Jenni Barnett.
Jenni Barnett is a C-suite executive who runs work on the rule of sitting back, listening and taking the time to understand why things might be the way they are, and what's been tried before. She sees this an important step before acting or you can miss important context.
She also recommends meeting the CFO/Finance team as soon as possible, even prior to starting, to get across the commercial drivers of the business.
She recently worked at TabCorp as a chief customer officer, where she helped turnaround the business and modernise its marketing strategy, as well as transform the company digitally.
After exiting the business, Barnett is now seeking advisory work, interim or fractional, C-Suite work.
“I'm quite interested in going in and helping companies in an advisory capacity. I've been doing a little bit of that with some small businesses, some not for profits, and some start-ups and it’s been really satisfying” Barnett told AdNews.
“There's still a fair bit of uncertainty in the economy and it appears that many Boards and CEOs are focused on the status quo or a cost out mandate versus growth and transformation at this point in time. But it will turn.
"There appears to be reasonable demand for CTOs and CIO’s, particularly skilled in AI and Cyber.”
When asked about her own recent experiences with Customer, Digital and Marketing transformations, Barnett said that the TAB Brand had been underinvested in for many years so the task to turn the business around was sizable and complex.
“TAB is an iconic brand, with lots of perceptions, and in a very difficult category in terms of community sentiment, and it needed a complete modernisation,” Barnett said.
“The marketing strategy was overhauled in terms of the pricing, product, proposition and the channel strategy, as well as the investment mix. New contemporary skill sets were also invested in across Data, AI and marketing automation.
“We went back to customer strategy basics, starting with defining macro segments through to micro segments, which included behavioural, transactional, and channel data points, as well as life time value. We deeply interrogated customer and commercial drivers as well as the Brand perception.
“Lots of people talk about having a single-view customer and real time data, but find it hard to get there. This was delivered at Tabcorp in 18 months in partnership with the Tech team. The new customer strategy, coupled with a new data platform, enabled AI-generated outcomes as well as automation at scale.
“Strategically this was critical for the business; because it's a 24/7, always on brand and category, and it allowed us compete.”
TabCorp kicked off a review of its agency arrangements with an RFP last week as part of a normal review process and encompasses media spending, sponsorship and creative services, with multiple agencies participating in the pitch.
The company posted revenue of $2.6 billion for FY25, up 12% on the previous year, driven by its new Victorian wagering licence which started in August 2024.
It also follows a report of 200 redundancies made by TabCorp in October 2025, with around one quarter to have come out of the customer team.
Barnett said the TabCorp role helped her grow her strategic and enterprise understanding.
“I had to sit in front of regulators, government, and investors, create policy, work closely with the Board, and work directly with the media giants, things that I hadn’t done before,” she said.
“I'm always looking to learn and grow and no one is ever too experienced to do that in their career. I have an ability to connect dots, and deliver strategy through to quality execution, then get different groups of people to deliver in an aligned way quickly. That's what my sweet spot is.”
When it comes to AI adoption, Barnett was the first to introduce a customer facing Chabot at CommBank, and AI and automation has been part of Barnett’s roles for the past 12 years.
At TabCorp, TabGPT, a rendition of ChatGPT, helped the internal team but together all the procurement contracts, legal contracts, and code bases for the IT teams.
"That cuts down such time to find things you need, or repeatable things that you do,” she said.
AI and automation is critical for go to market teams to operate at scale, Barnett says.
“How do you determine which customer gets which offer, creative and what price, when you're doing that at scale with 40,000 offers?
“The machine determines what gets put in front of customers, and continuously learns”.
"AI has distinct use cases for me. The revenue, financial/commercial angle, to extract value, drive margin and uplift, as well as tackle things like fraud. The productivity element to do things faster and more efficiently, and the experience element, where you're making things very personalised for customers. “
When it comes to how C-suites can move across categories, Barnett said that the macro issues remain the same in her experience.
"There is the economic reality, digital disruption, and lot of products and categories are commoditised. This means in order to compete, you need to rely on your service proposition, your brand, and how you go to market," she said.
“Increased regulatory focus is all fairly similar from a strategic point of view.
“But the subject matter is different in each company. The consumption patterns of customers, metrics, and the lifetime value of customers are usually quite different.”
When it comes to customer experience, Barnett said that customers just want things made simple and easy.
"Customers still want brands to just do what they say and to make it simple. And then there are things that the brands can do over and above that. Loyalty programs are a great example," she said.
“What has changed is the way customers interact with brands. Traditional forms of media have got a role, but consumers don't only listen to those channels as much anymore.
“It's much more about your network, influencers, reviews and word of mouth in the social and digital sphere. The companies that do well have responded to that and are talking to customers in their preference channels.”
Barnett’s 16-year stunt at Commonwealth Bank helped her develop her enterprise perspective, and gave her the opportunity to move around in roles.
She also spent almost four years as an executive director at Telstra.
"A career turning point for me was when I moved into the digital area at Commonwealth Bank, when CBA were at the forefront of digital and transformation. And they still lead today.
“And then I was fortunate enough to run the digital channels at Telstra. The CBA roles I had were great. Big, transformational and quite complex, but in the Telstra role I was ultimately accountable for the Digital Channels and Assets, the P&L, and Transformation of the Digital Customer Experience.
"That was a step up, and being able to run that channel end to end was a very satisfying career move and one I loved, alongside my team.”
Barnett believes that the more experience you get, the clearer you get.
“I want to make a big impact and work with good people," she said.
“That could be in public companies, which I've done a lot with, or private equity, where you go in, you reshape, and then you move.”
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