Anna Woodward

Anna is a Co-Founder and CEO at Studio Phoenix, leading our vision, strategic partnerships and the client experience. Born and raised in Tauranga, it's still where she's based today.

Her first leadership role came at 20, running a 30+ person team as Branch Manager for Max Brenner, a global café chain, in Brisbane. The years across hospitality, banking and fintech since have given her an adaptable spirit, equally at home with everyday employees and with CEOs of corporate banking clients.

From there she moved into banking and finance, first stepping into banking at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, then Commercial Banking at ASB and Mortgage Advising at NZ fintech Squirrel.

With a long held passion for creating and building tools, it was at Squirrel that she moved into IT as a Software Engineer, where she built products used by tens of thousands of people each month.

Working in fintech means the stakes are real and things have to work the first time, and that discipline now shows up in everything the studio ships - it's built properly, it looks considered, and it holds up.

She specialises in crafting compelling brands and stories, and in the added depth that makes a product feel considered and functional.

Outside the studio, Anna's clocking hours toward a pilot's license, on the paddleboard or at the gym. The longer game list stays on rotation too - permaculture, ayurveda, and learning new languages (the spoken kind, not the coding kind).