MELBOURNE: GE Capital today announced the appointment of Skander Malcolm as CEO of GE Capital Australia and New Zealand.
Skander has more than 18 years of experience across financial services in Australia, UK and the US, including seven with GE. He steps into the CEO role from Managing Director, Retailer Solutions, where he delivered double-digit growth, servicing over 3 million customers and providing financing solutions to key retail partners including Harvey Norman, Coles Group and Myer.
Skander, 41, will report to his predecessor in the role, Steve Sargent, who was promoted in November 2009 to run GE Capital's operations in Asia Pacific as well as retain his role as CEO of all of GE's operations in Australia and NZ.
"Skander is ideal for this position and will lead GE Capital's growth plans in this region to provide formidable competition to the banks," Steve Sargent, President and CEO of GE Capital Asia Pacific, said.
"He has an excellent knowledge of the finance industry, local market dynamics and GE Capital's diverse finance businesses. Throughout his career, Skander has developed strong customer relationships, built talented teams and found innovative ways to grow the business. In a very challenging 2008 and 2009, he led our Retailer Solutions team to double-digit growth, despite difficult market conditions.
"He will bring this operational excellence and charismatic leadership to our GE Capital operations in Australia and New Zealand -- the fourth largest GE Capital market in the world. The fact that we have someone of Skander's calibre ready to take on this new challenge is a testament to GE's leadership development."
Skander joined GE in 2003 as Client Director, MasterCard, where he led the regulatory project to obtain a Specialist Credit Card Issuer Licence from APRA. He was appointed Managing Director Card Solutions, GE Money in 2004 and was promoted to Managing Director, Retailer Solutions in 2007, when this group was combined with Retail Finance.
He has previously held positions with Household International in the US and UK, and with Westpac Banking Corporation and is a graduate of the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics degree.
Tristan Everett