Mainstream specialty finance company,
Liberty Financial, has appointed James Boyle as chief executive officer as part of enhancing its organisational structure.
Boyle was formerly chief operating officer at Liberty, his most recent role since joining the company in 2003 from State Street Corporation. As CEO, Boyle will continue to have responsibility for operations, distribution and strategy across all of Liberty's operational businesses.
He will report to the board of Liberty, composed of executive and independent directors.
The current board is chaired by independent director Richard Longes and includes Peter Hawkins and Leona Murphy, both of whom are independent, and Sherman Ma, executive director.
“James has provided distinguished strategic and operational leadership at Liberty for the past thirteen years. He is part of an exceptional team that has delivered consistent, strong and profitable growth over that time," Longes said.
“In many ways James’ appointment acknowledges the role he has been performing and now is the right time to formally recognise that.”
Last week Standard & Poor’s announced an upgrade to Liberty’s corporate rating to BBB. Liberty is the only Australian non-bank lender that holds a public investment grade rating.
Liberty also announced last week that Leona Murphy was appointed to the Liberty board. Most recently Murphy was chief strategy officer for IAG. She is an independent director of Stone & Chalk.
Earlier this month Liberty announced a group profit before tax for the year ended June 30 of $74 million, which was an increase of 11% on the previous year. Loan originations grew by 227% to $2.5 billion for the year and total assets grew by 46% to $5.1 billion.
