Virgin Money has appointed a new managing director – NRMA’s David Wakeley – to replace Rohan Gamble who left in March this year. Wakeley is currently general manager commercial at NRMA and will join Virgin in June.
“We did a pretty wide search for a candidate obviously with strong commercial and financial experience,” a spokesperson for Virgin Money said. “It’s a bit of an exciting time for the business with David coming on board to spearhead our existing products and explore new product opportunities.” At NRMA Wakeley was responsible for non-membership revenue and the financial outcome of business motoring, vehicle inspections, retail motoring and travel touring products. He was also in charge of new business development for the NRMA Motoring & Services portfolio. Gamble joined Virgin Money in May 2003 when it launched in Australia with its first credit card. He was also in charge of the launch of Virgin Super last year. “With the launch phase of the business successfully completed and the business about to go through a new phase of growth, Mr Gamble and the Board have mutually agreed that it is the right time to get in a new leader to take the business forward,” Virgin Money said in a statement in March. Virgin launched a low cost home loan in March and is expected to launch insurance products later this year.
The $34 billion Brighter Super is set to shift around $10 billion of assets from passive to active management. Chief investment officer Mark Rider says the move is possible because of scale created by mergers, and the fund will be looking to its newly appointed active managers to generate performance through the cycle by taking idiosyncratic risks.
Darcy SongJanuary 21, 2025
