Westpac's former head of customer marketing, Christian Johansson, has become the new chief marketing officer of member-owned banking group, Beyond Bank Australia.

Reporting to Chief Community and Strategy Officer, Peter Rutter, this newly created role sees Johansson tasked with transforming the marketing function to support Beyond Bank's growth aspirations for the years ahead.

Johansson told Mi3 he was attracted to Beyond Bank Australia's purpose in particular. He officially took up the job at the end of March.

"We are a customer owned bank, returning value to the communities in which we live and operate," he said. He also cited the group's leadership team goals and aspirations, as well as the fact "marketing is seen as an investment, not a cost", as other appealing reasons for taking up the post.

Having commenced his marketing management positions with IBM in the UK, Johansson took up a post as GM of promotions, then marketing, at Telstra from 2006 - 2011. He then switched into banking and hasn't looked back, working across acquisition marketing at St George before taking on consumer finance marketing at parent company, Westpac, then group mortgages, cash and transactional banking. He also spent more than seven years leading RAMS marketing as CMO, before also taking up head of customer marketing responsibilities at Westpac until September last year.

"Active listening is a critical component of leadership, and particularly important during the first few months of a new role, in a new company," Johansson commented.

As to other key lessons he said he's learned in his previous roles, he pointed to the criticality of recognising every team member has an equal vote as another one of his maxims.

"Reduce the barriers of hierarchies in business. The answers are often in the room. Enable them to surface," he said.

"It's also about establishing trust early by being accessible, responsive, supportive, and doing what you say you will do."

Also on the cards is reaching across multiple areas of the company to get different perspectives, with an emphasis on "starting at the points closest to your customers", he added.

- With additional reporting by Nadia Cameron.