Iress shakes up wealth leadership team, announces new role

Iress has announced the promotion of Kelli Willmer to the newly created role of chief customer officer (CCO) for its Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) wealth business, while Amara Haqqani has been appointed chief operating officer (COO), ANZ wealth.

As CCO, Ms Willmer will be responsible for driving improved client engagement across the business, including account management, business development, client solutions, and product support.

She brings more than two decades of experience in banking, financial services, and technology industries to the role. She first joined Iress in 2015, where she led its practice solutions team before being named head of commercial office and most recently, head of transformation office.

Prior to this, Ms Willmer held leadership roles at BT Financial Group.

Meanwhile, Ms Haqqani will be accountable for delivering strategic, operational, and financial outcomes, driving a “culture of performance excellence and service excellence for clients”, according to Iress.

Similarly to Ms Willmer, Ms Haqqani brings over 20 years of experience in financial services to the role, covering products and strategy for wealth management in Australia and globally.

Prior to joining the firm, she was chief client strategy officer for Bennelong Funds Management, where she oversaw client strategy, product development and management, regulatory affairs and corporate sustainability.

In a statement this week, Iress confirmed that these appointments follow an “extensive” internal and external candidate search process led by Harry Mitchell, who was appointed to the role of chief executive, wealth management, in April this year.

Commenting on the appointment, Mr Mitchell said: “I’m delighted to welcome Kelli and Amara to the wealth management leadership team. Customer centricity is an absolute priority for Iress and the CCO and COO roles are critical in enabling us to get closer to our clients and drive higher performance as we move Iress forward on its next growth trajectory.

“Kelli and Amara bring complementary skill sets and impressive experience to the wealth team, with a combination of deep internal understanding of Iress and its clients, and extensive knowledge of the broader industry’s policy environment and priorities.

“Their values-based leadership styles and strong track records of delivering consistent commercial and strategic outcomes will be a great asset to Iress as we drive improved value for our wealth clients now and into the future,” Mr Mitchell added.