Melanie Sykes
Partner, expert in Digital and Transformation Risk
Contact Melanie
"Australian Financial Services institutions face increasing regulatory demands in operational resilience, cloud, cyber, privacy, data and third-party risk. I am passionate about helping their leaders manage these challenges, especially during significant transformational changes. I help organisations transform safely, maintaining their tech risk and regulatory requirements while delivering their crucial business transformations."
At a glance:
Joined Baringa in
2025
Works across
Financial Services, and Digital and Transformation Risk.
Job in another life
Environmental scientist living in a rainforest in Borneo
In detail:
Melanie joined Baringa from Deloitte, where she was a Partner and co-lead of the Technology Risk function, working closely with Australia’s largest banks, superannuation funds and insurance providers. In this role, she acted as a trusted advisor to C-suite clients, helping them address their biggest technology regulatory challenges, enhance their IT and cyber risk management, and communicate effectively with their risk committees and regulators.
Prior to Deloitte, Melanie spent 17 years at NAB, where she was the Head of Technology Risk for both Line 1 and Line 2 risk teams respectively.
As a Partner in Baringa’s financial services sector team in Australia, Melanie leverages her extensive experience across the three lines of defence to ensure robust risk management and compliance. Her focus is on helping clients enhance their risk and compliance frameworks to drive business success and support executive and Board decisions. Melanie helps navigate and advise on technology, data, cloud, and cyber risk remediation programs to meet stringent requirements from boards, auditors, and regulators. She also provides guidance on technology risk governance, assurance, and oversight for complex transformation initiatives.
Throughout her career, Melanie has been passionate about fostering wellbeing, teamwork, and high performance, all while ensuring strong client and employee engagement.
Melanie lives in Sydney with her husband, son, and daughter. She juggles her kids' homework, sporting teams, and dance troupe rehearsals, occasionally finding a spare moment to take a dance class and relive her youth.
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