Our Team

Ian Hankins

Independent Board Chairman

Ian has a 28-year career in retail banking, investment banking and wealth management gained across NZ, Australia and the UK. Over the last 10 years held a number of senior management and internal director roles at Westpac NZ including CFO, Chief Transformation Officer and GM Consumer Bank. In 2022 he joined Forsyth Barr and currently leads their Wealth management division. Ian has a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration majoring in Money and Finance from Victoria University and in 2020 was awarded a Fellow membership of CPA Australia.

Ross Verry

Independent Board Director

Ross is the Chief Executive of Syndex, a private markets investment management and trading platform. Ross's previous role was General Manager, Agriculture for ANZ where he had responsibility for the development and implementation of the bank’s Agri business strategy. Prior to that, Ross held several senior Commercial Banking roles, including General Manager Corporate Banking and General Manager Specialist Businesses. Ross is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and a former Chartered Accountant. He is currently also Chair of TH Enterprises, a large scale, family-owned dairy farming business and a Director of Gold Creek Farm Management and the NZ Cricket Players Association.

Daniel McGrath

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Daniel was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer in April 2019. Daniel has extensive experience in senior management positions, having worked as a solicitor for major international law firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Shearman & Sterling LLP, representing banks, private equity firms and global corporations. Daniel was also Senior Legal Counsel for ASX-listed Challenger Financial Services Group Ltd, advising on acquisitions and divestments for Challenger’s funds management group.

Daniel holds a BA/LLB from Queensland University of Technology and an MA from Cambridge University.

Graeme O'Leary

Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Graeme was appointed as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in November 2020. Graeme started working with Xceda Finance in the 18 months prior to his appointment as one of our external accountants at Ernst & Young. Graeme brings vast experience and capability to Xceda Finance’s financial governance practices.

Graeme holds a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in Accounting & Commercial Law from the University of Otago, a Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (GradDipCA) and is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand (CA ANZ).

Graeme works in our Auckland office alongside Daniel (the CEO), Darryl (the CCRO) and our commercial lending team.

Darryl French

Chief Credit Risk Officer (CCRO)

Darryl was appointed as our Chief Credit Risk Officer (CCRO) in October 2021. Having worked in several senior management teams, Darryl has been involved in building a finance company from the ground up, with another he increased the market cap value from $1.5 million to over $250 million and managed multi-million dollar complex loan positions in distress. Darryl has managed projects creating policy, procedures, loan assessment scorecards and has experience in business development, business analysis, staff management and establishing governance. Darryl has a real passion for the Finance and Recovery sector and brings a wealth of knowledge to our team.

Darryl works in our Auckland office alongside Daniel (the CEO) and Graeme (the CFO).

Nicola Andresen

General Manager and Investor Relations

Nicola started at Xceda Finance in 1992 when the company was operating under its former name Asset Finance Limited. Nicola has worked in a wide variety of roles in the company, and therefore has a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of operations. Nicola is primarily responsible for Investor Relations for our secured term deposit products, as well as managing the general day-to-day running of the operations team in Whakatane. Nicola brings an abundance of knowledge on the history of Xceda Finance and the finance industry in general after almost 25 years of experience in the sector.

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Nicole Awhimate

Systems Operations Manager

Nicole started at Xceda Finance as a Loans Officer in 2012, fresh from completing her degree at Victoria University. She has worked in a wide variety of roles within the company and as such has a great depth of understanding of Xceda and our customers. Most recently Nicole has been working as our Systems Manager, taking on the task of managing our IT System upgrades. Nicole brings a wealth of knowledge about our processes and history.

Nicole holds a BCA in Management and Commercial Law from Victoria University. Nicole works in our Whakatane office alongside Nicola (General Manager) and the rest of the Loan Operations Team.