Faz Goren, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank

Meet Faz Goren, from humble beginnings to State Manager of Business Banking at Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and winner of the 2022 WiBF Inclusive Leader Award.

Introducing Faz Goren, State Manager of Business Banking at Bendigo & Adelaide Bank. Where Faz has “the privilege of custodianship of the customer experience and employee engagement.” Faz is “ultimately responsible for ensuring their business is in the most competitive market position to maximize revenue-generating opportunities.”

Faz’s “remit encompasses a wide range of strategic, financial, and operational functions with a strong focus on leader development, skills capability uplift and executional excellence.”

Faz attended WiBF’s 2022 Award Celebrations at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on September 2nd, she reflects back sharing that “what feels like an eternity of WFH with minimal to no face to face industry engagements, to come together in a room of around 400 incredible industry peers was incredible!” Faz went on to share that she already felt like a winner to be nominated and to hear her name being called out as the winner was to her “such a shock.” We imagine in the best possible way!. Faz adds that “receiving the award itself was, as you might expect, an overwhelming honour:” the pinnacle of her career to date. A moment which she notes that will remain with her for the rest of her life.

After, spending 20 years in the banking and finance sector perfecting her craft leading distribution businesses, influencing sales and performance leadership – Faz shares that “if you want to excel in anything you do – find your purpose! Start with your why; your why can be found at the intersection of who you are at your best and the role you play in the world, it’s where your ethos is married to your aspiration.” Faz adds that once you have found your why, “surround yourself with people who can support you to bring that purpose to life.” This advice stems from Faz’s own person journey, coming from “very humble migrant beginnings, seeing and living first hand that access to financial literacy and opportunities to fully participate in the business community for culturally and linguistically diverse people was and still is lacking.” For Faz, this started the fire in her belly and it “is a generational fire and this lived experience naturally became a lens to see opportunity in adversity and act with intentionality.”

Besides Faz’s impressive career journey, you’ll be surprised to know Faz originally planned on studying anthropology (the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behaviour, cultures, societies, and linguistics) however realised her desire to contribute to the financial security of women and CALD people far outweighed any scientific pursuits. She has travelled to over 36 countries and is energised by meeting new people and learning about other cultures.

With the 2022 WiBF Award in hand, Faz is “determined to utilize the added ‘licence’ or ‘legitimacy’ the platform that winning the WiBF Inclusive Leader Award provides, to be an expert in this field and share that expertise to drive change.” It is Faz’s “continued mission to speed up equitable outcomes for CALD people across our industry.”

Watch Faz Goren’s acceptance speech – here.