ANZ marketer joins Australian Business Growth Fund as inaugural CMO

Former ANZ and Deakin University senior marketer, Trisca Scott-Branagan, has become the chief marketing officer for recently established growth capital firm, Australian Business Growth Fund (ABGF).  

ABGF was established under a year ago to help stimulate innovation and economic growth – as well as jobs – in Australia. To do this, the group provides long-term investment capital to Australian SMEs chalking up between $2 million and $100 million in annual revenue.  

The business growth model has already been adopted successfully in the UK and Canada and has kickstarted locally with a $540 million initial capital pot by the Federal Government in partnership with six local banks: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ, National Australia Bank, Macquarie and HSBC.  

As inaugural CMO, Scott-Branagan will be responsible for marketing, digital and communications/PR. She reports to ABGF CEO and former NAB head of business banking, Anthony Healy, and sits on the executive leadership team. Chair of the ABGF is former NSW Premier, Mike Baird.  

Scott-Branagan told CMO establishment of the fund in 2020 and appointment of a CEO in October 2020 led to recruitment of a world-class team of people who are experts in their respective fields.  

“As the pandemic has swept the world, including Australia, my focus has increasingly turned towards applying my marketing skills to help others succeed in the work they do. In a nutshell, I was looking to find an organisation where I could do great work, with a great team, in a great culture, that was driven by a strong purpose,” Scott-Branagan commented.    

The initial focus at ABFG is building the fund’s brand so SMEs and advisors are aware of its existence and support.  

“We are focused on ensuring every organisation has a great experience and are better off because of their dealings with the fund – whether we invest in them or not,” Scott-Branagan said. “I’m also excited about providing advice to those businesses we invest in, ensuring they maximise their marketing efforts to drive stronger commercial and customer outcomes.”  

Scott-Branagan has been building her financial services credentials at ANZ, spending more than three years with the bank initially as head of marketing for institutional banking, then as head of personalisation for group marketing. Prior to this, she was the executive director of marketing at Deakin University for three years, a role that saw Scott-Branagan recognised in the CMO50 of Australia’s most innovative and effective marketing leaders.  

Her professional career commenced at CGU Insurance in corporate development, followed by strategic alliance management at Australian Unity. From there, Scott-Branagan spent more than 10 years at Deloitte in a variety of roles including markets director, industry marketing in New York and global director of industry operations. For the last six months, she’s been consulting on B2B marketing strategy for Green Hat.

Scott-Branagan retains her industry advisory roles with ADMA, the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia and Deakin University School of Marketing.

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