Areas Of Expertise:

• Portfolio Change Management
• Organisational Change and Transformation
• Change Management Delivery
• Change Strategy & Governance
• People Leadership
• Instructional Design
• Training & Facilitation
• Project Management
• Process Mapping

Education:

• Change Management Practitioner, APMG International
• Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning), AMP Services Ltd
• Certificate IV Assessment & Workplace Training, University of Technology Sydney
• Bachelor of Nursing, University of Western Sydney

About Maria Steele

Maria is a Senior Change and Transformation Leader with proven success delivering complex initiatives in banking and financial services, government, and telecommunications. Her expertise spans regulatory reform, financial crime, risk and compliance, mergers and acquisitions, integration and governance, and large-scale digital transformation. She drives strategic change that balances organisational objectives with employee and stakeholder needs.

Known for translating complex systems into clear, actionable insights, Maria applies strong change design, delivery, and human-centred design skills to create innovative, people-focused solutions. Her leadership and coaching style empowers teams to deliver sustainable results in high-stakes, fast-moving environments.

What Maria brings

• Delivers results on time and to scope by prioritising effectively, managing competing demands, and adapting seamlessly in fast-paced environments.
• Builds trust and alignment through exceptional stakeholder engagement, ensuring clear, tailored communication across diverse audiences.
• Leads the end-to-end design, development, and implementation of communication, engagement, and training solutions that drive adoption and measurable outcomes.
• A committed, organised, and motivated team player or leader who thrives in complex, multi-stakeholder environments and brings discipline, reliability, and a solutions-focused mindset to every challenge.

Key Clients:

• NSW DCCEEW
• People First Bank
• People’s Choice Credit Union
• Colonial First State
• Westpac
• Optus
• TAL
• ANZ
• CBA
• NZ Post
• AMP
• ASB

Key Achievements:

As Digital Transformation Program Change Lead at NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), Maria developed and secured endorsement for the Program Change Management Strategy, approved by the Executive Director and aligned with program health checks. She established the Biodiversity Offset Scheme (BOS) Working Group to enhance governance and collaboration, and led change delivery for BAM-C, Digital BAR, and Data Quality & Traceability projects. Maria also managed a team of one Senior Change Manager and two Change Analysts, driving user-centred design, process improvements, and awareness or adoption of new digital capabilities to support operational and regulatory goals across the Scheme.

As Change Management Practice Lead at People First Bank, Maria was pivotal in advancing organisational change management (OCM) capabilities during a merger of equals, developing the OCM infrastructure, and achieving 100% adoption of integrated change delivery and governance tools. She established the OCM model and chaired the Change Community across domestic locations, enhancing nationwide collaboration. She also managed the Payments, Cards, and Fraud program, overseeing 10 projects. She provided strategic leadership to senior change managers and their teams. She also developed a strategic communications plan for a mutual bank’s regional cards, payments, and fraud initiatives, accelerating portfolio OCM objectives by 33% within a year.

As Senior Change Manager at People’s Choice Credit Union, Maria supported the Merger Integration Portfolio for People’s Choice Credit Union and Heritage Bank. She led the changing community of practice in delivering an OCM approach, framework, and methodology while introducing standardised tools for change practitioners through collaborative efforts. Maria successfully supported Day 1 change delivery for the Legal, Compliance, and Finance divisions, achieving 75% adoption by integrating change management activities into core routines.

As Senior Change Manager at Colonial First State, Maria was contracted as Change Delivery Lead for Risk & Compliance projects within the non-discretionary portfolio. This included Superannuation projects with prudential standards SPS 114, CPS 230 and SPS 530. She successfully completed 95% of initial change assessments for Business and Product owners across the Growth & Retention and Non-discretionary portfolios.

As Senior Change Manager at Westpac, Maria stepped in as Interim Program Change Lead for the Risk and Controls stream early in her tenure. She achieved a 90% business adoption rate of value chains through targeted training sessions and feedback loops. With leadership responsibility, she oversaw Single View of Change reporting and led quarterly change management planning, serving as chairperson and a key contributor in leadership forums. Maria also implemented a Change Working Group and a weekly change and communications clearing house to ensure alignment with business requirements.

As Senior Change Manager at Colonial First State, Maria was engaged as the Change Delivery Lead for the CFS Insurance Market Tender project, where she delivered a 40% improvement in business satisfaction scores by redesigning communication strategies and feedback mechanisms. This regulatory transformation aimed to create a sustainable and competitive pricing model, along with terms and conditions to enhance outcomes for Members with Life, Total and Permanent Disablement, and Salary Continuance insurance coverage within Superannuation.

As Senior Change Manager & Senior L&D Design Specialist at Westpac, Maria led a team of five Change Managers and one Learning Designer for a large-scale digital transformation program, where she improved business adoption by 25% after the first technical release. The changes impacted First Party Lending teams and customers across multiple brands, including Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne, and Bank SA. She also led the instructional design capability and key adoption activities for contextual guided learning as part of the Retail Distribution One Bank Platform (Oracle) for Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne, and Bank SA. This project, on behalf of the Customer Service Hub (CSH), involved coordinating specialist efforts, including Business Analysts, Product Owners, Change Managers, as well as the development, testing, publishing, maintenance, data analysis, and showcases of In-App guides. Key tools used for managing activities included SharePoint, Confluence, JIRA, Microsoft Teams, and Trello.