Heritage Bank appoints permanent general counsel

Mr Wogan, who has been acting as Heritage Bank’s interim general counsel for the last six months, has held numerous private practice and in-house counsel roles in Australia and New Zealand, most recently acting as PwC’s legal director.

“Mr Wogan is a highly credentialled and experienced lawyer who will be a welcome addition to the senior management team at Heritage. We’re delighted to welcome him to the general counsel role permanently and look forward to continue to benefit from his expertise and guidance,” Heritage CEO Peter Lock said.

The newly permanent general counsel said that the legal and governance function will play an important role as Heritage becomes “a more digitally led bank”.

“A successful legal function is there to help the rest of the business to achieve its objectives while mitigating risk at the same time,” Mr Wogan said.

“I’m delighted to be joining an organisation that puts the best interests of its customers and staff right at the heart of everything it does.”

At the end of 2017, Heritage Bank was recognised as Australia’s top financial institution for customer satisfaction, followed by People’s Choice, Credit Union Australia and Bendigo Bank, according to global market research firm JD Power.

Heritage, which topped the ranking for the second year in a row, scored the highest in four of the six categories: product offerings, facility, account information and account activities.

In December, the mutual bank also named Paul Williams as its new CFO. Mr Williams, who took over from Peter Cleary after the former CFO stepped down for health reasons, previously held a number of treasury roles at the Bank of Queensland as well as property analyst roles in Sydney and Durban, South Africa.

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