Rabobank Australia Limited has appointed Carolyn Colley as chair, effective 31 August 2026, in an announcement made on 1 September 2026. Colley has sat on the board since 1 April 2025 and moves into the chair after 17 months as a non-executive director, giving the bank an internal succession rather than an external hire.
She succeeds James Fazzino, who joined the board in 2020 and had been chair since 2023, and who is stepping down after more than six years as a director. Els Kamphof, who sits on the managing board of Rabobank with responsibility for Wholesale and Rural, announced the appointment and said: "Carolyn brings deep experience across audit, risk, financial and product governance in complex regulated environments." Colley said she was "honoured and excited to take on the role of Chair of Rabobank Australia".
Colley has more than 30 years of executive and non-executive experience across financial services, technology and digital innovation. She is an independent non-executive director of Count Ltd and of Smartgroup Corporation, and sits on the clearing and settlement boards of ASX. She has previously served on the boards of Milford Asset Management, IOOF Trustees and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and has held senior executive roles at Macquarie Bank, St George Bank and BT Financial Group. She also co-founded Faethm, a global software as a service analytics platform focused on the future of work, and was its chief operating officer.
Rabobank Australia Limited is the Australian banking business of Rabobank and sits within the group's Wholesale and Rural division, which Kamphof oversees at group level. Caroline Oosterbaan is chief executive of the Australian business and also sits on the board that Colley now chairs. The chairmanship changes hands after a period of stability at the top of the board, with Fazzino having held the chair for three years and served as a director since 2020.
The elevation of a sitting director rather than the recruitment of an outside chair points to continuity, and the short tenure of 17 months before the promotion suggests the parent was satisfied with what it had seen at board level. That is an inference from the sequence of appointments rather than a stated rationale. The public framing of the appointment leans on audit, risk, financial and product governance in regulated environments, which is consistent with a board prioritising supervisory capability over strategic redirection. Colley's technology record, including the co-founding of Faethm, gives the board a director familiar with digital delivery, and it would be reasonable to expect that experience to be drawn on as banks invest in data and automation, although the appointment was not tied publicly to any particular programme of work.
