James Austin
Chief Financial Officer

James Austin has many years of treasury and capital markets experience, including expertise in financial markets accounting, market risk management, derivative valuations, and debt / equity markets settlement.

During his career he has worked at KPMG Brisbane, CSFB London, Abbey National London, HSBC Sydney and HSBC Tokyo.

In his role previous to FirstMac he spent the six years working with HSBC in Japan, culminating in his appointment as the chief operating officer of HSBC Japan and was a member of the HSBC Group’s ALM committee in Japan.

He joined FirstMac in April 2005 and is responsible for all finance, treasury and securitisation functions, plus loan servicing.

James holds a Bachelor of Business from Queensland University of Technology and is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, having qualified with KPMG in 1992.

Darren McLeod
Head of Sales

Darren joined FirstMac in April 2004 and brings with him over 20 years experience in banking and finance. During that time, he has worked in virtually every area of banking, including loans, approvals, credit control and sales.

Previously, Darren spent 11 years with CPS Credit Union in Adelaide followed by nine years with Adelaide Bank, where he was instrumental in establishing their national network of mortgage managers and brokers. In addition, while a business development manager at Adelaide Bank, Darren originated $1 billion in loans in one financial year.

Darren holds an Associate Diploma in Banking and Finance and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Credit Management.

William Barin
Head of Credit

Bill has been head of credit at FirstMac since September 2006 and is also responsible for loans processing. His experience includes over 15 years with Westpac in a variety of management roles in corporate and retail credit and policy, problem asset management and debt capital market syndication. His last role in Westpac was as head of credit and compliance for the retail bank's mortgage and personal loans product management group.

He has worked in Singapore where he was regional head of debt restructuring with Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific head office, and was also in credit risk review roles with two Asian regional banks. His last role before joining FirstMac was as credit director with Hewlett Packard Financial Services Asia Pacific, based in Sydney.

Tracey Boyes
National HR Manager

Tracey has been the National HR Manager for FirstMac since February 2006. Her HR experience includes 19 years in the financial services sector with the Lloyds TSB Group, mainly in the Insurance and Investment division. Moving with her family from the UK to Australia at the end of 2005, Tracey's core responsibility at FirstMac is to ensure the business displays a consistent and compliant approach to all aspects of human resources - including, but not limited to, performance review and management, establishment of policies and procedures, recruitment and induction, and overseeing staff training and development initiatives.