Group Executives
-
Daniel Bracken
Chief Executive Officer & Managing DirectorDaniel has more than 25 years’ experience managing some of the world’s most iconic brands. He has an extensive background in retailing, fashion, and brand development in Australia and international markets, as a Chief Executive Officer and in senior executive positions across strategy, marketing, merchandise, product design and digital and customer engagement strategies.
Prior to joining Michael Hill as CEO in November 2018, Daniel was CEO at Specialty Fashion Group and previously held positions as the Group Vice President, Strategy for Burberry London, as Deputy CEO and Chief Merchandise & Customer Officer of Myer, and as CEO of The Apparel Group.
During his time at Speciality Fashion Group, Daniel led the company’s corporate restructure and the successful divestment of a number of brands, returning the company to profitability. At Myer, he oversaw merchandise buying, design, sourcing, and manufacturing, and led the Myer brand and customer experience strategy. During his tenure, the Apparel Group owned leading fashion brands Sportscraft, Saba, Willow, and JAG.
His international experience includes more than 15 years at Burberry London in the United Kingdom, where he was a key member of the leadership team involved in their turnaround into an iconic global brand. He performed a range of roles at Burberry including Vice President – Strategy (Group), Head of Merchandising & Production (Ready to Wear), and Commercial & Operations Director (Menswear).
-
Andrew Lowe
Chief Financial Officer & Company SecretaryAndrew joined Michael Hill in 2017 as Chief Financial Officer, and later assumed the role of Company Secretary. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Laws and a Masters of Applied Finance, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Taxation Adviser of the Taxation Institute of Australia.
Andrew has extensive experience in corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, finance and leadership roles across a range of listed corporate groups with Australian and offshore operations, including roles with Aurizon, Cleanaway Waste Management and Anglo American. -
Amy Sznicer
Chief Retail OfficerAmy has over 25 years’ leadership experience, across retail and beauty industries, having worked with prominent retail brands such as Witchery, GAP, Bras n Things, Guess Jeans and Aldo. She has led the roll out of over 200 new retail stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and was named 2006 Australian Young Business Woman of the Year at the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
Amy’s extensive career in specialty fashion retailing has built a broad skill set that goes beyond store operations. She has worked as an Executive Leader in privately owned, private-equity controlled, and listed organisations. Amy is extremely passionate about dynamic leadership, a strong company culture, deep retail foundations and driving high performance in an ever-changing retail landscape. These qualities enable her to consistently deliver the highest standard of customer service and ultimately, strong business performance. -
Jo Feeney
Chief Marketing OfficerJo joined Michael Hill in March 2021 as Chief Marketing Officer to lead the revitalisation and growth of the company’s brand, delivering end to end marketing strategies in an omnichannel environment. Jo is responsible for shaping the company’s messaging, delivering an outstanding experience to the Michael Hill customer across both digital and traditional marketing channels and leading the vision for a world class loyalty program.
Jo brings with her over 20 years’ experience in both local and global organisations (including Woolworths, Telstra, Foxtel and McDonald’s), specialising in strategic brand building, end to end marketing communications and driving key customer growth strategies across channels. In her most recent role as Director of Marketing at McDonald’s Australia, she was responsible for marketing, brand and media strategies and driving commercial growth through innovation and
re-imagination of the brand.
Jo is also a recognised leader in creativity - winning multiple awards both locally and internationally. She brings a fresh approach to driving the future growth of the brand through a lens of commercial creativity. -
Matt Keays
Chief Information OfficerMatt joined Michael Hill in June 2015, bringing with him extensive international IT experience in the retail space. Prior to joining the company, Matt led the global IT strategy for Forever New as their General Manager Information Technology, and prior to that worked as Chief Information Officer for Super Amart where his final project was successfully leading a full-scale disaster recovery process after the Queensland floods in 2011. He also worked for leading national footwear and apparel company, Colorado Group after enjoying his long retail apprenticeship with 11 years at Country Road, where he worked initially as a Finance Accountant, and also gained solid shop floor experience during his tenure.
Matt has strong technical skills and a track record of developing an effective team focused on business alignment. Matt’s career has seen him lead significant technology and infrastructure programs, covering Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Oracle and JDE. He has helped all retail businesses implement and embrace data warehousing with his first Microsoft based implementation as far back as 2004. The Michael Hill advanced data warehouse went live in 2016 and his team continually evolve our data platforms to align with the strategic shifts across the business. -
Keith Louie
Chief Digital OfficerKeith joined Michael Hill in August 2021, as our first Chief Digital Officer. He brings more than 30 years’ experience in consumer goods production, wholesale, retail and advisory across Europe and Australasia, and deep experience of eCommerce leadership and digital transformation over the last 15 years.
Keith led online shopping for Coles Supermarkets for six years during its transformation under the Wesfarmers group, rebuilding the customer experience and operating model. Subsequently, he led online retail for Target and advised other Wesfarmers brands on eCommerce, before becoming CEO of the national Aussie Farmers Group, a privately-owned fresh food production, wholesale, online retail, and logistics group. More recently, Keith has advised various listed, private and Government entities on eCommerce and digital transformation, building on his earlier experience as a Director and Associate Partner of management consulting firm PwC, and with IBM’s Global Business Solutions team.
Keith is known for innovative ideas, thinking strategically, applying a rigorous commercial lens, and taking action to transform businesses digitally. In doing so, he inspires the teams he leads to deliver change and improve customer experiences.
-
Joanne Matthews
Chief People OfficerJoanne joined Michael Hill in January 2019 with extensive experience in change leadership, and talent management and development. This experience was gained across 14 years in senior human resource leadership roles, including as Divisional Human Resources Manager (Leisure) for Super Retail Group.
Joanne has also worked as the Executive General Manager, Human Resources for MAX Solutions Pty Ltd, a national organisation that delivers health, training and humanitarian solutions for Federal and State Governments, and prior to this she worked in retail operations with Woolworths.
With a workforce of more than 3000 people in nearly 300 stores across Australia, New Zealand and Canada, Joanne’s experience will help to support the company’s core priority of attracting, developing, rewarding and retaining top quality people at Michael Hill.
Joanne holds a MBA and Bachelor of Business in Human Resources and Marketing.