Asia-Pacific Power List 2025: Astrud Burgess, ANZ

Astrud Burgess

Chief marketing officer
ANZ Group
New Zealand
Member since 2024

Some might say leading marketing at a banking giant like ANZ is an easy ride. Astrud Burgess has proven it’s anything but—raising the bar since taking over from Sweta Mehra, and making big results look effortless.

On paper, ANZ is already a dominant force across Australia and New Zealand, with market share, brand recognition and deep pockets. But inheriting the CMO role in July 2023, Burgess faced the real challenge: how to drive meaningful growth from an already-strong base. Rather than coast, she doubled down on innovation, team empowerment and a push for measurable impact.

Her first major move was bringing back the iconic ANZ Falcon campaign, this time with a digital falcon personally protecting every customer. It was a decisive answer to soaring cyber threats—a campaign with teeth, sprinkled with nostalgia. The payoff: ANZ’s security tech prevented $106 million in losses last year, a 38% jump from 2022, while customer trust surged and scam-related losses dropped by 43%.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, she put financial wellbeing front and centre with the ‘We Do How’ platform. A refreshed, data-driven marketing strategy powered a 16% jump in commercial customer acquisition in Australia and lifted customer engagement by 9%. More transactions, fewer dormant accounts, and a brand that’s writing its growth story across Asia Pacific—ANZ’s growth story now has a new chapter under Burgess.

Beyond marketing metrics, leadership impact is palpable in the high-performing teams that Burgess has championed and a culture of continuous learning. Awards and accolades have followed, including the Best Learning and Development award at Campaign Asia’s Best Places to Work 2024, Brand of the Year at the New Zealand Marketing Awards as well as the prestigious Grand Effie and Gold for for the ‘From Dreaming Big to Knowing How’ campaign, that demonstrated tangible improvements in Kiwis’ financial wellbeing.

Beyond the day job, shaping the broader industry is a passion. She’s a regular on industry panels, a keynote speaker at prominent events like the CMO Summit and Smarter Data Convention, a judge for the 2024 WARC Awards. She actively supports marketing through ANZ’s partnership with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.

Impact goes far beyond business metrics. A true champion of planet-friendly initiatives and inclusion practices, Burgess has helped ANZ become the founding member of Ad Net Zero NZ. As a result, the bank has a lower ad carbon emissions target. She is known to back disability representation via the Shift 20 Initiative with the Dylan Alcott Foundation. As executive sponsor of ANZ’s LGBTQI+ network and an active champion for women in leadership with Global Women, she’s determined to make inclusion the norm, not the exception.