chief general counsel
Hayley Cassidy is the driving force behind the many key initiatives that have delivered positive outcomes for the Bank of New Zealand and its customers.
In her role as chief general counsel, the former criminal prosecutor has rebuilt the legal team to be strong, highly engaged, and empowered to provide excellent strategic legal services. Since joining BNZ in March 2019, Cassidy has demonstrated perceptive commercial understanding and astute ability to manage business risk that has earned her the respect of the BNZ board and executives.
Some of her most notable works over the past 12 months include:
- increasing diversity of the BNZ legal leadership team from 20% to 50% within six months of commencing, and developed a clear pipeline of diverse talent;
- creating a new model for engagement with law firms and external service providers;
- droving sign up to the Mindful Business Charter, which will result in better working conditions, flexibility, and improve inclusivity;
- droving sign up to the Equitable Briefing Charter, which demonstrates BNZ’s clear commitment to industry diversity and inclusion; and
- droving the creation and adoption of the BNZ Model Litigant Principles, the first bank (and first private organization in NZ) to do so.
