Darren Utz Email & Phone Number

Ipswich & Surrounding Regions

While based in Ipswich, I will go wherever my personal and professional networks take me!!! I have clients from Ipswich, west to Toowoomba and Perth, north to Cairns / Mackay. south to NSW and Victoria!!I provide assistance to clients looking at acquiring finance for new purchasers, refinancing of existing lending facilities for renovations and other purchasers, as well as advice on financing for investing in the property market. At Smartline,:• I travel to you to meet at a convenient time;• I conduct personal visits for loan increases, changes to loan structure, etc;• After your loan settles, I keep in contact with you to make sure your loan is running smoothly and you are kept up to date with the latest market changes• I have access to a choice of over 25 top lenders and help you choose the home loan that is right for you. Smartline is one of Australia’s leading mortgage broking groups, having been recognised through many mortgage and franchising awards including: Australia’s Top Franchise (six years running), Top Mortgage Broking Group (MFAA).More importantly, thousands of our clients say they feel the same way.

Ipswich, Qld, Australia

This position focussed on implementing a performance management framework within the customer service areas of Ipswich City Council. Key metrics include phone, counter and mail statistics with a key focus on customer outcomes.A fantastic learning experience in the Public Service for the first time and meeting the associated challenges with implementing change and accountability to areas previously not focussed on striving to continuously improving performance.

Brisbane Area, Australia

My position at Vale focused on implementing a shared service team across all of their Australian operations initially, with an intention to spread this success across other countries including Indonesia and other parts of Asia. Key areas included Payroll, Accounts payable and receivable and procurement.A great first, although short, experience in the mining industry, given the breadth of Vale's business across the world, as well as being domicilled in Brazil.

Brisbane Area, Australia

This role was my first foray outside of Suncorp and into the heady world of property development and retirement villages.In this role, I * Provided strategic and financial management and advice contributing to achieving sales targets and brand awareness / consideration through effective management of assigned selling and marketing related strategies and budgets. This included development and management of budgets and forecasting report production;* Established effective stakeholder communication channels with staff of sales and marketing team namely General Manager, National / Area Sales Managers, Group Marketing Manager and other sales & marketing staff as required, as well as internal and external consultants (including sales, strategy, project management)* Managed all sales reporting processes including determining requirements of the business, making relevant changes / improvements in the process, data gathering and quality. This included operational sales tracking for all sales projects and report against budgeted targets;* Achieved improved working relationship with other key divisions that improved divisional operations through driving Sales & Marketing strategy (eg improving operational procedures, effective communication);* Led the Sales & Marketing involvement in key strategic projects including Financial System upgrade, Document Management system, Customer Relationship Management (including vendor selection, contract negotiation and overall management of the implementation), Call Centre review and key cultural and structural change projects.

Brisbane Area, Australia

I have:* Led the business in the development of key product, distribution and operational strategic business plans across various business units (Wealth Management, Commercial Insurance, IT, Business Banking) including relevant business analysis including competitor, customer, systems and employees analysis and facilitation services;* Led the development of various project business cases from initial feasibility stage through to final approval and subsequent benefit realisation monitoring and reporting. This assessment has included competitor analysis, financial modelling, business process improvements, resource management. I have also provided quality assurance to project managers on their individual business case requirements based on relevant specifics of their projects; * Developed portfolio management frameworks for various business units including process / procedures, accountabilities and management. This has allowed them to prioritise work across their business, determine resource and capacity constraints, dependencies across other business units and the optimisation of business outcomes as well as continuous assessment of their ever changing portfolio;* Undertook comprehensive business consultation in establishing relevant key performance indicators, base lining current measures and reporting structures, developing frameworks for ongoing monitoring and performance improvement, providing assistance research and market trend analysis; and* Identification of opportunities for implementation of business growth and improvement ideas across other business units, systems and processes.* Developed an in depth knowledge of many business industries throughout my career with a focus on their whole business including their business strategies, people, customers, industries, etc.

Brisbane Area, Australia

This was a great role with visibility over all business banking pricing. A large focus was on customer experience and relationship with Suncorp, rather than purely the profitability on each individual deal.This role required me to:* Facilitate Business Banking product development by assisting the product managers in product development from a pricing and profitabilty point of view;* Assist Business Banking Product Managers in implementing the rollout of new products including detailed analysis of competitors, customers, product, pricing, system changes, tax, legal and accounting implications and monitoring the progress of the new against key performance metrics;* Management of analytical information required for making pricing decisions on all Business Banking products including trend, competitor, market and customer analysis;* Implementation and maintenance of all pricing / profitability models and rate distributions; and* Incorporation of Activity Based Costing information into pricing decisions and decision making models

Brisbane Area, Australia

This role provided an excellent grounding into the inner workings of a bank. The focus on Balance Sheet and Risk provdied me with some excellent tools to use in all of my other roles and personally.In this role, I was:* Responsible for the capture, translation and reconciliation of all data required as input into the Balance Sheet Management simulation model accurately and within required time frames;* Developed and implemented improvements to the quality of information provided to the Asset and Liability Committee (ALCO). This included improved download capability, system capability and managing the changes to ensure all information was timely and accurate on a monthly basis;* Streamlining of the Balance Sheet Simulation downloading, translation and reconciliation process with Macro writing in Microsoft Excel to enable more time to be spent on analysis, and less time spent on data capture and reconciliation;* Training personnel in the pricing of business banking products. Leading improvements to the communication between Balance Sheet Management and the relevant Business Units in relation to the pricing of Business Banking loan and deposit products and developed a more user-friendly spreadsheet for their use;* Developed and implemented adequate controls within all areas of data capture, reconciliation, modelling and analysis to ensure accuracy of information. * Undertake and lead key analysis tasks including:- Monthly Reporting – providing analysis through various reports including included Net Interest Income at risk, market value of equity, Net Interest Margin analysis, spread analysis, balance sheet growth analysis etc;- Smulation Modelling – modelling the balance sheet using specific risk management technology/software.

Brisbane, Australia

Diploma Of Finance & Mortgage Broking Management, Finance & Mortgage Broking, High Achievement

Activities and Societies: Real life examples and case studies, interactive learning sessions around client scenarios for home & business.

Certificate Iv In Financial Services (Mortgage Broking), Mortgage Broking And Financial Services

Graduate Diploma, Finance And Investments

Honours, Mathematics

Bachelor, Mathematics

Senior School Certificate, Mathematics