Leadership

Meet our leadership team

The FleetPartners leadership team, made up of our FleetPartners CEO and Executive Management, exist to achieve great outcomes for our customers. Our leadership team reports to our Board of Directors.

Damien Berrell
Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Damien was appointed MD and CEO in February 2023. He has over twenty years’ experience in the domestic and international non-bank financial institutional space, with the majority of this time in senior leadership roles at successful fleet leasing businesses. Damien joined FleetPartners in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), where he was responsible for all aspects of Finance as well as Strategy, M&A, Legal, Investor Relations and Company Secretarial. Prior to this, Damien served as CFO at Custom Fleet. Here, Damien played a lead role in the sale of the business by General Electric (GE) and repositioning the business in Australia and New Zealand. Damien has also held senior finance positions at GE, including GE Capital in Australia & New Zealand, Japan, Asia and in the US. Damien holds a Bachelor of Economics, Accounting from Macquarie University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

James Owens
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

James joined FleetPartners in 2022 from KPMG, where he was a Partner within the Deal Advisory group. In that role, he supported financial services clients through a significant number of major M&A and capital markets transactions over the last 18 years, including a number of transactions in the fleet management sector. James holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Bristol and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Adriana Sheedy
Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Adriana has over 20 years’ experience in retail banking. Prior to joining FleetPartners, Adriana was the Executive Director, Operations for ING in Australia. Adriana has a proven track record across all aspects of operations delivering scale and improved productivity while maintaining industry-leading experiences for customers. Adriana delivers through a combination of process, technology and by building highly engaged and high-performing teams. In addition to operations, Adriana has almost a decade of experience in operational risk management where she developed and embedded frameworks to identify, mitigate and manage risks. Adriana has also led large-scale transformations to bring strategy to life through both portfolio management and delivery and transforming the way people work.

Daniel Thompson
Chief Customer Officer (CCO)

Daniel has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, fleet leasing and vehicle management across Australia and New Zealand. Daniel’s experience covers leadership oversight and delivery of sales and customer service across novated, small and medium enterprise, government and heavy commercial market segments. Prior to joining FleetPartners, Daniel successfully designed and implemented strategic sales plans, while building a high performance culture in his role as General Manager Sales, across Australia and New Zealand. Daniel was also responsible for driving a sustained business model that fostered customer alignment and growth, delivering financial targets, while continually seeking to drive efficiency and optimisation opportunities. Daniel holds both a Bachelor of Business from Edith Cowan University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia.

Russell Webber
Managing Director (MD), FleetPartners New Zealand

Russell joined FleetPartners in 2017 and has over 20 years’ experience in executive roles in financial services and asset finance. Prior to joining FleetPartners, he spent 13 years as the New Zealand General Manager of ASX-listed FlexiGroup. Russell has extensive expertise managing some of New Zealand’s largest leasing programs in small business, corporate and government sectors. This includes being responsible for the delivery of the New Zealand Government’s largest technology leasing contract. He has also been involved in several mergers, acquisitions and business integrations within the non-banking finance sector. Russell has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Auckland.

Melissa Joyce
Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

Melissa joined FleetPartners in 2022 with over 20 years’ experience in credit, compliance and non-financial risk. Prior to joining FleetPartners, Melissa held positions at ScotPac, one of Australia’s largest non-bank working capital providers, as Head of Operations Asset Finance and State Portfolio Manager Debtor Finance. Prior to joining ScotPac, Melissa was the Director of Risk Strategy at Custom Fleet, playing a key role in transitioning the risk function from General Electric (GE) when the business was sold in 2015. Melissa has also held senior credit risk roles at GE Capital, supporting the GE Equipment Finance, GE Distribution Finance and fleet businesses for 10 years, and spent 5 years in Insolvency with Ferrier Hodgson from 2002-2006. Melissa brings a strong and balanced risk management approach to address key risks in the areas of credit risk, asset risk, non-financial risk and market risk. Melissa holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Melbourne and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Zoe Hugginson
Chief People Officer (CPO)

Zoe has over 14 years’ experience working as a HR professional both in the UK and Australia and has spent the vast majority of her career working within the telecommunication and financial services industry. Throughout this time she has developed a wealth of experience in Organisational Design, Change Management and Talent Management initiatives. Zoe’s role at FleetPartners has a strong focus on achieving operational excellence and a high-performing and collaborative workforce. These initiatives result in teams excelling at their people plans and ultimately achieving business objectives. A passionate HR Professional that is genuinely excited about bringing the people strategy to life in conjunction with its business benefits.

Annemarie Kernot
Head of Legal

Annemarie has over 20 years of legal experience gained in both private practice and a variety of corporate roles, across diverse industry sectors. Most recently, Annemarie lead the Australian and New Zealand legal, privacy, and compliance team for another vehicle leasing and fleet management company. Annemarie holds a Masters of Laws (LLM) from Monash University as well as a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws (BEc. LLB) from the University of Tasmania.

Dan Giesen-White
Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Dan has over 20 years’ experience in information technology including strategic analysis and program management, with a track record of delivering IT transformation programs. Prior to joining FleetPartners in 2022, Dan held senior positions in leading insurance organisations, Suncorp Direct and AAMI. Dan also brings a comprehensive knowledge of vehicle financing gained while working as a Group Executive for another large novated leasing and asset management provider. Dan holds a Bachelor of Education, majoring in Technology from Victoria University, and Executive Management Program certification from Columbia Business School.