A leading independent brokerage has appointed its first executive general manager of sales and distribution as it prepares to launch a franchise model.
The Australian Lending & Investment Centre (ALIC) – one of the Top 25 Brokerages in the country – has unveiled that it is bringing in a seasoned banking executive as its new executive general manager of sales and distribution to help chart the brokerage’s incoming franchise model.
Banking executive Matina Karvounaris will join ALIC for the newly created role on 2 February and will also join the board of the Melbourne-headquartered brokerage.
Karvounaris has 25 years’ experience in senior banking leadership positions spanning across a number of Australia’s largest financial institutions and was most recently the general manager of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) for Victoria at Westpac.
She has also been the national manager of third-party business banking and the head of private wealth for Victoria and Tasmania at Westpac Group and worked for five years at Bank of Melbourne, where she headed up SME and small business banking and served as the executive manager of corporate and commercial banking.
Before that, she spent 16 years working at National Australia Bank in a number of high-profile roles.
Karvounaris’ position will include leading ALIC’s national broker sales and distribution arm, while facilitating the firm’s ongoing expansion throughout the east coast.
Currently, ALIC does not run a traditional brokerage franchise model but rather acts as an independent, centralised financial brokerage with a support structure in place for its internal team of brokers.
It has offices in Collins Street, Melbourne, and James Street, Teneriffe (Queensland), with plans to open offices in Geelong and the Gold Coast over the course of 2026.
ALIC told The Adviser the new executive general manager would play a “key role” in the early design of its “new and exciting” brokerage franchise model, with managing director Damian Brander hailing Karvounaris’ appointment as a “significant milestone” that reflected a new growth phase for the firm.
He flagged her “rare combination of senior banking leadership, commercial discipline, and a deep understanding of broker-led distribution” as core attractors.
“Matina’s background across business banking, third-party distribution, and executive leadership uniquely positions her to lead our broker network, support the development of ALIC’s franchise model, aligning our people, technology, and offshore capabilities for this next chapter,” Brander said.
“As ALIC enters its next phase of national expansion, we sought a leader who could execute and scale our sales strategy without compromising our ethical lending ethos. Matina has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to balance growth with governance, performance with culture, and success with accountability.”
Brander added that Karvounaris’ appointment would allow him to fast-track ALIC’s “global expansion” of outsourced experts in its existing offshore back offices in Manila and Nepal and oversee a brand-new launch in Malaysia.
Karvounaris said she was “thrilled” to be joining ALIC as executive general manager of sales and distribution and that the move reflected a “strong alignment” with the company’s “customer-first philosophy”.
“I was drawn to ALIC by its reputation for deep expertise, its strong customer‑first ethos, and its willingness to challenge traditional approaches to lending and investment advice,” she said.
“What attracted me most is the calibre of the team and the genuine passion for helping customers make confident, informed financial decisions.”
She said her appointment came at a “pivotal time” with the company preparing to expand its “presence” across the east coast.
Karvounaris said she was “excited” to lead ALIC’s next strategic growth phase, which includes its new brokerage finance model.
“I will also play a key role in shaping the early development of ALIC’s new brokerage franchise model, an initiative designed to extend the organisation’s impact and bring its customer‑centric approach to more Australians,” she said.
Appointment represents ALIC’s move to bolster Lolli AI platform
Brander said having Karvounaris on the executive leadership team would provide him with more time to bolster development of the Lolli.com.au (Lending On-Line, Loans & Investment) platform and its artificial intelligence (AI) features.
The broker enhancement SaaS platform aims to help mortgage and finance companies automate analysis, data capture, and client engagement and is used by both brokers and their property investor clients.
The platform originated as an in-house financial technology (fintech) at ALIC to integrate advice with back-office processing, with the firm rolling out the service to tens of thousands of clients as its core engagement and portfolio management portal.
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