Career

Steve Mason is a transformation, operations and performance improvement leader with more than two decades of experience across banking, financial services, technology-enabled operations and business transformation. His career spans operational leadership, continuous improvement, program delivery, transformation, PMO leadership and enterprise change, with more than 24 years at National Australia Bank. He combines structured corporate experience with a practical, hands-on approach to solving business problems, simplifying processes and turning priorities into actions that are actually implemented.

Today, Steve is Founder and Director of Anchorpoint Business Advisory, where he works with owner-led businesses that are growing, stretched, changing or looking to improve how work gets done. He helps business owners clarify priorities, strengthen roles and accountabilities, establish effective operating rhythms, simplify processes and improve performance. His approach brings the discipline of a large corporate environment into the SME context without unnecessary complexity.

At NAB, Steve held progressively senior roles across operations, broker partnerships, transformation and enterprise PMO. His experience includes leading teams of up to 150 people, working across complex regulatory and technology programs, and engaging senior stakeholders across Operations, Technology, Architecture, Risk, Legal and Procurement. Between 2022 and 2025, he led transformation across NAB’s Support Units and Enterprise Operations PMO, driving process efficiencies and enabling significant cost savings while supporting complex regulatory, operational and technology initiatives.

Role at Factor

As a Factor Expert Advisor, Steve brings a practical perspective on how organisations can move from strategy and good intentions to consistent execution. His experience spans the full journey from frontline operations through to enterprise transformation, giving him an understanding of where improvement programs succeed, where they become unnecessarily complicated and what leaders can do to create momentum.

Steve can provide insight into operational performance, process simplification, transformation delivery, PMO effectiveness and the practical application of continuous improvement methodologies. He has extensive experience bringing structure and governance to complex environments while maintaining enough flexibility for teams to actually get things done.

Steve also brings a strong people leadership perspective. Across his career, he has focused on understanding what motivates individuals, creating opportunities for people to contribute beyond their formal roles and building teams that can perform without excessive hierarchy or bureaucracy. His work with founder-led businesses provides an additional perspective on the realities of translating corporate discipline into smaller, fast-moving organisations.

Key roles Steve works with include: CEOs & Founders, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Transformation Officers, Chief People Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Heads of Transformation, Heads of Operations, and PMO & Program Leaders.

Previous Roles

Steve founded Anchorpoint Business Advisory in February 2026 after a 24-year career at National Australia Bank. Through Anchorpoint, he works directly with owner-led SMEs on business performance reviews, operational improvement, leadership and team structure, process simplification, planning, scorecards and practical business advisory. His focus is on helping businesses establish clear priorities and operating rhythms while ensuring that improvement initiatives result in tangible action rather than becoming another layer of management activity.

Most recently at NAB, Steve was Head of Transformation (Support Units) & Enterprise Operations PMO. Appointed during a period of significant disruption, he led transformation delivery across Support Units and the Enterprise Operations PMO, managing a team of 12 and engaging more than 100 stakeholders across Operations, Technology and Architecture, including global teams. His work included complex regulatory, operational and technology programs, executive and Board reporting, project governance, workforce management system replacement for more than 6,500 users, financial crime remediation and procurement capability supporting growth in India and Vietnam.

Earlier NAB roles included Senior Program Manager, Enterprise Operations Transformation; Program Manager, Broker Partnerships; Digital Lending Platforms Product Owner; Aggregation Operations Manager, Broker Partnerships; and Manager, Broker Onboarding. His work across broker operations included redesigning onboarding for more than 6,000 brokers, reducing the process from weeks to 10 days, and leading continuous improvement initiatives supporting approximately 7,500 brokers. He also led an improvement program that generated approximately 14,000 frontline ideas in three months and increased implementation rates by around 40%.

Steve began his NAB career in Lending Services and progressed through operational, analytical, project and transformation roles. This progression gave him an unusually broad understanding of business performance, from frontline customer and operational processes through to enterprise-level transformation and governance. Across his career, he has consistently combined structured improvement disciplines with strong stakeholder relationships and an emphasis on making change practical for the people responsible for delivering it.

Media Presence and Industry Contributions

Steve brings a strong belief that business improvement should be practical, measurable and connected to the people doing the work. His experience across operations, transformation and continuous improvement has shown him that organisations rarely need more complexity; they need clearer priorities, better processes, stronger accountability and the discipline to follow through.

A significant part of Steve’s leadership philosophy centres on understanding people beyond their formal roles. He believes leaders can unlock considerable untapped capability by being curious about what motivates their teams, what they enjoy, what they want to learn and where they can contribute. This approach has shaped his leadership across frontline operations, transformation teams and enterprise programs.

Steve also advocates for identifying and removing hidden dependencies within organisations. His experience rebuilding an executive reporting dashboard in Power BI after the departure of the individual who originally created its underlying technology reinforced the importance of reducing single-person dependencies and building sustainable organisational capability.

Leadership Philosophy

Steve believes good leadership starts with curiosity. Understanding the person behind the role creates stronger relationships, greater trust and a better understanding of the capability already sitting within a team. He sees people leadership and business performance as complementary rather than competing priorities.

His approach is grounded in clarity, accountability and action. Steve believes leaders should simplify what matters, create an operating rhythm that keeps people moving and give capable people enough room to take ownership. He is particularly interested in the gap between knowing what needs to change and actually getting it done.

Steve also believes leadership should be human. Across his career, he has seen the value of taking conversations outside the traditional meeting room, creating genuine connections with colleagues and making space for people to bring more of themselves to work. His leadership style combines commercial discipline with curiosity, energy and a genuine interest in helping people and businesses perform at their best.