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Just a couple of days until its annual national conference on the Gold Coast, the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) has announced its new state presidents and councillors for 2019 as well as its new board members.
Felicity Heffernan is the newly elected president for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, bringing 30 years of finance experience to the role.
Heffernan said she is eager to give back to an industry that has been good to her for many years and have a voice that helps shape the broking industry now and into the future.
The president for Victoria and Tasmania is Brendon Kurtz, who in 2011 bought into independent aggregator Outsource Financial.
He said his main objective for 2019 is to continue bringing high quality professional development to both metropolitan and regional areas of Victoria and Tasmania.
Christine Green has been reappointed president for Queensland and Northern Territory for the fourth year, bringing more than 20 years’ experience in banking and finance.
South Australian president Joff O’Shannessy is back for the fifth year. He has been a finance broker for more than 23 years, running his own business for 18 years.
Trent Carter has been reappointed Western Australian president, and is aiming to have wider reach across the local industry by having council representatives from residential, commercial, asset, regional, licence holders and ‘new to industry’ members.
Carter said he is excited to develop more frequent, smaller events targeted to industry niches, delivering locally relevant content.
Peter White, managing director of the FBAA congratulated all elected state presidents and state councillors for 2019, and is looking forward to the diversity of already established and newly elected individuals.
He said, “This new team consists of champions and advocates of the finance broking sector, inspiring brokers around the country.”
The FBAA’s recent AGM also approved White’s name change to managing director, as well as new board members.
The group said while White’s role remains similar, his title change is reflective of greater focus on industry-wide strategy rather than day to day operations.
The AGM confirmed the appointment of Tony Carter as chairman taking over from Jan Kirstein who is the new director responsible for state presidents. Chris Szigeti remains vice chairperson and DRS chairperson.
John Mulcair has stayed as treasurer, Kim Szigeti was reappointed as company secretary, and Rick Nieuwenhoven and Steve Rasmussen were both renominated as directors.
White welcomed the changes and the appointment of new governance committee member and director on the board Angus Gilkeson, who has spent 19 years in financial business development and product development.
White added, “This is a well-established team who know our members and the industry, and I am confident new appointment Angus Gilkeson will slot in with ease.”
He also thanked retiring founding member Stan Millar, and said “his contributions will be missed and we are grateful for his incredibly long service to the FBAA and our members”.
He added, “The extensive finance and broking experience on our board highlights the strength of our organisation and this is why we have grown so significantly in recent years."
2019 state councillors:
QLD/NT - Bruno Klos, Graham Dossel, David Randall, Amarpreet Kaur Virk, Angelo Lauro, Neil Hart, Maree Blakemore
NSW/ACT - Miro Marinkovic, Greg Hart, Vache Vartanian, Matt Attia, Nicholas Wormald, Janel McClelland, Rocco Massaria
VIC/Tas - Olive Carrington, Sadish Visvalingam, Kim Fang Chen Wen, Kirsty Dunphey (Tas), Emmanuel Guingard, Bernard Desmond, Hari Maragos
SA - Kym Russell, Richard Foggo
WA - Nicole Kennedy, Yania Busch, Mary Kowalski
