Industry super fund-owned bank ME has appointed former ANZ Head of Enterprise Information Architecture, Annie South, as ME’s GM Data − a new role responsible for extending the strategic value of data for the Bank.

ME CIO Mark Gay, said it was an important appointment given the ME’s aspiration to push the data agenda.

“Global research firm Gartner predicts 25 per cent of organisations worldwide will employ chief data officers by 2017, particularly heavily regulated industries like banking and insurance,” said Gay.

“Data is a strategic asset and needs to be given prominence and consideration in its own right rather than being subsumed within other technology functions.

“Data analysis has always been in use at ME for the purpose of managing risk, productivity and marketing, but new data sets are emerging and new ways of using existing data sets that can provide valuable advantages to businesses, particularly around customer relationships and behaviour.”

Annie South has 15 years’ information management experience with complex information environments including NAB and JP Morgan in the UK and ANZ and Telstra in Australia.

She also recently partnered with Monash University, resulting in a number of academic papers.

South said she is looking forward to building on ME’s capabilities in data management and analysis and leveraging opportunities with ME’s 29 industry super fund shareholders, to ultimately improve engagement with bank customers and super fund members alike.