Gail Kelly

Gail’s executive banking career spanned 35 years, split equally between South Africa and Australia. While in South Africa, Gail held a number of senior executive positions in the Nedbank Group. Gail served as the Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of two banks in Australia – St.George Bank from 2002 to 2007 and Westpac from 2008 to 2015. In 2008, these two banks came together under Gail’s leadership in what was the largest in-market merger in Australian financial services. At the time of her retirement in February 2015, The Westpac Group was the country’s 2nd largest bank and the 12th largest bank in the world, in terms of market capitalization.

Gail is the author of "Live, Lead, Learn: My Stories of Life and Leadership," which was published in July 2017 in Australia and New Zealand by Penguin Random House and in November 2017 in South Africa by Pan Macmillan. In the same year, she established ‘The Gail Kelly Global Leaders Scholarship’ between the University of New South Wales and the University of Cape Town.

Gail holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and Higher Diploma of Education from Cape Town University, a Masters of Business Administration (with Distinction) from the University of the Witwatersrand, and she has also completed the INSEAD Advanced Management Program in Fontainebleau. Gail has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business by the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, and Charles Sturt University. She has also been conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Science in Economics by the University of Sydney.