Schenkel has a master's degree in Engineering and an MBA from the Columbia Business School in New York.^[8][9] He is the co-author of several scientific articles in the field of robotics.^{[10] [11]}

In 2008, Schenkel launched UBank, the direct bank of National Australia Bank which has grown its balance sheet to approximately $20b.^[12][13][14] Before launching UBank, Schenkel was general manager of NAB's CRM system.^[15] Prior to that, Schenkel worked for The Boston Consulting Group.^[16]

Until June 2017, he was the CEO of Tyro Payments, an Australian EFTPOS services company, aiming to "disrupt" the incumbent banks.^{[17][18][19][20]} In December 2019, Tyro Payments listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.^[21] As of 15 July 2020, the company's market capitalisation was approximately A$1.85b ^[22]

On 13 June 2017 Tyro announced that Gerd Schenkel had resigned because he wanted to "pursue other business opportunities and spend more time with his family".^[23] The Australian Financial Review reported that Schenkel was pursuing "a new banking venture”.^[24] Schenkel is the Managing Director of consultancy "BGA Digital".^[25]

Prior to Tyro, Gerd Schenkel was the founder and Executive Director of Telstra Digital, the digital division of one of Australia's largest corporations.^{[26][27][28][29][30]} At Telstra, he led the launch of Belong, Telstra's low cost broadband business which as of June 2017 had over 150,000 customers.^[31][32]

A regular contributor to the Australian business community,^[33][25] in November 2017 was appointed to the Federal Treasurer's Small Business Digitisation Taskforce,^[34] which led to the federal Government to provide $37.3 million (over four years from 2018) to support small business' adoption of digital tools and methods.^[35][33]

In December 2018, Gerd was appointed chairman of Australian FinTech Credit Clear.^[36]

In October 2020, Credit Clear listed on the Australian Stock Exchange via an initial public offering under the ticker symbol CCR.^{[37][38][39][40]}

In December 2021, Schenkel was appointed to the Board of Helia (formerly Genworth), an ASX listed insurer.^[41]

In 2021, Credit Clear announced that it acquired ARMA, a debt collections services business to grow its revenue at a cost of $45m.^[42]

In 2021, Schenkel was reported to be part of a "consortium" wanting to acquire ME Bank,^[43] but ME Bank was ultimately acquired by Bank of Queensland.^[44]

Gerd was married and has two daughters, Faedra and Lillie.^[45]

www.gerdschenkel.com www.pipdigital.com