Darren McKenzie new tech boss at MLC Wealth

MLC Wealth has appointed Darren McKenzie as chief technology and operations officer. McKenzie is moving to Australia from the UK where he was chief operating officer UK and international at RSA Insurance for four years. 

Starting in March, McKenzie will report to both National Australia Bank’s (NAB) group chief technology and operations officer, Patrick Wright and MLC Wealth chief Geoff Lloyd until MLC’s legal separation from NAB, which is expected to be completed this calendar year.

John Shipman had been acting as MLC’s chief technology and operations officer.

Lloyd said in a statement on Friday that McKenzie is a highly accomplished executive with more than 20 years’ experience defining and delivering strategic transformation across technology and operations in financial services organisations.

“He is well regarded as a strong leader with an ability to create long-term, customer-focused solutions to complex business challenges,” Lloyd said.

“As we continue to prepare for separation, Darren’s deep experience across technology and operations will enable us to delivery strong capability to support the business. We look forward to him joining us in March.”

While at RSA, McKenzie was accountable for technology and operations across the UK and international businesses including the design and execution of a large scale transformation program.

Prior to this, he spent six years as chief information officer at Banco Santander’s consumer banking businesses, based in Frankfurt and led the company’s German banking transformation. He was also previously CIO at Alliance & Leicester for three years and director of IT operations at Egg for five years.

MLC Wealth has also appointed additional executives before the spin off including Anthony Lane as chief operating officer and Andrew Morgan as chief commercial services officer.