Melissa Downes Joins 26 Degrees Global Markets

26 Degrees Global Markets is pleased to announce the appointment of Melissa Downes to the position of Global Head of Marketing, based in our Sydney office.

Melissa joins us from BT where she was a Senior Marketing Manager in the Customer Experience and Growth team. She has strong financial marketing experience at the Westpac Group, ANZ, NAB, and Zurich.

Melissa is a creative and accomplished B2B marketing expert with a track record in delivering high-stakes stakeholder management across risk regulatory comms and engagement.

As a Senior Marketing Consultant at MLC, she was the project lead for the Annual Member Meeting held on behalf of the Trustee across four RSE’s while also delivering new initiatives, communications, and marketing strategies across multiple projects. This included delivery of strategy, pitches, and tools for the Workplace Super team whilst managing all related B2B marketing for their top 300 business partners.

She was the Take to Market manager building the strategy for rolling out new licensee agreements at NAB. She retired and redesigned legacy programs at Zurich after introducing segmentation, and redesigning partnership programs in line with yield and risk appetite.

“Working within corporate super clients, brokers and advisers has given me valuable insights into how busy these professionals are and the issues they face running a business. Marketing should assist our clients’ businesses. By helping them explain complex products simply and assisting them to do business with us seamlessly, we are assisting them and their business, making them more effective adding to the benefits of partnering with us.” – Melissa Downes

Prior to these roles, Melissa was Content and Communications Manager for ANZ Wealth, where she managed strategy, campaigns, edited APEXInsights and lead content and communications to 16,500 financial advisors with the fortnightly newsletter Perspective Extra, the most well read in the advice industry. Whilst at ANZ her team launched a new AI created underwriting engine with UTS and delivered the award-winning APEX Inspire program.

Melissa, who has just joined the team this week, is delighted, “I’m excited by the opportunities I see at 26 Degrees Global Markets and the talent it has attracted. This is a business that continues to grow with an appetite for international expansion. I am looking forward to building 26 Degrees Global Markets’ market share with a group of incredibly smart and talented executives.”

CEO Gavin White adds “We are very excited to have found someone of Melissa’s calibre to fill the role of Global Head of Marketing. Her strong strategic mindset and breadth of experience across both marketing and financial services will enable 26 Degrees Global Markets to take the next step in providing the best possible service and communication to our clients”.

Melissa’s credentials include Master of Marketing from the Business School at Sydney University, graduate certificate of Digital Marketing from Columbia University and a BA at Macquarie University. This combined with her previous experience will allow Melissa to play a key role in 26 Degrees Global Markets’ growth into the future.