Who is Kadre?

Kadre was founded by accomplished former senior executives of high-profile financial institutions, and knowledgeable statisticians.

Utilising over 85 years collective experience within Credit Risk Management, Credit Regulation and Governance, Analytics, Data Science, Predictive Modelling and Machine Learning, we created Kadre with the following vision:

‘To build a community of highly specialised credit risk consultants, advisors, and data scientists who are available to assist Banks, Finance Companies, Telco’s, Utilities, Fintech and Start Ups, solve some of their biggest challenges.’

Steve Johnson, Director

Since 2005, Steve has been a freelance consultant and been involved in many of the high-profile credit-related crises in Australia including remediation activities related to Royal Commission findings, supporting cases initiated  by ASIC, due diligence and evaluation of mergers and acquisitions, dealing with actual or potential business failures and assisting fintech start ups. He is often called upon to deal with complex retail credit issues or bring his experience and expertise to optimise the performance of retail credit portfolios. Prior to consulting, Steve was Global Head of Retail Credit at NAB and was the inaugural Chairman of ARCA and later CEO.

Steve is a firm believer that future successful businesses will be built on a foundation of data analytics, insight, and reasoning. While applicable to all business sectors, Steve specialises in retail credit risk management, where there is an abundance of data.

Thushare Dissanayake (t), Director

Over the last decade t has developed numerous predictive models and machine-learning solutions that prominent credit bureaus, banks, lenders, utilities and fintechs rely upon.

t is passionate about solving problems and decision-making, as well as applying analytics, data science/ML, to answer questions that may result in a positive social and/or environmental impact.

Senior roles include Head of Models and Attributes at Equifax, where he was responsible for Australia and New Zealand’s most widely used credit bureau scores and Head of Analytics at Parcus Group, working to bring analytic services and more affordable telecommunications to developing communities in the Asia Pacific region.

Otherwise t enjoys laughing, getting lost, riddles, arguments, growing succulents, cocktails and cryptic crosswords.

Mike Cutter, Director

Mike has over 34 years experience in Financial Services Risk Management, having started his career as a Retail Credit Analyst in the UK and Europe he has subsequently held a number of C-suite roles with ANZ, GE, NAB, Wesfarmers and HBOS and was most recently the CEO of Equifax Australia and New Zealand. Along with several other members of the Kadre family Mike has been a champion of the increased use of new data sources such as the Consumer Data Right and Comprehensive Credit Reporting along with the analytic tools and decision systems required to make the most of these rich sources of insight.

In addition to his work with Kadre Mike is a Non-Executive Director of a number of listed and unlisted businesses, undertaking Chair and Audit and Risk Committee Chair roles.

Mike has a passion for rational thinking and the development of tools that aids it!

When not engaged in Risk Management Mikes has a wide range of interests including a passion for Cricket, Rugby and Kayaking and a love for wildlife photography!

Sacha Close, former Director

Sacha is an established Collections and Credit Risk specialist who is passionate about instilling the right processes to protect vulnerable consumers.

Across the last 20 years, any major transformation project in collections data, technology, or regulatory change in Australia or NZ has likely had Sacha consulting. She is a dedicated thought leader who is often invited to be a keynote speaker at industry events.

After hours Sacha balances her lifestyle by either connecting with like-minded women in her Women in Credit Risk network or enjoying quiet time at home in the tranquil surroundings of Mount Macedon with her three teen boys, two dogs, and hubby.

Sacha is a cherished co-founder of Kadre, but has since exited the business.

Ross Gayler

Ross Gayler is one of Australia’s leading data scientists in the field of credit risk. He has 30 years’ experience in applying statistical modelling to automated large scale decision making in consumer credit for credit providers and credit reporting agencies in Oceania, Asia, and Europe. Prior to that,Ross worked in health policy research. Ross has a background in computer science and psychology and was awarded a Doctorate in Psychology.

Justin McCarthy

Justin enjoys his work the most when he is finding the answer to business problems using data. Whether that involves visualisations, machine learning or software engineering, Justin has a history of helping businesses make better, smarter decisions.

Ewa Baranowska

Ewa is a highly experienced retail lending and credit professional with deep passion for finding solutions to real business problems utilising analytically derived insights. Her extensive experience – most recently as a Head of Consumer Services for Australia’s largest credit bureau – has given her a unique mix of skills and competencies. She has a thorough understanding of lending and credit cycle management across multiple industries and an extensive experience in product development, strategy and end-to-end management. Since joining Kadre team in 2020 as a senior consultant, Ewa supported several customers in various aspects of retail risk management including consumer credit regulation impacts, the adoption of comprehensive credit reporting, risk governance frameworks, credit policy reviews and decision rules optimisations.

David Grafton

David has over 25 years of experience in consumer credit of which 8 years were spent as the CRO of CBA’s retail bank; 8 years running credit bureaus (embracing data, analytics and software) in the UK and Australia and the remainder as a specialist consultant including as a director at PwC. He is well known in the credit industry and has presented at numerous risk management conferences both in Australia and overseas.

David has had close involvement with the development of CCR and has published a well-received guide for credit providers moving to CCR. He co – founded the Australian Retail Credit Association, of which he is a former chairman and director.

David’s advisory experience extends across large and small scale organisations and to all types of secured and unsecured consumer credit. He was a director in PwC’s risk consulting practice and joined Kadre in 2019.

David has a BA and PhD from Southampton University (UK) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Roy Pugh

With over 27 years in international and local roles in credit risk analytics, Roy has balanced his experience between 14 years in banking and 13 years in consultancy. Roy is a firm believer that analytic solutions offer the greatest value when the delivering analyst understands the business context driving the problem at hand. Consequently, Roy has consciously followed a career path that provided exposure to analytic development and delivery on the one hand, along with business implementation and operational management on the other.

Senior roles include Head of Retail Credit Analytics (ANZ), Head of Global Retail Risk Policy (ANZ), Senior Manager Collections (ANZ), Director & Head of Analytics (Connected Analytics), Principal, Risk Advisory (Deloitte). More recently Roy can often be heard lamenting ‘I was born too soon’ as there has never been a more exciting time to be an analytics professional. Roy now focusses on being a full-time analytics practitioner and says he’s never been happier.

Away from work Roy has several interests, in particular horse racing and consuming red wine. Whenever possible he tries to combine the two.

Sebastien Lopez

In 2021, Seb finished his Master of Data Science at RMIT. He has a passion for using information to create understandable insights.
During his Bachelor of Science (Mathematics), Seb did a placement at Equifax where he gathered a baseline understanding of credit scorecard creation as well as made connections to a wonderful community of people.
This led Seb to his first job here at Kadre.

Seb loves to fill a room with smiles, and he enjoys boardgames, cooking, movies, and a sweeter cocktail.

Seb has since left Kadre and now plys his trade at a well established, leading institution – onward and upward!

Christian Klettner

Christian is a passionate and experienced finance and risk professional with 30 years of work experience at major and second tier banks, fintechs, tech start-ups, and in government. He has extensive experience across retail and institutional banking sectors in business, treasury, and risk functions.

Throughout his career Christian has demonstrated practical quantitative problem-solving, encompassing problem definition, fundamental research, prototyping, quantitative analysis (including the latest machine learning techniques), engaging interactive visualisation, model performance assessment and validation out of sample and over time, and model implementation in dynamic systems environment.

Christian specialises in portfolio risk solutions for expected (ECL under AASB 9) and unexpected losses (economic and regulatory capital requirements), stress testing, forecasting, pricing and return optimisation.

Micheal Hartman

Michael has over 32 years of experience in Risk, Management, Controls and Compliance having worked in the United States and Australia with responsibilities including teams in New Zealand. His broad range of senior roles, subject matter expertise and experience has earned him respect and trusted as practitioner in the Australian financial industry who is known to be driven to deliver sustainable financial services practices.

He is a professional leader with extensive experience in lifting capability and delivering balanced practical results – often working within projects as a bridge to Front Line operations to ensure compliance and practicality in process development and effective transition to ‘business as usual’ operation. Michael is both a delivery and operations expert who applies a pragmatic approach to change management, policy and process alignment, risk and controls framework development and remediation delivery.

Michael has a broad and diverse experience in: Banking, Consumer and Commercial Finance, Regulatory Development, End-to-End Credit and Customer Lifecycle Management, and large-scale Credit Remediation.

Tim Brinkler

Tim has over 30 years of credit and risk industry experience across multiple markets. Originating from the UK, his career has included roles with Experian, NAB, ANZ and most recently Latitude (previously GE). He was a long-standing board member of ARCA and participant in the evolution of CCR in Australia and New Zealand.

Paul Jewell

Paul has over 30 years consumer credit and risk management experience across retail banking, insurance and fintech. He started his career in the UK and worked in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland before moving to Australia at the end of 2004.

Paul has managed all types of secured and unsecured lending products and is a specialist in home loans and LMI. Senior roles include Chief Risk Officer (Nano Digital Home Loans), Chief Credit Officer (QBE Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance) and Head of Consumer Credit Risk (HSBC Australia & New Zealand).