Kathryn van der Merwe

Kathryn van der Merwe (Kath) joined Telstra in July 2023 as the Group Executive of People, Culture and Communications. Kath is a highly regarded people and transformation leader with a track record of strengthening organisational culture and capability.

In her role with Telstra, she is responsible for supporting our people to deliver great outcomes for our customers through building the capabilities and culture required to deliver on our ambitious T25 strategy.

Before joining Telstra, Kath led the Talent and Culture function at ANZ which delivered the bank’s core people-related initiatives to empower ANZ’s strategy and organisational culture and she managed the operation of their Global Service Centres.

During this time, Kath led the bank’s purpose-led transformation, creating a solid foundation for culture and values and embedding new ways of leading. This included strengthening governance, implementing a new enterprise-wide performance, remuneration and recognition framework, and improving the bank’s digital and data capabilities.

Prior to joining ANZ in 2021, Kath, as the Results Delivery Expert Vice President at Bain & Company, helped build the Results Delivery practice focused on transformational organisational design and change management and successfully led a number of client engagements across Asia Pacific.

Kath holds a Doctorate in Psychology and Bachelor of Science with first-class honours from UNSW.