Gerd Schenkel joins Jost Stollmann as Tyro’s new CEO to build the nextGen Bank

Gerd Schenkel joins Jost Stollmann as Tyro’s new CEO to build the nextGen Bank

Tyro Payments Limited (“Tyro”), Australia’s fast growing nextGen banking institution, today announced the appointment of Gerd Schenkel as the company’s new CEO, effective 24 October 2016.

The decision follows a proposed new leadership structure to the Board from current CEO Jost Stollmann to accommodate Tyro’s ambitious growth plans and its strong public advocacy role.

“When someone of Gerd’s talent becomes available you grab the opportunity with both hands,” Jost Stollmann said.

“Now that Tyro has a bank licence and $100 million in new capital, Gerd joining the Tyro team as new CEO is the last piece needed to deliver very strong growth in the years ahead.”

As full-time Executive Director Jost Stollmann will continue to raise Tyro’s profile in Australia, while supporting Gerd Schenkel in his role as CEO.

As the company’s largest shareholder and as a Board member, Jost will also continue playing a significant role in defining Tyro’s strategic direction.

Gerd Schenkel has more than 17 years’ experience in Australian banking and technology related businesses.

He founded Australia’s first home-grown digital deposit and mortgage bank, UBank, in 2008 which now has around $20 billion in customer balances.

Most recently, as Executive Director & Founder of Telstra Digital, he grew this new channel to 500 million customer contacts per annum.

Gerd Schenkel said that he was attracted by the unique opportunity to build a new kind of organisation with Jost and the entire Tyro team, delivering frictionless banking and access to debt for Australia’s SMEs and growth companies.

“I am excited about the opportunity to lead Tyro as we continue to build Australia’s newest bank,” he said.

“Tyro is a new kind of company with a uniquely attractive culture, it’s a technology company that happens to be a bank, not the other way around.

“Australia needs a viable and strong banking sector which is customer centric and technology literate, a Tyro delivering fair, transparent and smart banking.”

Tyro’s growth and achievements to date have been remarkable. Currently serving more than 16,000 small businesses, Tyro processed $8.6 billion of transactions and generated more than $95 million in revenue in FY16.

Tyro Chairman Kerry Roxburgh said Jost Stollmann identified Gerd Schenkel as the ideal new CEO, and the Board was happy to endorse that choice after an exhaustive selection process involving an independent search firm.

“Jost Stollmann’s decade managing Tyro has been outstanding, culminating in the company’s strong 2016 financial results,” Kerry Roxburgh said.

“The Board is delighted Jost will continue as full-time Executive Director and Board member, helping achieve the company’s ambitious growth plans, while fighting for Australian SMEs and inspiring the Australian spirit of entrepreneurship.

”We are similarly impressed by Gerd Schenkel’s experience and industry knowledge, and regard his appointment as a coup for Tyro.”

About Gerd Schenkel

• Born in Germany 1969
• Predominately lived in Australia since 1994
• Started his career with the Boston Consulting Group, located in Sydney, New York and Los Angeles
• Citigroup Director Strategy & Business Development for Australia
• UBank Founder and Managing Director
• Telstra Digital Executive Director with 500 million customer contacts per annum, eight million unique monthly users, three million regular app users
• Master of Mechanical Engineering (Robotics) from the University of Stuttgart
• Visiting Scholar in Robotics at the University of Sydney
• MBA from Columbia Business School, New York.

About Tyro

Tyro is Australia’s only independent EFTPOS banking institution and is the first new entrant into the banking business in more than 18 years. Tyro holds an authority under the Banking Act to carry on a banking business as an Australian Deposit Taking Institution (ADI) and operates under the supervision of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Tyro provides credit, debit, EFTPOS card acquiring, Medicare and private health fund claiming and rebating services as well as a transaction and deposit account integrated with Xero cloud accounting. Tyro takes money on deposit and offers unsecured cash-flow based lending to Australian EFTPOS merchants.

In August last year, Tyro became the first Australian technology company to be granted a full banking licence by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, allowing it to accept deposits and to advance money to Australian businesses. Only four months later, Tyro successfully raised around $100 million in new capital from a range of domestic and international investors, including Atlassian’s joint-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, Tiger Global Management in New York and TDM Asset Management in Sydney. Established in 2003, Tyro was valued to nearly half a billion dollars, marking it one of Australia’s technological success stories.

Need to know more?

For more about this news story please contact:
Monica Appleby, Head of Corporate Communications on 0466 598 946 or mappleby@tyro.com
Sophie Cotterill, Corporate Communications Manager on 0414 960 292 or scotterill@tyro.com