Summerland Credit Union appoints first IT director

Summerland Credit Union has appointed former Regional Australia Bank chief digital officer Rob Hale as the newest member to its board of directors. 

The customer-owned bank announced Hale will be inducted to the Summerland Board this week.

Hale joins the board from Truelayer where he was the head of A/NZ banking for one year after leaving another customer-owned bank, Regional Australia Bank.

He is the first IT-focused director for Summerland Credit Union, and will act in an advisory capacity as the bank seeks to boost its technology skills bank-wide.

Hale will also advise the bank on how to better protect its customer data and defend against fraud.

Summerland Credit Union CEO John Williams said he was “thrilled” to have Hale join the board of directors.

“Rob will bring considerable value and key insights to the Board that will not only strengthen governance, risk and strategy but will help guide our digital transformation journey which has only heightened since the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent flood events in the region”.  

“Our digital transformation journey includes upgrading our core technology systems which will enable us to continue to provide excellent customer service that is aligned with Summerland’s growth strategy.

“As a customer-owned organisation, this is imperative to our continued success,” Williams said.

Hales takes on CTO role at Biza.io

Alongside the new director role, Hale has been appointed to the chief technology officer spot at Australian consumer data right (CDR) solutions company, Biza.io.

Speaking on the CTO appointment Hales said in his new role as CTO he is looking forward to “supporting the further expansion of the CDR across multiple sectors including Banking, Energy and Telco alongside the talented Biza.io team.”

“Having worked with Biza.io extensively in the past, I’ve always been incredibly impressed by the team's expertise and innovative approach to solving CDR compliance for its customers.”

Biza.io founder and CEO Stuart Low said Hale is “one of the foremost CDR experts and his depth of experience will be invaluable to Biza.io’s technology strategy as we scale to meet the demand for CDR-enabled solutions.” 

Hale joined Truelayer in late 2021, stating he was joining the global open banking platform partly “to play a role in supporting the ongoing development and evolution of Australia’s digital economy.” 

Prior to this, Hale was the Regional Australia Bank CDO, a role that has since been dissolved and replaced with two new positions.

In 2010 he first joined Regional Australia Bank, previously known as Community Mutual Group, as a senior manager for information and strategy before moving into the chief information officer role in 2013.

Hale also spent seven years at the University of New England for seven years, first as a solutions architect and then as a business intelligence and data warehousing manager.

He is also currently a government and industry advisory board and committee member on the Data Standards Body committee for the consumer data right.