Paula Dwyer, a well-known businesswoman on the boards of many firms, starts at ANZ on 1 April 2012, according to a statement signed by the bank’s chairman, John Morschel.

Dwyer is currently chairman of Tabcorp Holdings and a director of Leighton Holdings. She is also a member of Australia’s takeovers panel. Previously, Dwyer was a director of Suncorp Group, Foster’s Group, Astro Japan Property Group and David Jones.

This month the top four Antipodean lender announced a string of internal senior management appointments including new CEOs for Asia, Pacific and Europe, America, Middle East and India.

It also named marketing and strategy guru Joyce Phillips as the new global head of wealth management and private banking, and Shayne Elliott, currently CEO of institutional, who will succeed ANZ veteran Peter Marriott as chief financial officer.

Chief executive officer Mike Smith is trying to make the business more streamlined, with a number of efficiency programmes including cutting 1,000 jobs, according to a recent announcement.