TurksLegal and Women in Banking and Finance (WiBF) are delighted to announce Deborah Beeck, Director, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group as the winner of the 2017 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship.

Deborah’s winning submission provided a real world, customer-focused solution to incorporating sustainable innovation in an established financial institution. Deborah’s win was announced at a WiBF Business Series Lunch in Sydney on 24 November 2017.

As the winner, Deborah will travel to the United States in April 2018 to participate in The Women's Leadership Program; a one week course run by the highly esteemed Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. The program helps women assess and address their unique strengths and challenges, as well as navigate the frequently complex dynamics of strategic business leadership.

Partner and Practice Group Leader of TurksLegal’s Banking practice as well as an award judge, David McCrostie said, “We congratulate Deborah on winning the 2017 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship. The skills she will develop from participating in The Women's Leadership Program at Darden will help further her career at ANZ and she will also gain the knowledge and tools to assist her to mentor other women in their professional development in the banking and finance industry” said Mr McCrostie.

The judges found this year’s Scholarship extremely difficult to judge due to the high quality of the entries. All of the applicants were absolutely inspirational. In the end, the judges agreed that Deborah was a stand-out applicant and are truly delighted to see her win the ultimate prize.

“A key objective of WiBF is to assist the Banking and Finance sector to develop the pipeline of talented women ready to take on meaningful Leadership roles. We are delighted to partner with TurksLegal to provide the opportunity for one of our members to attend the Leadership program at Darden,” said Amanda Dobbie, CEO, WiBF and judging panel member.

Commenting on her award Deborah said “It's an honour to be awarded this year's leadership scholarship. I'm very excited about the opportunity to study at Darden and to promote the aims of WiBF as an ambassador.

My sincere thanks to TurksLegal and WiBF for their ongoing generosity in making this scholarship available. I look forward to sharing what I learn at Darden next year, and working with WiBF to progress diversity and innovation across the banking and finance industry.”

The TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship supports the professional growth of excellence in the industry by providing WiBF members with a significant career development opportunity.

The 2018 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship will open in July 2018.