Bankwest rethinks CMO role after Felton departs

Bankwest has confirmed it will not hire a new dedicated chief marketing officer following the departure of Haylee Felton last week.

Felton, who has been CMO at the banking group since May 2019 and with the business for more nearly six years across brand and strategy roles, officially finished up last week. She’s joining the Royal Automobile Club of Australia to help transform the marketing and member experience across the group as general manager of brand and marketing.

Bankwest chief customer officer, Paul Vivian, told CMO Felton’s departure gave the organisation the opportunity to look at its model across the chief customer office (CCO). As a result, it’s decided not to replace the CMO role. Instead, members of the marketing leadership team will join the CCO leadership team.

“This integration will make it easier for leaders to collaborate closely across our key customer-focused areas of the chief customer office with the ultimate goal of improving the financial wellbeing of our customers and the community,” Vivian said.

Having spent nearly six years at Bankwest transforming the brand and marketing strategy and operating model, Felton said she was ready for a new professional challenge.

Among her main highlights during her tenure at Bankwest are the launch of the group’s new brand strategy and platform, ‘Bank Less’, redefining the go-to-market approach for all portfolios, redesigning the marketing structure to support agile organisation model, and embedding a new purpose-built group agency model with WPP.

“As a proud West Australian, I have been honoured being the brand custodian for Bankwest and am excited about the move to another iconic West Australian brand at such an ambitious time for the organisation,” Felton said of the fresh tasks ahead in her newly created role.

“RAC are embarking on an exciting transformation to create greater value for their members and truly become a purpose-led member organisation.”

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