ACCESS TO PAYMENT SYSTEMS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Independent Non - Executive Director
Ajay Vij specialises in digital transformation and scaling global technology services in financial services. He is currently Vice President for Strategic Industries for Google Cloud EMEA.
Ajay has built his career with technology service integration firms, including Infosys, IBM Global Business Services and Avanade.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Non - Executive Director
- Senior Independent Non - Executive Director
Anna is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair. She has a background in regulation, policy, and consumer advocacy, across a variety of sectors.
She is currently Chair of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and Chair of Scottish Widows Independent Governance Group.
Job Titles:
- Chief Policy and Engagement Officer
David has worked in payments for more than 20 years. Since 2004 he has specialised in interbank payments regulation and policy, through roles at Bacs Payments Schemes Ltd, VocaLink and the Payment Systems Regulator. David has worked on a range of collaborative payments industry projects including: NewBacs; Faster Payments; the Current Account Switch Service; PayM and the Payments Strategy Forum.
David has extensive experience in digital delivery and transformational change within the payments industry and the wider financial services sector. David garnered his expertise through a number of leadership roles, including Chief Technology Officer for Payments at Network International in Dubai, UK and mainland Europe CIO of Fleetcor, and Executive Director for Digital Services at Visa Europe. David joined in April 2022, and brings significant expertise driving the delivery of large, complex high volume, high value solutions and products to the role of Chief Technology Officer at Pay.UK.
David joined Pay.UK in July 2021.
David has a strong and successful track record delivering high profile projects both in the UK and internationally, and leading organisations through periods of transformational change. This includes the delivery of a transformation strategy at the Government's Test, Trace and Containment operation where he was Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing the end-to-end process to improve overall delivery across the UK.
Prior to this, David was COO at esure leading the business through major transformational change prior to its sale. He has also held senior roles at RSA Insurance, including CEO, Greater China.
Job Titles:
- Independent Non - Executive Director
Diane joined the Pay.UK Board in January 2022. She is an Independent Non-Executive Director of Société Générale Group, ACT Commodities Group and X-Forces Enterprise. She also chairs La Nuova Musica and is a Trustee on the Board of Shaw Trust.
She qualified as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA-CA) with EY. Her career in financial services spans over 30 years during which she held senior positions in FTSE 100 companies, such as Aviva plc, Standard Life plc. Her last executive role was Chief Risk Officer for London Stock Exchange Group, where she also chaired its Foundation, and its diversity and inclusion executive committee. During that period, Diane also chaired TheCityUK Cyber Security and Resilience Advisory Board and was a member of the European Central Bank (ECB) market infrastructure resilience advisory committee.
Job Titles:
- Associate of the Chartered Management Institute
- Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK
- Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute
- Head of Payments at Virgin Money
Dougie has over 35 years' banking experience having started with Clydesdale Bank in 1985 and has enjoyed a varied career path encompassing branch banking, sales and service support, relationship management, programme management and payments.
As Head of Payments at Virgin Money, Dougie was responsible for all payments functions across the wider group, incorporating Clydesdale Bank, Yorkshire Bank and Virgin Money, and the strategic integration of the various teams and functions into a single business.
A Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and an Associate of the Chartered Management Institute, Dougie has also served as a Pension Scheme Trustee and a Trustee Director of the Bank Workers Charity.
As Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK, Dougie will be responsible for ensuring that our payments processing and services remain robust and resilient, while driving his passion for people development to build and enhance the skills of his colleagues.
Gerry joined Pay.UK in August 2021. He has a strong background in governance, risk and control having been Head of Internal Audit for Network Rail - the multi-billion pound, UK infrastructure and transport business. He brings experience working with Critical National Infrastructure as well as large scale capital delivery programmes.
Gerry has worked both in the UK and internationally as Associate Director for EY, providing objective assurance and consulting support to organisations, making sure that an appropriate vision, strategy and framework is in place to minimise business risks. He has spent time assessing delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games construction, reviewing financial services firms' approach to risk and worked with mining organisations in Australia and telecommunications businesses' in South Africa and Europe.
Gerry is a Chartered Internal Auditor
Job Titles:
- Independent Non - Executive Director
Helen Crooks is an experienced data and digital leader. Her previous roles include Chief Data Officer at Ofgem and executive roles at Tesco and Virgin Media. She featured in the DataIQ100 power Titan list from 2017-2020, and was recognised with the DataIQ lifetime achievement award, in 2022. She also previously chaired the London Market Data Steering Board.
Helen chairs the External Advisory Group for the UK Parliament Digital Transformation Programme, is a Non-Executive Advisor for Parliament Digital Services, Advisor to Change Consultancy at Practicus and is an Advisor to Data Asset Management Consultancy at Anmut.
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Development Officer
Kate has worked in financial services for over 20 years. Through a number of diverse roles in marketing, product development, technology and payments, the common thread for Kate is the delivery of great customer journeys and solutions. Kate has a strong focus on innovation, driven by consumer demand and global market movements. Kate actively works with fintech companies and this has given her further insight into the types of problems that customers experience and how to go about providing relevant and meaningful solutions.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Board Director at Wise Payments Ltd
Lars is a Board Director at Wise Payments Ltd and TINV Europe AS. As Head of Product for Europe and the UK at Wise, formerly TransferWise, he leads teams focused on helping over 10 million people around the world move their money internationally as quickly, inexpensively and conveniently, as possible. Lars spearheaded the initiative of Wise joining the Bank of England's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system as the first Non-Bank Payment Service Provider, and as a direct customer of the Faster Payment System.
Before Wise, Lars founded Raudwara, an Estonian publishing house, authored several bestselling books in mathematics, and worked with the Walt Disney Company in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
He holds an MBA from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Job Titles:
- Accountant
- Independent Non - Executive Director
- Independent Non - Executive Director of the National Bank of Kuwait
Lesley joined the Board in January 2021 as an Independent Non-Executive Director. Lesley is a qualified accountant and has a strong financial services and regulatory background, including the Pensions Regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Currently, Lesley is an Independent Non-Executive Director of the National Bank of Kuwait (International Plc), a Trustee at StepChange, the debt advice charity, and a Governor of the University of Hertfordshire. She has recently been appointed as Chair of the Market Harborough Building Society. She is also a Trustee of Reading Force and the Parliament Choir, both of which are registered charities.
Lisa joined Pay.UK in October 2022 from Experian, where she was Global Head of Group Risk Management. She has extensive experience in governance & risk management, specialising in developing and implementing enterprise risk management and regulatory, operational risk and control frameworks in financial services and fintechs, including Worldpay, where she was Group Head of Enterprise Risk Management, and PwC. Her experience, alongside a keen interest in operational resilience, ideally places her to lead our strategic risk function and support our role as a systemic risk manager.
With over 20 years in the payments arena, Marc Pettican has seen significant development in technology and innovation across the industry, and has often been a driving force in shaping new propositions for Barclays' corporate portfolio (NFC, EMV, Data Security, eCommerce, Virtual Payments).
Marc joined Barclays more than 30 years ago and has extensive experience in acquiring, payment gateways, data security and commercial payments. He has undertaken a succession of senior coverage, leadership and general management roles, covering small businesses through to global corporates.
He spent two years overseeing the integration of The Logic Group technology provider into Barclaycard, and then moved to become President of Barclaycard Payments, driving the adoption of B2B and virtual payments, across all segments.
Since October 2022, Marc has held the position of Head of Barclaycard Payments, overseeing the end-to-end payments business, spanning issuing and acquiring for small businesses to large multinational corporates.
Outside of this, he serves as the Trustee of Northampton Sport (local Charity).
Mark was appointed Chair of Pay.UK in November 2020.
He is also Chair of the Financial Services Skills Commission and a member of PwC's Advisory Council. He recently retired as Chair of Flood Re and the Jersey Financial Services Commission.
Mark was the Member of Parliament for Fareham between 2001 and 2015 and was a minister in the UK's coalition government between 2010 and 2013.
Mark is a chartered accountant.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Executive Director
Michael is an experienced commercial finance professional and has worked in payments for 15 years. A chartered accountant, he was most recently Chief Financial Officer at Vocalink during its acquisition by Mastercard and subsequent integration. Michael has broad experience within finance, including in the fields of: strategy, mergers and acquisitions, finance transformation, planning, financial reporting, tax, and treasury. Prior to working in payments Michael gained experience in professional practice, logistics and chemicals sectors.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Independent Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director
Peter is an experienced Chair and Non-Executive Director with a current portfolio of appointments in the private, public and third sectors. These include Chair of NHS Blood and Transplant and Sir Richard Sutton Limited, and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is also Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset.
Peter was previously a senior partner at PwC, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Chair of the Care Quality Commission, Treasurer of Bath University and a Non-Executive Director at Companies House.
Job Titles:
- Chief People and Culture Officer
Sherree is an experienced Human Resources professional and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD), as well as an active member of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and Association for Coaching (MAC). With a career spanning over 20 years she has worked for organisations including BASF, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Barclays and has significant UK and international experience. She is an experienced HR Director, specialising in organisational development, and brings a strong focus and passion for talent development to Pay.UK. Sherree also has a strong interest in education and lifelong learning and is a Board member at Keele University.