Leigh Scholten.Designer
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Proven Design Director with over two decades delivering high-impact digital products at enterprise scale. Deep expertise in fintech and financial services. Comfortable leading zero-to-one platform launches through to multi-market design system convergence across global teams. Known for translating complex product strategy into intuitive, high-performing experiences, and for building and leading design organisations that ship fast without sacrificing craft.

Recently I drove the design program for a next-generation multicurrency digital wallet across AU and MX markets. Career spans fintech, enterprise SaaS, brand, retail, and physical product design that maintains a consistent thread of commercial impact, creative leadership, and work at scale.

selected impact

  • 1M customers acquired in 24 months — fastest digital banking app growth in Australia
  • $2.4B+ FUM delivered within 18 months of ANZ Plus launch
  • 3.2 → 4.6★ App Store rating uplift across 4M+ customer migration in 3 months
  • $100M+ fraud cost reduction in year one via VoiceID biometric authentication design
  • +54 NPS onboarding improvement through a fully-digital join experience
  • 5× adoption cross-platform design system (iOS/Android/Web/AEM) vs legacy, ~4 weeks saved per feature
  • 15+ designers mentored into senior and leadership roles; 3× the bank average promotion rate
  • $4M+ potential profit secured via brand licensing pitches to UFC and Under Armour

current

Staff Product Designer

TELUS Digital · Western Union E1 Wallet · Melbourne/Sydney, AU

Oct 2025 — Present
  • Leading UX design for the E1 Wallet — a next-generation multicurrency digital wallet transitioning Western Union from a legacy remittance platform to a full-service global financial product.
  • Driving a cross-market design audit across AU and MX, classifying ~360 screens across 34 flows using a Core / Configurable / Local framework to identify systemic drift and establish a shared baseline for global scale.
  • Operating as embedded design leadership within a cross-functional product, engineering and PMO team; influencing roadmap priorities, sprint planning and QA standards at director level.
  • Leading design system strategy across market variants, resolving navigation, scroll behaviour and component inconsistencies ahead of Friends & Family release.
  • Mentoring and directing a distributed design team across AU (directly responsible for the local team of five), India and US — spanning research, UX, content and interaction design.
  • Leveraging Claude and AI-powered workflows across audit analysis, design documentation, stakeholder communications and sprint planning — compressing days into hours.
  • Built and distributed React Native prototypes via TestFlight that tested customer scenarios, design system improvements and micro-interaction design.
  • Led contract negotiations and co-created an 18-month design system rollout roadmap as part of business development between TELUS Digital (vendor) and Western Union.
  • Managed the engagement end-to-end — team leadership, SOWs, client management, strategic implementation plans, business development and status reporting — all while staying hands-on with the day-to-day design work.

Founding Designer

Meddle · Melbourne/Sydney, AU · Healthtech startup

Sep 2025 — Present
  • Founding designer for Meddle — a healthtech platform built around a radical proposition: patients own their health record. Meddle connects patients and practitioners through AI-powered matching, shared appointments and a personalised longitudinal health record patients carry across every provider they see.
  • Responsible for product design, brand identity, and end-to-end UX direction from zero — shaping the core interaction model for the patient-facing and practitioner-facing sides of the platform.
  • Currently in active pilot with 400 allied health professionals, validating clinical workflows and iterating in a live environment.
  • Created an investment-ready product and design system, ready for continued success from the team.

prior

Principal Designer / Design Director

ANZ Plus · Melbourne, AU

Jun 2019 — 2025
  • Joined as one of the founding designers for ANZ Plus and scaled the design function from 2 to 40+ in 24 months, reaching 1M customers and $2.4B+ FUM within 18 months of launch.
  • Championed and led creation of a cross-platform design system (iOS, Android, Web, AEM, Email) achieving 5× asset adoption vs legacy and reducing per-feature build time by ~4 weeks.
  • Secured C-suite alignment on Financial Wellbeing as a core product differentiator — a 23% uplift in engagement vs the classic ANZ app.
  • Led end-to-end payment card design: digital ordering, in-app application (35% reduction in application time), packaging and fulfilment (3 weeks → under 4 days), and Apple Pay used by 60%+ of active cardholders within 3 months.
  • Directed AEM marketing-site framework rollout, converting $480M in home-loan customers via web channels in 6 months.
  • Mentored 15+ designers into senior and leadership roles — 3× the bank average promotion rate.

Principal Designer — Digital Customer Experience

ANZ · Melbourne, AU

Mar 2018 — Jun 2019
  • Unified the GoMoney and Grow app ecosystems into one experience, migrating 4M+ customers and lifting App Store ratings from 3.2 → 4.6 in 3 months post-release.
  • Introduced digital sales to the ANZ app for the first time, driving a 30% increase in in-app sales within 6 months.
  • Improved accessibility across native iOS and Android via HIG-aligned patterns, reducing support ticket volume by 18%.

Creative Director — Group Innovation

ANZ · Melbourne, AU

Sep 2014 — Mar 2018
  • Designed ANZ's first biometric authentication product (VoiceID), reducing high-limit payment fraud costs by $100M+ in year one.
  • Delivered Australia's first unified banking and wealth app across iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch — 250K+ multi-device users in year one.
  • Created and pitched the “9 Financial Wellbeing Principles” framework that later embedded across the ANZ Plus platform.

Senior Product Designer — Contract

Australia Post · ME Bank · Telstra · Factor5 / CourseLoop · Melbourne, AU

2013 — 2015
  • Australia Post — Senior PD on MyPost Digital Mailbox, a $2B national initiative to digitise postal correspondence, launched with ANZ, Westpac, NAB and AMP as founding partners.
  • ME Bank — Lead designer on their first mobile banking app for iPhone and Android.
  • Telstra — Product designer on the Telstra Health Gateway.
  • Factor5 / CourseLoop — Founding product designer and brand lead for what became CourseLoop, acquired by TechnologyOne (ASX: TNE) in 2024.

Senior Visual Designer — Customer Experience

ANZ · Melbourne, AU

Oct 2011 — 2013
  • First design role at ANZ — established the first mobile visual style guide, the foundation for all subsequent design-system work across the bank.
  • Delivered consistent, on-brand digital experiences with UX, product and offshore development teams.

Early Career — Brand, Retail & Product Design

PlayCorp · House Corporate · SL Investments · Caramel Creative · Melbourne, AU

2000 — 2011
  • Eight years at PlayCorp — Australia's largest integrated homewares, lifestyle and apparel manufacturer. Managed 6 designers, reported to CEO, designed full product ranges for Everlast, The North Face, AFL and NFL distributed through Kmart and major big-box retailers.
  • Led the rebrand and relaunch of House — one of Australia's longest-running homeware chains.
  • At SL Investments, conceived and pitched brand-licensing concepts to UFC and Under Armour generating $4M+ in potential contract value.
  • At Caramel Creative drove the strategy and successful pitch to transform a $500M retail and residential development, The Oracle — hand-crafting the design through to code and motion design.
  • Built the client portfolio at Caramel — personally responsible for three acquisitions.
  • Brand portfolio: Everlast, The North Face, AFL, NFL, Ben Sherman, FCUK, Guinness, Jack Daniels, Lucasfilm (Star Wars), Fosters Group, Penfolds.

Specialist

Apple Retail · Regent Street, London

2008 — 2009
  • Represented Apple's retail brand at its flagship global store during a career sabbatical. Consistently exceeded targets and was invited back for a second stint — formative grounding in product culture, customer experience and brand standards at the highest level.

core skills

  • Product Design (iOS / Android / Web)
  • Design Systems Strategy
  • Fintech / Financial Services
  • CX Strategy
  • Design Leadership & Team Scaling
  • Rapid Prototyping
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Accessibility (WCAG 2.1)
  • Figma & Figma Systems Admin
  • Play / Swift Prototyping
  • AI-augmented Product Design
  • Claude / AI Workflows
  • Brand & Identity
  • Motion Design

education & awards

education

Bachelor of Design (Hons)

Graphic Design / Multimedia — Graduated with Distinction Federation University · 1999 – 2002

awards

  • Most Frictionless Consumer App

    RFI Global Australian Banking & Finance Awards · 2026

    ANZ Plus — Principal Designer / Design Director

  • Digital Lender of the Year · Best for Refinance

    We Money Awards · 2025

    ANZ Plus — Principal Designer / Design Director

  • Gold Cube · 81st ADCNY

    Art Directors Club New York · 2001

    Promotional Use Only — CD-ROM

cv · last updated July 2026