking: conducted thorough review of the CBA School Banking programme involving input
from multiple senior stakeholders; presented options and related outcomes in a Can/Should
methodology and included an ethical and commercial assessment of recommended impacts
 Academic Partnerships: Lead strategy that bridges the gap between industry and the academic
community focussed on Research, Talent and People. Created first ‘on campus’ co-location site with the
University of Melbourne; drafting PhD pathway programs to attract and retain top technical talent.

General Manager, Corporate Strategy October 2014 – May 2018

Report to: Group Executive, Marketing & Strategy. Company: Australia’s leading financial services institution. Group Strategy:
responsible for overall strategic direction of the Group One CommBank: former growth strategy designed to meet more of our
customer’s needs

Highlights:
 CASE STUDY: Group Strategic Plan: Coordinated the strategic plan for the Group consisting of all
business units and support functions concluding in an offsite with CEO and all members of the executive
committee.
 Corporate Strategy: Provided to the Board regular updates to the Group’s strategic plan including an
overview of the economic environment, competition, progress to date and global trends from both
financial and non-financial research.
 Customer Strategy: Created holistic customer strategy based on multiple years of customer research.
Contains four pillars and related design principles. To be implemented across the entire retail franchise
and then into the business and institutional segments. Includes digital and assisted channel alignment
and horizon 1, 2 and 3 phases of implementation.
 Board education session: coordinated Board education session in London.
 CASE STUDY: Managed One CommBank programme (~ $200m+ in revenue/annum); Large scale change
programme centred on meeting more of our customer’s needs.

Executive Manager, Investment Development March 2011 – October 2014

Report to: GM, Investment Development Investment Development: responsible for evaluation of large capital investments

Highlights:

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 george.robinson@cba.com.au 0413109580 https://www.linkedin.com/in/grobinson1/

 Evaluated 51 business cases worth $3.9b in capital investment.

 Created first funded platform (Digital) with Group Executive, Head of Digital and Head of Retail
 Created framework, drafted timeline, conducted interviews and co-authored the post implementation
review on Core Banking Modernisation which was presented to Board.
 Created a standard business case evaluation framework to provide consistency and decrease time spent
evaluating business opportunities.
 Rolled out Productivity Pool initiative attracting 35 submissions worth $177m in savings
 Contributed to over 100 Board and Executive Committee papers.
 Assessed Retail Lending on Core proposal resulting in the proposal failing our evaluation; result was the
proposal was cancelled returning $350m back to investment pool.

Citibank, Sydney
Chief Financial Officer, SVP Operations & Technology, Retail Banking October 2007 – March 2011
Report to: Chief Information Officer Company: One of the world’s largest financial services institutions O&T: responsible for
corporate operations and technology including enterprise services, call centres, ATM network and material technology
infrastructure

Highlights:
 CASE STUDY: During global financial crisis, conducted analysis on offshoring key back office operations
to India which was ratified by the leadership team. The result was a $50m per annum savings in
operational expenses. Successfully worked with professional services firms to create an offshore call
centre.
 Ran the consumer business Investment Council; a cross-functional team of senior leaders charged with
evaluating new business investments across the Australia franchise.
 Represented Citi at the annual Shared Services Conference; chaired panel on ‘Strategic off-shoring of
key processes’ attended by 1,000.

Citibank, New York

Chief Financial Officer, SVP Technology, Retail Banking
Report to: Chief Information Officer Company: One of the world’s largest financial services institutions Finance: responsible
for budgets, planning, analysis and cost controls of a function with a $500m operating budget.

Highlights:
 Reduced $100m in balance sheet risk by proactively writing down inactive ‘construction in process’ and
purchased software development fixed assets; established an improved quarterly review process to
continually hedge business.
 Restructured team to elevate from a reporting function to a strategic partnership.

American Express, New York, New York November 2006 – October 2007
Director, Investment Optimisation, Corporate Planning & Analysis
Report to: President, Global Cards Company: One of the world’s leading multinational financial services corporations Cards:
responsible for product, operations and servicing of the credit card portfolio

Highlights:
 Drove large scale change program focussed on a new way of budgeting
 Coordinated three year long-range plan effort for a business unit with $4B in revenue and 3,000
employees across 4 continents.
 Partnered with stakeholders to prioritize and reduce 2008 discretionary investments by 40% or $75m
utilizing various strategic and financial filters.

Intel Corporation, Silicon Valley August 2002 – November 2006

Director, Operations
Executive Advisor, Office of the President, Intel Capital
Finance Director, Research & Development
Report to: President, Intel Capital Intel: one of the largest producers of silicon microprocessors in the world Intel R&D:
responsible for long term investments in technical innovation Intel Capital: one of the world’s largest corporate venture
capital teams

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 george.robinson@cba.com.au 0413109580 https://www.linkedin.com/in/grobinson1/

Highlights:
 CASE STUDY: Built the Intel R&D Centre of Excellence in Beijing. This involved partnership with Intel
Strategy, HR, Legal, Operations and Finance to first 1) build out the new office infrastructure in Beijing,
2) draft and publish short and long-range strategic plans for the region, then 3) ramp staffing resources
in alignment with strategic plans. Executed to budget and timeline, with a fully operational R&D office
established and staffed to plan. The result was a Centre staffed with local engineering talent who were
charged with designing intellectual property and building products specifically for the Chinese market.
 Collaborated with senior management on developing and implementing plans for operational,
infrastructure and process improvements. Managed all budget and human resource activities in
addition to all internal and external communication.
 Coordinated emerging market venture capital conference in Mumbai, India resulting in 100+ meetings
between portfolio company CEO’s and Intel senior management.

Cowen & Company, New York, New York November 1997 – June 2000
Analyst, Investment Banking

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