Executive profiles
Ahmed Fahour
Ahmed Fahour is Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Australia Post. He brings to the role extensive experience as a successful leader and dynamic reformer at corporations in Australia and overseas.
Ahmed commenced his professional career at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1987, where he consulted on a range of major commercial projects including mergers, acquisitions, corporate vision and strategy. He became a director of BCG in 1997.
In 2000, Ahmed was recruited to be Head of Corporate Development at Citigroup, based in New York, where he also served as a member of the company's Global Management Committee. He was subsequently appointed as Citigroup's CEO for Australia and New Zealand.
In 2004, he joined the National Australia Bank (NAB) as an Executive Director and Australian CEO. Under his leadership, there was a major turnaround in the bank's performance and its wealth management subsidiary (MLC). In early 2009, he left the NAB to take up the role as interim CEO of the Australian Business Investment Partnership. He subsequently served as CEO at Gulf Finance House (Bahrain).
Ahmed returned to Melbourne in early 2010 when he was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Australia Post. Within three months, he announced Future Ready, a major business renewal program that involves implementing a more customer-focussed business model designed to capitalise on Australia Post's reputation as a trusted services provider.
He is currently Chairman of the Rip Curl Group; Chairman of the Council for Australian-Arab Relations; Australia's Special Envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; and a Director of Methodist Ladies College (Melbourne).
Ewen Stafford
Ewen Stafford joined Australia Post in August 2010 and is the Chief Operating Officer, leading the Finance & Business Services division of Australia Post.
This business unit incorporates Finance, Real Estate, Information Technology, Business Efficiency & Quality, Procurement, Governance & Assurance and Corporate Finance & Investments. As a combined unit, FBS is focused on driving the successful execution of Australia Post's Future Ready strategic initiatives.
After beginning his career at KPMG, Ewen completed his MBA and moved into the property industry working for Colliers International in Adelaide and then Sydney. He subsequently moved to MLC in the life insurance and funds management industry, predominantly as Chief Financial Officer. In 2004 Ewen moved into the banking side of NAB, where he was Chief Financial Officer of NAB's Australian operations and subsequently became Chief Operating Officer with a similar portfolio of units as he leads at Australia Post.
Ewen has proven experience in leading and executing large and complex business transformations to position organisations for future success. Key to this is his strong focus to attract and develop talented individuals and teams and to build a highly engaged and capable workforce. Ewen's strong commercial and financial experience sees him playing a leading role in driving the execution of Australia Post's Future Ready strategy.
Ewen has a Bachelor of Arts in Accountancy from the University of South Australia, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Adelaide, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia.
Steve Ousley
Steve Ousley commenced at Australia Post in 1978 and is the Executive General Manager for the Post Operations Network.
In this role Steve leads the physical network across Communication Management Services and Parcels and Express Services. This includes the network operations of mail and parcel processing and contractors, as well as international and domestic operations.
Steve utilises his extensive background to optimise delivery, transportation and processing operations to drive improved capacity, efficiency and service performance along with overseeing the delivery of mail articles within our service standard.
Steve brings a wealth of experience to his current role having worked in other key parts of the Enterprise and in four mainland States, including as General Manager Network & Transport, and as a State Operations and Delivery Manager. In these roles, he has worked across production management, productivity improvement, network and systems design, cost control and measurement, and people and change management.
Richard Umbers
Richard Umbers is Executive General Manager Parcel Services at Australia Post, with responsibility for delivering the enterprise parcels strategy. Richard joined Australia Post in 2010 as Executive General Manager eServices, where he was responsible for developing Australia Post's digital offering, and delivering new online initiatives to drive business growth.
Richard has previously held a range of senior and General Management positions in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailing, most recently at Woolworths where he was General Manager Customer Engagement. Prior to this, Richard was Managing Director of supermarket chain Progressive Enterprises Ltd in New Zealand, and Managing Director (North West UK and Republic of Ireland) for supermarket discounter Aldi.
His strong international retailing experience gives him a great insight into supply chain management and he has a strong track record of developing innovative programs that deliver new revenue streams.
Richard has an honours degree in Geology and Geography from Exeter University (UK), and a Masters in Finance from the University of Leicester (UK).
Christine Corbett
Christine Corbett is the Executive General Manager for Retail Services at Australia Post.
In this role Christine is responsible for Australia Post's extensive network of over 4,400 retail outlets across Australia. A key priority for Christine is to continue to build and extend the range of trusted services that Australia Post provides on behalf of over 750 businesses and government bodies across bill payment, banking, money transfer and identity services. The Retail Services portfolio also includes the management of our retail merchandise, philatelic and post office box product suite.
Providing customers with greater access, convenience and choice is integral to building our trusted multi-channel services offering to consumers with new outlet formats being developed to provide customers with greater self service and 24/7 access to critical services.
Since joining Australia Post Christine has held a number of key leadership roles including Manager Strategy, Governance and Major Change for the Commercial Division, State Retail Manager NSW/ACT, State Retail Manager QLD and Marketing & Communications Manager QLD.
Prior to Australia Post she worked at a public relations consultancy in Brisbane.
Her successful background in managing large complex teams and strong business experience in engaging staff to deliver results will support Australia Post to deliver what customers want today and in the future.
Christine has a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Business (Communication) from the Queensland University of Technology.
Chris Blake
Chris Blake joined Australia Post in July 2010 and is the Executive General Manager Corporate Affairs. He is responsible for leading strategy, cultural change, internal and external communications, Government relations, International and Regulatory Affairs and stakeholder management. Chris also oversees the organisation's Corporate Responsibility and community engagement programs.
Before moving into this role, Chris was the Executive General Manager People and Community at Australia Post.
Prior to joining Australia Post, Chris worked in senior executive roles at the National Australia Bank (NAB) including the Executive General Manager People and Organisational Development and the Executive General Manager, Business Strategy & People for NAB's Global Wholesale Banking Division, where he led the development of a new global business strategy for the wholesale bank following the Global Financial Crisis.
Chris has a wealth of experience in overseeing complex organisation-wide change programs following his work in senior roles in banking and with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was partner for 10 years.