With more than 30 years of experience in banking and lending, Glenn Morris was the perfect choice to help launch Zagga and drive its success – and he’s been a lynchpin for the company ever since.
Back in 2014, Glenn was working for Suncorp New Zealand, winding down its mortgage book and essentially making himself redundant. The winding down was complex, and as part of the compliance side of that, Glenn worked closely with Edwin Morrison and Mark Kirkland of K3 Legal. It was then that Mark and Edwin, along with Edwin’s brother Marcus, decided to start Zagga – and who better to shoulder-tap for a leading role than Glenn?
“They knew I was finishing up, and asked me if I’d ever thought about peer-to-peer lending,” says Glenn. “I’d seen it in the news, and I told them I was interested. So, long story short, I was happy to come across to the new business.”
Helping launch Zagga From day one
It was 2014, and Zagga wasn’t yet trading when Glenn started: “I turned up on day one, and there was a blank whiteboard. The expectation was that we would develop a case to put forward to get a peer-to-peer licence. So I’ve been there from ground zero.”
He worked closely with Bill Calder and then-CEO Kerry Kirkland, as well as with the Morrison brothers and Kirkland. They wrote up the case for the licence, dealt with getting the platform up and running, and then Zagga started trading.
“Somewhere along the line we made some divisions, so Bill now looks after credit, Kerry became CEO, and I took on operations. My role as operations means understanding all the systems and looking after the operations team, which does all the administration, AML and compliance.”
Once Zagga was trading successfully in New Zealand, the business expanded into Australia, and Glenn’s knowledge was essential to setting up the new operation.
“That was a different ball game because we ended up with a full banking licence. I was helping to manage operations in both Australia and New Zealand until recently,” he explains. “Now Australia is fully fledged and working on its own, but I’m in the background if need be.”
From High School Straight Into Banking
Before he began at Zagga, Glenn had worked in banking since 1972. He interviewed for BNZ while still in school, because he liked the idea of banking and he enjoys working with numbers.
“I started in the Auckland branch in Queen Street, moving around in the operations side of things, and in customer enquiries. That was a big international branch, so I got knowledge across all aspects of banking.”
After around 30 years at BNZ, he moved to NZ Guardian Trust, which was owned by Suncorp at the time. By that point, Glenn had a wealth of experience across lending for residential, commercial and rural customers.
Switching to Zagga was an opportunity to be involved with something new and challenging, and he says the first two years were particularly exciting.
“Every day was different and exciting, with different things to do and think about. We had to coordinate with a lot of people outside the team on a daily basis. It was just a hub of the three of us for the first 12 to 15 months. It has settled down a bit now, it’s matured a little bit!”
A Passion for Cars
When he’s not at work, Glenn and his wife Marion can be found touring New Zealand in their 1928 Ford Model A. You can see the couple and their car at a Daffodil Day Rally for Cancer in this article by the Times.
“I’m very hands-on and interested in motorsport and cars and engines. We’ve had the Model A for 30 years, and we’ve driven most roads in New Zealand – I doubt many people have driven more of the country than us,” he says. “We take it out in the rain and all conditions. It’s part of the history of it.”
Glenn and Marion have two children and four grandchildren, and they love catching up with their growing family. Between the car, the family and his work at Zagga, life is looking pretty good for Glenn, who has no intention of slowing down: “I just have thoroughly enjoyed my working life.”
