Bank on her local nous
NAB’S NEW FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND MANAGING PARTNER COMES FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS AT INNISFAIL AND KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT HERE, WRITES ALICIA NALLY
WHENEVER people meet the new Far North Queensland managing partner of National Australia Bank, they ask her where she has “come up from”.
But 37-year-old Elisha-Vi Raso hasn’t come from anywhere but humble, truly northern beginnings.
And it all started with her schooling as one of 80 kids at Flying Fish Point State School at Innisfail.
The tall, blonde-haired mum-of-three relishes the opportunity to lead the bank in the place where she has spent most of her life and says having a local background has helped tremendously in building business in the relationship-crucial banking sector.
NAB knew what it had stumbled on too.
When the bank asked her to take on the role in October, Ms Raso was on maternity leave and told bosses she couldn’t start earlier than February.
“They held the job for me. They were happy to wait because they knew I was local and committed to the role and the region,” she explained.
“The relationship part of banking is very important in FNQ. It is a small place and it takes a long time to build
THE TALL, BLONDEHAIRED MUM-OF-THREE RELISHES THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD THE BANK IN THE PLACE WHERE SHE HAS SPENT MOST OF HER LIFE
credibility and a short time to lose it. You have to do the job well and you have to do that the first time.
“Everyone loves that I’m local. While I left and went to Brisbane for a while and I worked overseas, which is a rite of passage for any young person no matter where they’re from, I never thought that I wouldn’t return.”
The strong family ties are evident in Ms Raso’s name – Vi comes from her grandmother’s name, Vida – and after moving to Cairns with her sister, brother and mother as a child, the children attended Redlynch State College and then boarded at Peace Lutheran College.
An administration job after school with PricewaterhouseCoopers led – on recommendation from one of the directors – to the start of an accounting degree and an internship with the prestigious firm.
But Ms Raso resigned a short time later.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, I just didn’t love it,” she said.
“I thought to myself: ‘Am I going to love this in 10 years or 20 years?’ And the answer was no.
“I resigned and everyone told me I was crazy but I spent a year in the United States as an au pair in California and when I returned a friend put me on to a job that had come up in ANZ. “That was 15 years ago.” The job gave Ms Raso a chance to use her financial
acumen, and complete tertiary qualifications, but the customer service side provided the job satisfaction she was missing earlier.
During her steady rise through the ranks, mentors and a support network have been invaluable, with one conversation with a colleague opening Ms Raso’s mind to the fact she could have a wide and varied banking career while staying in the Far North to raise her children.
“In any industry you need to be surrounded by good people and my mum always said there were never problems,
IN ANY INDUSTRY YOU NEED TO BE SURROUNDED BY GOOD PEOPLE AND MY MUM ALWAYS SAID THERE WERE NEVER PROBLEMS, ONLY OPPORTUNITIES ELISHA-VI RASO
only opportunities,” Ms Raso, a single mum to two sons and a daughter, said. “We used to roll our eyes but it’s very true.
“I don’t think that colleagues will ever know the impact she had on my career and it just drove home the importance of having people around you that challenge you.”
Surviving all the technological change in banking and now in charge of rolling out more – NAB will soon have Chinese payment system Alipay – Ms Raso said she also wanted to be a mentor and role model for women in business.
“You lose career momentum when you have children and you have to work hard to get back there but I think it’s so important to be financially independent and stay relevant, no matter what it is you do,” she said.
“You have to make sure, whatever situation you face in life, you have the necessary skills to support yourself.”
Ms Raso is also proud of the Cairns business community, which she said had managed to reinvent itself time and again.
“At present the biggest challenge for small business is uncontrollable. The big wet has affected many sectors from pool building to construction to tourism,” she said.
“I’ve always loved the entrepreneurial spirit of Cairns and it was hit hard by the GFC but most of the businesses around now got through that.”