New staff appointments part of restructure to support five-year plan
Australia’s largest retail broker network, Lendi Group, has announced a major revamp of its leadership structure as part of an ambitious five-year strategy to lead the market on product-driven innovation.
The restructure features three new appointments.
Leo Bautista (pictured above left) will join Lendi Group as chief financial officer in late May. Bautista has held a number of executive roles at ANZ, Nomura, and most recently at Commonwealth Bank where he was general manager group strategy, mergers and acquisitions.
Emily Lonsdale (picture above centre), who has worked at Aussie Home Loans for five years, has been appointed as general manager of growth.
Devesh Maheshwari (pictured above right) joins Lendi Group as general manager of technology. His previous work included chief technology officer at DataMesh and roles at Tyro and Tabcorp.
Lendi Group has also appointed general managers statewide to support broker growth.
Reacting to her appointment, Lonsdale said: “Having spent five years with Aussie, I’m thrilled to be stepping into a new role that will drive growth in our two leading brands through content investment, new product experiences and increased support for broker marketing growth.”
Devesh Maheshwari said he was excited to be joining at “such a pivotal time for the Group, embarking on further product-led growth initiatives, and further enhancing Lendi Group’s leading technology capabilities”.
Lendi Group leadership structure
Apart from Lonsdale and Maheshwari’s roles, the revamped structure announced by Lendi Group included the following positions:
Confirmed Lendi Group executive team
- Chief executive officer and co-founder, David Hyman
- Chief operating officer and co-founder, Sebastian Watkins
- Chief financial officer, Leo Bautista
- Chief product officer, Travis Tyler
- Chief distribution officer, Brad Cramb
- Chief legal and operations officer, Nicole Johnschwager
Confirmed state-based leadership
- Head of Lendi distribution, Joel Curley
- General manager of Queensland, Matt Whyte
- General manager of NSW & ACT, Karen Sorrenti
- Head of SA/NT/WA, Corey Drew
- General Manager of Network Delivery & Acting GM of VIC/TAS, Aaron Hockey
Lendi Group CEO excited about changes
Hyman (pictured below), the CEO and co-founder of Lendi Group, welcomed the newly announced appointments.
He said the quality of appointments showcased the growth of Lendi Group and its growing position in the market.
“The new appointments follow key milestones achieved over the past 12 months, including the migration of over 1,000 Aussie Brokers onto Lendi Group platform, loan book growth to nearly $100 billion, a 6.8% market share as of January 2024 and Aussie and Lendi taking out the No.1 and No.4 top broker spots respectively for 2024,” said Hyman.
Lendi Group had experienced a pivotal 12 months, he said.
“The new leadership appointments, combined with focused investment in key capabilities and support structures reflect the need to continue this pace, ensuring our customers and brokers continue to receive an innovative experience and the best products,” Hyman said.
“The appointment of Leo Bautisa, an incredibly experienced leader and strategic thinker, will see corporate development, strategy and M&A sit with the new CFO, evolving the Group’s five-year growth agenda.”
The new leadership appointments follow Lendi Group’s announcement earlier in February that former founder and head of Westpac DataX, Jade Clarke had been appointed to the newly created role of general manager of data, leading the group’s AI and data initiatives.
Hyman confirmed that while there would be impacts to some team members within the new structure, there was overall net headcount growth for the group with 59 new roles.
Restructure to strengthen Lendi Group
Asked how the new appointments would boost support for brokers and attract new brokers to the group, Hyman told MPA that the company had migrated its entire Aussie broker network onto the new Aussie platform in 2023, driving substantial changes to brokers’ ways of working.
“Coupled with six in every 10 brokers operating within our fully-supported broker support model, benefits to conversion and productivity are being realised, including customer acquisition and efficiency,” said Hyman.
As an example, Aussie stores on supported models had more efficient customer generation, with 44% of their lodgements generated from accounts older than 2023, compared to 19% for stores not on supported models.
“What this tells us is that our product-led and growth supported approach with tech at the forefront is helping our brokers grow their businesses, and continuing to invest in those areas should only strengthen our market leading broker value proposition,” Hyman said.
The broker network’s five year five-year strategy was focused on continuing to lead on product to drive customer and broker value.
Hyman said by embedding Lendi Group deeper in the entire home buying and homeownership journey, “we can help more customers in many more ways”.
“By having the right people, the right technology and the right capabilities, we can drive more product-led innovation that can deepen our relationships with customers.
“While broker and customer growth is naturally a positive outcome of having market-leading experiences, the changes were ultimately driven by the drive behind our ambitious vision.”
Hyman said the latest announcement followed a number of developments which included:
- the Group’s half year highlights
- launching innovative product experiences including free credit score visibility and contract reviews for customers
- industry- first AI initiatives for brokers;
- outperformance of industry settlement average with faster time to turnaround via platform;
- growth to over 4 million accounts
- growing the Group’s new purchase segment to 46% of lodgements
Lendi Group chief distribution officer Brad Cramb said the new leadership appointments and structure would grow its world-class customer, broker and lender experience, which had been simplified to hyper-focus on brokers, customers and product-led technology.
“Over the past year, we have progressively rolled out our best-in-breed broker support models ‘PLUS’ and ‘GROW’,” Cramb said.
“This has seen 70% of Aussie mobile brokers and 50% of Aussie retail stores who have opted into this model deliver higher appointments, increased conversion and better customer outcomes. Our focus remains on evolving these programs to support the growth of our broker business.”
Cramb said the newly appointed general managers would support further growth strategies, with a product and tech-led agenda that disrupted local market challenges to drive state-based market share.
Lendi Group’s current chief financial officer, Jason King, had chosen to depart in May to pursue a new opportunity outside of the Group.
Hyman thanked King for his seven-year tenure at Lendi Group.
“Jason led what was a three-person finance team, that has grown to a successful finance division within Lendi Group today,” Hyman said. “Jason has been at the heart of several key transactions and transformation projects, giving Lendi Group an excellent foundation to grow from moving forward.
“On behalf of the entire board and executive team, I want to thank Jason for his leadership and friendship, and I wish him every success in his next endeavours.”
Future expected growth
Hyman said Lendi Group anticipated significant shifts in the market over the next five years, driven by interest rates, cost of living, housing shortages, and affordability.
“Nevertheless, Australians have displayed remarkable resilience and determination in pursuing their homeownership aspirations,” he said. “This resolve has been particularly evident in the recent market trend favouring new property purchases.”
At Lendi Group, there had been a notable increase from 51% to 63% in settlements within this segment between June 2023 and December 2023.
“Additionally, first home buyers accounted for 38% of these transactions. Should rates start to come down, we expect further strength in the purchase segment, across both owner occupiers and investors,” said Hyman.
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