Westpac Bank Celebrates 100 years in PNG

Elsie Dobunaba is a woman of substance from the Oro Province. She is the Credit Manager at Westpac Bank with an office located on the 5th Floor of Delloites Tower building in the Central Business District of Port Moresby. As the bank celebrates its Centenary in PNG this year, Elsie celebrates her 32 years with the bank.

From a humble beginning as an enquiry clerk after completing Grade 10 at Popondetta High School, Elsie has certainly come a long way. She remembers those early days,"Everything was done manually, this is before computers were introduced. We used to have a huge machine and we used to input customer data. It was very noisy and because of that, we used to call it the mushroom factory."

As a highlight of her work life at Westpac, she says,"The highlight for me was when I graduated at the Divine Word Institute with a Diploma in Management and Supervision. The Bank sponsored my course. I never thought I would have the opportunity to go to a University; the Bank has made this possible. Also being the first National Female Manager was a highlight for me when I was appointed the Waigani Branch Manager in 1989."

Congratulations on a fine effort Elsie!!


To help Elsie and her workmate celebrate the Centenary, Westpac Bank CEO, Ms Gail Kelly travelled to Port Moresby from Sydney. Gail, another fine role model for females, got into the swing of things when she got on the stage at the "Centenary Ball"  last night and boogied with the staff who were dressed in the multi-cultural traditional gear from the 20 provinces of PNG. About 300  customers, business and public sector representatives joined the Westpac staff at a Jackson airport hangar for a fun night.