{"id":472771,"date":"2026-06-11T22:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/472771\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T22:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T22:58:09","slug":"antonia-watson-to-step-down-as-anz-nz-chief-executive-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/472771\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonia Watson to step down as ANZ NZ chief executive in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">Watson, who was paid $3.08m in total remuneration last year, is one of just six women currently running NZX Top 50 listed companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">ANZ NZ chair Scott St John said today\u2019s CEOs had to deal with heightened customer, shareholder, staff, political and regulatory expectations and Watson had done that exceptionally well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cShe has not only guided the business to consistently solid performances for our shareholders through the Covid pandemic and other global and local economic shocks, but she has also been a steady hand and balanced industry voice during the Commerce Commission\u2019s market study and Parliament\u2019s banking inquiry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cShe has ably guided us using her powerful intellect, easy management style, openness and strong sense of values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">St John said there would be a smooth transition to Kelleher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">Watson said almost seven years was a long time to be CEO of a major company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019ve loved every moment of my time at ANZ. I\u2019ve had the privilege of working with some incredibly smart, hardworking and clever colleagues and customers, which has made navigating the difficult times like Covid all the more rewarding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s been a joy to be invited on to the farms, factory floors, board rooms and homes of many customers across New Zealand and the Pacific in my role and they have inspired me and taught me so much about banking and the real economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI never aspired to be a CEO in my career but now count myself lucky to have led a company that is critical to New Zealand\u2019s economic prosperity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"xRCtHSZoMFoDBmw\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have no immediate plans. But after an extended period of travel, I\u2019m looking forward to finding other professional and personal challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watson, who was paid $3.08m in total remuneration last year, is one of just six women currently running&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[42563,12465,806,1643,138,3937,6097,3938,78,111,139,69,3048,8037,21694,61,1865,15358,1533],"class_list":["post-472771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-antonia","tag-anz","tag-as","tag-bank","tag-business","tag-chief","tag-down","tag-executive","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-said","tag-september","tag-step","tag-to","tag-today","tag-watson","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}