Gerd Schenkel

Schenkel has a master's degree in Engineering and an MBA from the Columbia Business School in New York.^[9][10] He is the co-author of several scientific articles in the field of robotics.^[11][12]

In 2008, Schenkel launched UBank, the direct bank of National Australia Bank which has grown its balance sheet to approximately $20b.^[2][3][4] Before launching UBank, Schenkel was general manager of NAB's CRM system.^[13] Prior to that, Schenkel worked for The Boston Consulting Group.^[14]

Until June 2017, he was the CEO of Tyro Payments, an Australian EFTPOS services company, aiming to "disrupt" the incumbent banks.^{[15][16][17][18]} In December 2019, Tyro Payments listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.^[19] As of 15 July 2020, the company's market capitalisation was approximately A$1.85b ^[20]

On 13 June 2017 Tyro announced that Gerd Schenkel had resigned because he wanted to "pursue other business opportunities and spend more time with his family".^[21] The Australian Financial Review reported that Schenkel was pursuing "a new banking venture”.^[22] Schenkel is the Managing Director of consultancy "BGA Digital".^[23]

Prior to Tyro, Gerd Schenkel was the founder and Executive Director of Telstra Digital, the digital division of one of Australia's largest corporations.^{[24][25][26][27][28]} At Telstra, he led the launch of Belong, Telstra's low cost broadband business which as of June 2017 had over 150,000 customers.^[29][30]

A regular contributor to the Australian business community,^[31][23] in November 2017 was appointed to the Federal Treasurer's Small Business Digitisation Taskforce,^[32] which led to the federal Government to provide $37.3 million (over four years from 2018) to support small business' adoption of digital tools and methods.^[33][31]

In December 2018, Gerd was appointed chairman of Australian FinTech Credit Clear.^[34]

In October 2020, Credit Clear listed on the Australian Stock Exchange via an initial public offering under the ticker symbol CCR.^{[35][36][37][38]}

In December 2021, Schenkel was appointed to the Board of Helia (formerly Genworth), an ASX listed insurer.^[39]

In 2021, Credit Clear announced that it acquired ARMA, a debt collections services business to grow its revenue at a cost of $45m.^[40]

In 2021, Schenkel was reported to be part of a "consortium" wanting to acquire ME Bank,^[41] but ME Bank was ultimately acquired by Bank of Queensland.^[42]

Since 2010, Schenkel has been providing independent consulting services to global organisations.^[43][44]

Gerd was married and has two daughters, Faedra and Lillie.^[45]