NAB Promotes 23-Year Veteran Connie Sokaris to Group Chief Risk Officer
National Australia Bank has appointed Connie Sokaris as Group Chief Risk Officer, effective 3 August 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Sokaris, a 23-year NAB veteran who joined the bank in 2003, replaces Shaun Dooley, who announced his retirement in February. The internal promotion signals leadership continuity within one of Australia’s Big Four banks.
NAB promotes Connie Sokaris to Group Chief Risk Officer
The appointment represents a planned succession rather than an unexpected executive change. Sokaris currently serves as Executive, Credit and Market Risk, where she holds enterprise accountability for credit and market risk appetite, governance, and frameworks. Her cross-functional experience spans institutional banking, capital markets, corporate finance, strategy, and enterprise transformation.
Dooley will support Sokaris during her transition before continuing to report to Group Chief Executive Officer Andrew Irvine on projects until his retirement later in 2026. The handover arrangement ensures operational continuity in a role critical to NAB’s risk management infrastructure.
For governance-focused institutional investors, internal appointments of this nature demonstrate executive bench strength and reduce succession risk at the senior leadership level.
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What does a Chief Risk Officer do?
The Chief Risk Officer oversees a bank’s entire risk management framework. This includes managing credit risk (the risk that borrowers default on loans), market risk (exposure to movements in interest rates, currencies, and other financial variables), and ensuring the bank operates within its approved risk appetite.
At a major bank, the CRO is responsible for:
- Setting and monitoring risk limits across the loan book
- Ensuring compliance with regulatory capital requirements
- Overseeing governance frameworks that identify, measure, and mitigate financial risks
- Reporting to the board and regulators on risk exposure
For a Big Four bank like NAB (ASX: NAB), the CRO role directly impacts earnings stability. Effective risk management determines loan book quality, provisions for credit losses, and the bank’s ability to maintain capital buffers during economic downturns. Regulatory scrutiny of risk practices remains intense following the Hayne Royal Commission’s findings.
Sokaris brings 30 years of financial services experience
Sokaris has accumulated more than 30 years of financial services experience, including leadership roles at:
- NAB (institutional banking, capital markets, corporate finance, strategy, transformation)
- UBS (risk leadership positions in Australia, the UK, and the US)
- Deutsche Bank (risk leadership roles across multiple jurisdictions)
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics/Finance) from Macquarie University and currently serves as a board member of the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute and Wealthhub Securities. These governance roles complement her operational risk expertise.
Andrew Irvine, Group Chief Executive Officer
“Connie is a highly motivated and talented leader who has exceptional judgment, drives outcomes and always puts the customer at the centre of her thinking. Her experience across risk, product, client coverage, capital markets and transformation will be valuable in her new role.”
Irvine noted that the appointment demonstrates NAB’s internal talent pipeline, stating: “Connie’s appointment again demonstrates the depth of talent and capability we are building within NAB.”
Transition arrangements
Dooley will support Sokaris in her transition to the CRO role before leading a number of projects reporting directly to Irvine until his retirement later in 2026. The structured handover ensures continuity in NAB’s risk management operations during the leadership change.
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