Master of Business (Banking and Finance), 1995; Graduate Diploma in Banking and Finance, 1994; Graduate Certificate in Finance, 1993
UTS Business School Award
Don Koch is an accomplished leader with global expertise in the finance sector – particularly digital banking, where he specialises in creating value by focusing on shareholder and customer outcomes.
His stakeholder and regulator relationship skills, combined with international cross-cultural awareness and market knowledge, have been utilised in senior executive roles at banks around the world.
Don started his career with various roles at the Commonwealth Bank, before progressing to Citibank before joining ING in Australia in 1999. He was the CIO and technical leader of the program to launch ING Direct in Australia and Italy. He then became Chief Operating Officer in Poland, then India, and then in Thailand with TMB Bank PCL. Don was then appointed CEO and managing director of ING DIRECT in Australia, which was followed by similar roles at ING Italia and ING Asia. He is currently Non-Executive Director and the Chairman of BNK Group; as well as Chair of the Remuneration Committee.
He is also a member of the Board of Glaucoma Australia and a Governor of the Research Foundation at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
Don is a highly valued member of the UTS Business School community. He is a member of the Business School’s Industry Advisory Board, regular guest speaker at UTS events and a mentor to staff and students. Together with his wife Jennifer, Don recently created a scholarship to support rural female candidates who may not have the financial means to study in Sydney.
UTS helped me to get over that barrier of thinking that university coursework is not pertinent. I’ve since done one of the micro credentials – Managing Technological Disruption which provided additional skills and tools to broaden my thinking around problems and challenges that need to be solved and how to use those tools in a non-conventional way.