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ME Bank appoints CMO to lead its customer focus

Former Lavender MD and experienced marketer, Rebecca James, is appointed the bank's first chief marketing officer to led its customer experience charge

ME Bank has appointed its first chief marketing officer (CMO) as part of ongoing plans to put customer experience at the heart of its growth strategy.

Rebecca James has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing and advertising and was most recently managing director of agency, Lavender, for seven years. In this role, she led a team of 110 people and covered a broad range of clients such as Westpac, BT Financial Group, Ikea, Microsoft, Coles, Telstra and Qantas.

James was also recently involved in transitioning Lavender from pure advertising into technology services provider, overseeing the development and sale of technology products to augment its communication services to clients.

As ME Bank’s first CMO, James is tasked with driving a broad and unified focus across customer, product, brand and marketing. In a statement, the company said her appointment reflects its growing focus on ‘customer experience’, a focus which is fuelling a three-year technology transformation program due for completion later this year.

ME Bank CEO, Jamie McPhee, said the new CMO role is an important building block in the growth of the company.

“ME Bank is focused on creating a consistently superior customer experience by placing the customer at the centre of our decision making. This role furthers that aim,” he said. “Rebecca brings a unique blend of brand, technology and leadership skills and experience that will stand us in excellent stead as we build a fundamentally different bank – a genuinely fairer bank – in the Australian marketplace.”

“I'm genuinely excited to be joining an organisation that is poised to create a differentiating experience designed around and for the customer,” James said in a statement announcing her new role.

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