And the winner of the 2018 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship is... Michelle Erdosi, Bank of Queensland

TurksLegal and Women in Banking and Finance (WiBF) are delighted to announce Michelle Erdosi, Senior Manager, CX (Customer Experience), Bank of Queensland as the winner of the 2018 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship.

Michelle produced a written submission that was a thoughtful and well-articulated response to the question about how financial institutions might go about rebuilding and maintaining trust with their people and their customers following revelations coming out of the Banking Royal Commission. Based on that written submission Michelle was invited to interview and she took that opportunity to convince the judges of how she and “her tribe” would gain from her winning the Scholarship and also how she could take a lead ambassadorial role advocating for WiBF’s interests and objectives. Michelle’s win was announced at a WiBF Business Lunch in Sydney on 16 October 2018.

As the winner, Michelle will travel to the United States in April 2019 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 Michelle on winning the 2018 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship. Michelle managed to triumph over a most impressive field of finalists. We look forward to hearing from Michelle about the skills she will develop from participating in The Women's Leadership Program at Darden and how those skills and experiences will help further her career and inspire others at Bank of Queensland”.

The judges found this year’s Scholarship extremely difficult to judge due to the high quality of the written entries and the impressive performances of the finalists at interview. All of the applicants were absolutely inspirational. In the end, the judges agreed that Michelle 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 in leadership and decision making roles, and given the standout calibre of this year’s applicants there is no shortage of women ready to step up and lead. We are delighted to partner with TurksLegal to provide the opportunity for one of our members to attend the Leadership program at Darden, and we wish Michelle well on her travels abroad and participation in the program,” said Jen Dalitz, CEO, WiBF and judging panel member.

Now in its 5th year, 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 2019 TurksLegal WiBF Leadership Scholarship will open in July 2019.