NAB hosts Melbourne Jewish day school students
More than 120 uniformed students of Melbourne Jewish day schools visited the offices of National Australia Bank where they were the guests of NAB Private Wealth.
Participants at the event
The event followed on from a similar successful event in Sydney six weeks ago enabling the students to access some of Australia’s leading minds on the theme of ‘The Future – Banking and Business’.
The students were greeted by Senior Private Client Manager, Daniel Yesgar and NAB Private Wealth’s Consultant – Events and Sponsorships, Brent Pitman who together conceived and drove the event.
The students from Bialik College, King David School, Mount Scopus College and Yavneh College took the opportunity to meet and mingle with students from other schools attending the event and clearly enjoyed the opportunity to socialise with their peers. Beth Rivkah Ladies College and Yeshivah College joined the event via Zoom.
Daniel Yesgar, Antony Burrows, Natasha Carr, Laurie Conheady, Darian Kuzma, Winston Lewinsmith
On stage, Natasha Carr, Private Client Director took up the role of emcee and introduced a pre-taped video presentation from Justin Greiner (CEO of JBWere and Executive – NAB Private Wealth) who welcomed the students and recognised that the students were “future clients, future graduates, future business owners and future innovative entrepreneurs”. Justin noted that NAB is “a very strong supporter of the Jewish community and recognise the very critical role that the Jewish community plays in building this great country”.
Rabbi Daniel Rabin, Senior Rabbi of the Caulfield Synagogue in Melbourne addressed the gathering and drew a parallel between NAB’s internal campaign which was designed to encourage bank staff to get a fast start to the new financial year, being on the front-foot with clients and proactively connecting with them and supporting their banking needs and the month of Elul, and its significance in the lead up to the High Holydays. He noted that Elul stands for Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li’ – I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me and that in approaching the New Year we first need to be proactive – “I am for my beloved” and only then we will get the reciprocal response – “my beloved is for me”.
Winston Lewinsmith addresses the student
The students were then addressed by senior members of the NAB and JBWere management team including former King David student Winston Lewinsmith (Senior Consultant – ES Advisory and Awareness) , who spoke of the opportunities and challenges of cyber security. The students also heard from Antony Burrows (Head of Innovation) who spoke of the use of satellite technology in banking particularly in relation to lending for agriculture, Laurie Conheady (Head of Fixed Income) on fixed income investing such as bonds and hybrids and Darian Kuzma (Private Client Executive) on the world of Private Banking.
Students and teachers were given the opportunity to ask questions and the topics ranged from bitcoin and blockchain technology to the investment value of rare sneakers and watches. Questions and answers continued for close to an hour after the event as the students were invited to engage with individual presenters.
This special NAB Private Wealth event has been a highlight for many young Jewish students, whose futures lay ahead of them.
