Directors Bios

John Hearne
Head of Marketing, Product and Sales – PMI Mortgage Insurance Limited

LIXI involvement: Member since 2000; Director since 2000; Chairman of the Board.
Professional activities and qualifications: MBM (Mgt), UTS Sydney; Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).
Previous positions include: Organisational strategy, IT strategy, IT management, program/project management, business process re-engineering, facilities management, business continuity management and varied roles within the banking industry.
Being part of a not for profit, volunteer based, organisation requires an extraordinary level of passion and commitment. The challenges faced by LIXI are often not that different to the everyday challenges we have in our full time jobs, yet each of us involved are expected to find the time to make it happen while balancing our full time roles and other external commitments.
My involvement this year has encompassed:
Chairing and leading the Board for all meetings except one ensuring that we stay focused on our goals
Actively involved in the search and recruitment of our first full time CEO.
Actively involved in the planning and development of our 2nd successful annual LIXI forum.
Actively involved in the business sub committee.
While the membership of LIXI sees fit to keep me representing them I would be honoured to continue with this commitment.

Nick Carr
General Manager - Allette Systems

LIXI involvement: One of the original designers of LIXI and a founding director, Nick Carr acted as LIXI’s Treasurer for 3 years and is currently acting in the role of Secretary to the Technical Sub Committee. Not from the finance industry, Nick’s background is 20 years of experience in IT. He has extensive experience in standards initiatives for industries such as defence, air transport, legal, pharmaceutical, IT and others.

LIXI intentions: My intention for the next term of the LIXI Board is to focus on improving the technical support material and develop practical steps to extend the adoption of the standards. LIXI is recognised as a highly productive standards body, however the ongoing success of the organisation lies in our ability to promote implementation and demonstrate true productivity gains for the members. I envisage that this can be done through the adoption of accepted process improvement and measurement techniques.

Mike Thanos
Lending Technology Services

Mike is COO of LTX (formerly LTS), a founding member and instigator of LIXI in 2000. Mike has served as a Director of LIXI since 2003, is the chair of the IP Sub-committee and convenes the Backchannel and Settlement Working Groups. Mike has 10 years experience with technology in the mortgage industry. He previously worked as a solicitor practicing in the areas of Commercial, IT, IP and Property law.  He holds a B. Comm. and LLB (Hon).
Mike has been committed to LIXI since its inception and believes that as a Director, he has much to contribute as LIXI goes through its next stage of evolution.  In particular Mike will make a strong contribution to LIXI’s Intellectual Property management, and the strategy for the evolution of LIXI’s organisational structure, methodologies and financial foundations.”

Joanne Mather
Mortgage Choice Ltd

Joanne Mather is a qualified accountant with extensive international experience.
Since 2002, Joanne’s primary role has been developing the Electronic Loan processing strategy within Mortgage Choice. This has seen her take the process from initial strategy, to launch and the ongoing development of the Trident project, driving to achieve real benefits for all participants in the industry. Her position at Mortgage Choice puts her in daily contact with lenders and mortgage brokers, and her detailed knowledge of issues encountered in the field enables her to actively contribute to the ongoing development of a sustainable and relevant standard.
She has been a LIXI Director for three years, is the current chair of the Communications Sub-committee and a contributing member of the IP Sub-committee. As chair of the communications sub-committee, Joanne has overseen the introduction of the LIXI forums and evening series and is currently working on the delivery of a new LIXI website and improved content. She is committed to ensuring that the industry understands the value of LIXI and members derive the maximum benefit from the tools we provide. LIXI must also ensure that we have the mechanisms in place to listen to members and deliver on their expectations.

Chris Carn
NAB Broker

Chris Carn has a wealth of experience with lenders in broker sales and support, and is currently the NSW State Manager for NAB Broker. He has been a LIXI Director since 2001.

Vision: LIXI is well known and embraced in the lending area. There is however a lot of work required to improve communications between lenders and brokers particularly with backchannel, products and commission. There are also immediate opportunities for early adopters in the valuation and legal areas. The next couple of years will see pressure on LIXI and its members who must support, coordinate and prioritise activities that are essential to support the change. LIXI representing its members will play a major role in industry change while continuing to develop and maintain standards. The Directors of LIXI have an equally important role to ensure the long term sustainability of LIXI as a support organisation for its members.

Simon Elwig
CBA

Simon Elwig is currently General Manager, Operational Planning, Finance and Support for Third Party Banking at the Commonwealth Bank. Having worked in this business for over 6 years, Simon has been responsible for the rollout of online lodgements to the broker market using the LIXI platform.
As a Chartered Accountant, Simon brings a wealth of experience from his 12 years in investment banking and accounting in London, together with his knowledge of the mortgage industry and its online capability.
Simon has served on the Board of LIXI for the last two years, and currently chairs the Business sub-committee.

Phil Naylor
CEO of MFAA

Phil Naylor is a specialist in association management having represented state associations in the retail industry in both NSW and Queensland and later as CEO of the Australian Retailers Association.
In July 2002, Phil was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Mortgage Industry Association of Australia (MIAA), now the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) which has 13,500 members. Based in the National Secretariat in Sydney, Phil works closely with the Board, State Councils and Committees to create and deliver strategic plans to benefit all MFAA members. Under his leadership the MFAA has grown substantially. Membership has quadrupled, member services and benefits have increased, communications have improved, and lobbying efforts have intensified. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of NSW.
Phil is current Director of LIXI, and his focus in the past year has been to bring to fruition of the LIXI White Paper ‘Enabling Efficiency’  which was launched at the LIXI Forum in September. Phil looks forward to the engagement in LIXI standards of all stakeholders as indicated at the Forum.

Curtis Brager
Commercial Director of NextGen.Net

Curtis Brager is the Commercial Director of NextGen.Net, Australia's premier LIXI service provider. He has over 14 years experience in technology and business and has been a board member of several companies in both North America and Australia. Curtis co-founded the first broadband internet service provider in Western Canada in the mid 1990's, was a successful independent consultant and held senior roles at Sprint Telecom (Canada) before emigrating to Australia. Prior to joining NextGen.Net in 2004, Curtis was the Technical Director at a corporate and investor communication company listed on the FTSE.
With a background firmly based in bringing together technology and business Curtis has key insights on the challenges facing the lending industry in Australia.

Simon Libbis
Executive Director, National Electronic Conveyancing Office

As the Executive Director of NECO, Simon is responsible for the introduction of NECS in Australia. LIXI data standards play an important role in the NECS system development. Previous positions that Simon has held include

- Specialty property lawyer
- Registrar-General of South Australia
- Board member of a statutory body

" I am committed to reforming conveyancing processes, LIXI supplies one of the necessary tools. My background in law, government and process reform will add a new dimension to the board of LIXI"

John de la Torre
The Home Loan Centre

John has over 20 years experience in Finance and Banking. Over the past decade John has successfully established and continues to operate firms in mortgage broking, financial planning, real estate sales, property management and conveyancing. As an experienced company director John has served on numerous boards, commercial, industry and not-for-profit.

If elected, LIXI would benefit from John's broad experience and knowledge of all facets of lending and property transactions.

Academic Qualifications: MAppFin, BBus (Accounting), BLegS, GradDipLP, DCD,
DipBus (Real Estate), DipFinMkt

Professional Qualifications: CPA, Licensed Real Estate Agent (NSW and ACT), Solicitor (Supreme Courts of NSW and ACT), FAICD