Australian Unity appoints Kellie Crouch as Chief People Officer

Australian Unity has appointed Kellie Crouch as Chief People Officer for Corporate & Financial Services, promoting a long-serving HR leader to oversee the people strategy across its Wealth & Capital Markets, Insurance and Corporate Enabling Functions.

The appointment marks the latest milestone in Crouch's 11-year career with Australian Unity, where she has held a series of senior human resources, organisational development and strategic leadership roles, according to media reports.

With nearly three decades of experience across HR, leadership capability, workforce transformation and organisational development, she will now be responsible for aligning workforce investments with the organisation's broader business strategy.

Strategic people agenda

In her new role, Crouch will lead workforce and people strategy for key business divisions, translating commercial priorities into workforce investments while driving enterprise transformation initiatives. 

She will also focus on strengthening future workforce capability and delivering measurable outcomes for employees, customers and the business.

Her remit includes supporting organisational transformation, workforce planning and capability development as Australian Unity continues to evolve its people strategy to support long-term growth.

Extensive internal experience

Before her promotion, Crouch served as General Manager of Employee Experience & Capability, where she led enterprise-wide programmes covering employee experience, leadership development, workforce capability, organisational culture, change management, internal communications, community engagement and the organisation's Reconciliation Action Plan.

Working closely with the executive leadership team, she helped establish future-focused capability frameworks, developed Skills Hubs, strengthened leadership capability and embedded an employee experience strategy aligned with Australian Unity's long-term business objectives.

Earlier, as Head of People & Culture for Retail, Wealth & Capital Markets and Enabling Functions, she led strategic HR partnering across multiple business units, focusing on workforce planning, organisational design, talent strategy, leadership effectiveness and cultural transformation.

Career spanning three decades

Crouch has held several other leadership positions at Australian Unity, including Manager of Strategy & Support for Real Estate Investment Wealth and Executive Manager of Life & Super, where she partnered with senior executives on business strategy, governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial initiatives and operational planning.

She also served as Head of HR for Wealth & Capital Markets, Strategic HR Business Partner and Organisational Capability Manager, building expertise in leadership development, employee engagement, talent management, organisational effectiveness and business transformation.

Prior to joining Australian Unity, Crouch was Organisational Development Manager at NAB, leading initiatives focused on leadership capability and organisational performance.

She previously spent more than 16 years at KPMG, progressing through several senior leadership positions including Senior Manager of National Engagement, Senior Manager of Organisational Development and Senior Manager of Partner Development. During her tenure, she led initiatives spanning leadership development, organisational effectiveness, partner capability, employee engagement, enterprise learning and culture transformation.

Focus on future growth

Across a career spanning nearly 30 years, Crouch has built extensive expertise in HR strategy, organisational capability, leadership development, employee experience, workforce transformation, change management, talent development and organisational design.

Her appointment reflects Australian Unity's continued focus on strengthening its people strategy to support long-term business growth, organisational capability and customer outcomes.