Mikaela Rasmus, ANZ Banking Group

Meet Mikaela Rasmus, Agribusiness Manager at ANZ Banking Group, winner of the WiBF Award for Achievement in Business Banking and lover of singing!

Mikaela Lee Rasmus is the Agribusiness Manager at ANZ. She services a portfolio of customers in the $1-15m lending space. She services “one of the largest patches in Australia spanning Northern SA, Southern NT, North West NSW, and South West Queensland. This includes a large concentration of livestock producers, cattle, sheep goats as well as a mix of grain producers. She also services a commercial book within this region which includes hotels, CVP’s, civil and mining groups.”

Mikaela attended WiBF’s 2022 Award Celebrations at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney, she describes the event as “fantastic. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet and network with such an array of women.” Mikaela notes that she was “extremely emotional hearing her name, that it’s been a long and tough journey.” To Mikaela winning this award meant “everything. As a young girl growing up in regional and remote Australia, the norm was to have no business thinking about a career and especially any sort of career in Agribusiness.” Despite the odds Mikaela impressively did it and “put herself through studies and training, starting from the bottom and worked her way up.” Mikaela adds that winning the award “builds confidence” but more than anything she wants it to “be a positive influence for young regional girls, to show them they can do it as well and that they don’t have to leave to make it happen.” What a brilliant message and award story to inspire all!

No matter what industry you are growing your career in, Mikaela’s advice based on her own experience is that “communication is key, availability and positivity go hand in hand. Even in declining and saying no, a positive structure and a well thought out ‘Why’ is so important.” When it comes to lacking confidence or suffering from imposter syndrome, Mikaela shares that if you “think about, at what point do you deserve that same respect, respect is earnt no matter your age.” In her scenario she realised, “that men needed to respect her just as much as she respected them. She worked hard to be where she was and she had to remove that doubt.” This comes from Mikaela’s experience working with senior men and in an extremely male dominated industry, not just in finance space but in Agri finance more specifically.

Besides an impressive career and rising against the odds, Mikaela shares a surprising fact and that is that she loves training dogs! We can just hear the leashes being placed around readers dogs right now as they prepare to bring them over to you Mikaela! Mikaela also shared that she loves singing but that she has a terrible voice, we are sure it’s not as bad as you say.

With a 2022 WiBF Award in hand, Mikaela leaves you with this positive message. “Stay you! Don’t let success go to your head. So often in my industry i see high performers develop an “untouchable or complaisant” mentality.” Mikaela goes on to add that “so many say, don’t sweat the small stuff, however I think the small stuff is the most important. Look after the small stuff, and the big things will look after themselves.” Watch Mikaela Rasmus acceptance speech – here.