Wizard appoints new manager to East Coast Bays

Wizard appoints new manager to East Coast Bays

Wizard Home Loans has appointed John Bowen, former National Bank mobile mortgage manager for the Auckland region, as the new manager of its Browns Bay branch.

John Bowen comes to Wizard Home Loans after nearly 30 years of banking experience gained in England and New Zealand. He spent nine years with the National Westminster Bank in the United Kingdom before moving to New Zealand with his legal executive Kiwi wife Susan. He joined Westpac and then Countrywide Banking where he became a pioneer mobile mortgage manager.

After the recent ANZ takeover of the National Bank, which itself took over Countrywide, John felt the time was right to make the move and work for himself. He likes the fact Wizard are mortgage specialists and sees great potential for growth both for Wizard and on the personal front.

“Wizard is less mainstream than the banks but more interesting product wise which is good for me as a residential specialist. I have greater responsibility but also more freedom and independence and can leverage Wizard’s total infrastructure which provides ongoing sales, marketing and IT support for the Wizard brand,” he said.

Head of Wizard New Zealand, John Grant said it is very pleasing to see someone of John’s experience joining Wizard and increasingly more people, with strong skills in lending, are approaching him to find out more about the business.

Wizard opened its first New Zealand branch in Auckland, in 2000 and now has over 26 branches in New Zealand. Long term, Wizard has plans to grow its network to 300 throughout Australia and New Zealand, making it the dominant non-bank distribution model.

In just six years Wizard has grown from a single branch with a single shareholder to a network of more than 227 branches, with the backing of quality shareholders ABN AMRO, Deutsche Asset Management and the PBL Group.

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