BRITISH BUSINESS BANK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Deputy General Counsel
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Alice was appointed Deputy General Counsel in August 2023. She has over 20 years legal experience within the financial services sector both in-house and in private practice.
Alice joined the British Business Bank in July 2016, leading on corporate matters and the delivery of Bank-wide debt and guarantee products to specialist banks and alternative lenders. She has been an adviser to boards and senior government stakeholders on a broad range of matters. Prior to this, she worked within a leading UK law firm as a senior lawyer within their securitisation team, leading transactions and advising institutions (both on and off deal) through significant periods of change.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Operational Control
Alison has extensive multinational experience within Audit and Risk Management, predominantly in the FMCG and Financial Services sectors.
Before taking on this role, Alison was Managing Director, Internal Audit at the Bank for nearly 8 years.
Immediately prior to joining the British Business Bank, Alison was Head of Group Internal Audit/Risk at the London Stock Exchange Group.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, IT Infrastructure and Operations
Andy is the Managing Director for Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure and Operations, having joined the Bank in 2020, initially as the IT Service Delivery Director.
Andy has responsibility for the development and delivery of the IT Strategy and leads the functions that deliver our IT services and maintain our Information Security.
Prior to joining the Bank, Andy held a number of senior IT management positions across Government, Health, Construction and Financial Services sectors, working across the UK and mainland Europe.
Job Titles:
- Chief Customer Officer
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Angelene Woodland is the Chief Customer Officer at the British Business Bank, having joined in April 2019.
She is responsible for creating and delivering the Bank's market engagement strategy and is responsible for Brand Marketing, Communications, Digital & Direct Marketing, Sustainability, Partnership Marketing, Public Affairs, and the regionally based UK Network team.
She is focused on delivering the Bank's mission for our customers, to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses.
Angelene is dedicated to driving and evidencing positive impact and outcomes for the Bank and its customers.
Her passion lies in driving change to instigate transformative shifts in behaviour and culture that will benefit our colleagues, our customers and our sustainability goals.
With an extensive career spanning over 25 years in the field of marketing, Angelene has brought a wealth of expertise to the Bank.
Encompassing stints on both agency and client side, Angelene has contributed to the success of notable organisations such as Bupa UK, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group, and the British School of Paris.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director and Chair of People and Remuneration Committee
Barbara is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair who has worked extensively with SMEs, third sector and PLCs in regulated sectors, international private companies and venture capital specialists.
Amongst other roles, Barbara is currently Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit & Risk at Sovereign Housing Association, Independent Board Member and Chair of Audit & Risk at SmartDCC Ltd and Non-Executive Director at BSC 2 VCT.
Her expertise includes innovation for growth and sustainability including ESG, strategic planning, start-up acceleration and business transformation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Risk & Compliance
Barry has over 20 years experience within financial services and is responsible for providing strategic risk leadership and implementing the Bank's Risk Strategy. The Bank's Risk Strategy ensures that the approach to risk management considers the organisation's risk appetite and strategic objectives.
Barry joined the British Business Bank in June 2014. Prior to this, he worked within the credit risk team during the wind down of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's UK portfolio, and also in an advisory capacity at National Australia Bank on the sale of a UK real estate portfolio. Prior to moving into risk management, Barry worked for 7 years within the wealth management arm at Deutsche Bank, London.
Barry holds a degree in Economics and Spanish from University of Sheffield and is a certified FRM.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director Fraud and Financial Crime
Carys trained in the military, before qualifying as a barrister specialising in fraud and financial crime and then moving to lead fraud and financial crime teams in financial institutions such as HSBC and Santander.
Job Titles:
- Chief Risk Officer
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Chantal has over 30 years banking and finance experience. Prior to joining the British Business Bank, she was CRO at Lumon Pay, a private equity-backed firm that provides payment services and foreign exchange to private individuals, small businesses and institutions. As part of her role, Chantal built their risk function from scratch and established the firm's enterprise risk management framework, focusing her attention on embedding a strong risk awareness culture throughout the firm.
Before her role at Lumon, Chantal was CRO for Homes England. She has also held senior roles at the Co-Operative Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, where she was Chief Credit Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, KPMG's risk advisory practice, and UK and European banks including NatWest, Deutsche and Dresdner.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Finance
- Leader
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
David Hourican was appointed CFO in December 2022. David is an experienced finance leader having started his career as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse and spent his early career in business development for the Home Retail Group plc before moving into banking, where he held various senior finance roles with Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc in both Dublin and Singapore.
Before joining the Bank, David was Chief Operating Officer of the Warburton Group, a private investment group based in Australia and prior to that was CFO of Kingfisher Investments and Chief Administrative Officer of Al-Futtaim Group in Singapore.
David holds a Bachelor's in Business Studies from Trinity College Dublin and a Master of Accountancy from University College Dublin.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
Eilish is an experienced Audit and Finance Professional with over 25 years' experience working in financial services, and more recently serving on public and private sector boards.
Until 2016, Eilish was Head of Audit at Goldman Sachs where she led strategic initiatives around internal control, risk management, change and transformation, culture and governance for over a decade. Amongst other roles, she has been a Non-Executive Director at the Financial Reporting Council, the UK regulatory body responsible for promoting high quality corporate governance and reporting, and a Non-Executive Director at Sport England, a non-departmental public body responsibility for developing grassroots sports. She is a trustee at Plan International UK, a leading charity working with children in the UK and developing countries and is the founder of a leadership development practice working with social impact and female founded businesses.
Eilish started her career at KPMG, undertaking a variety of roles across their financial services and consulting businesses, before moving to their Australian practice where she led an international client portfolio which included investment management, pension, and insurance companies.
Eilish holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a postgraduate degree in Organisational Psychology from the University of London.
She is a qualified chartered accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Esi Eshun - Chief Legal Officer, Secretary
Job Titles:
- Company Secretary
- General Counsel
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Esi will take up the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary in November 2023.
Prior to joining the British Business Bank, Esi was the Interim Director of Business Group at UK Export Finance, with oversight of the department's underwriting, origination, marketing, and communications. Esi is also a member of UKEF's Executive Committee. Since joining UK Export Finance in 2009, Esi has held multiple senior roles in the department, including Director of Legal and Compliance, and specialises in international project finance transactions. Esi began her career in law at Simmons and Simmons and holds a masters level degree in Geological Sciences from Exeter College, University of Oxford.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Interim Chief Strategy Officer
Graeme Fisher is responsible for the Bank's policy and government relations team, leading our interactions with our government and other stakeholders and efforts to explain and raise the profile of our work.
Prior to joining the Bank in 2016, Graeme led the Federation of Small Businesses' Westminster office, overseeing a team of policy, public affairs and media experts to raise the profile of issues facing smaller businesses in Whitehall and with senior Ministers. He also had first-hand experience of small business by setting up and growing his own enterprise. He has spent nearly 10 years in a range of government policy roles mainly in HM Treasury, including leading work on the financial services test, one of the ‘Five Tests' for euro entry, authoring a paper on EU economic reform and developing environmental tax policy.
Graeme holds a degree in Economics from Heriot Watt University and a MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
James started his first company Fetch, a digital growth agency that grew across three continents, surpassing £250m in turnover. At Fetch, James personally advised some of the world's most successful internet companies including Apple, Facebook and Expedia Group before successfully exiting the business to Dentsu Inc in 2018. James is an active investor in early stage companies and recently co-founded Charlie Oscar, a digital brands group that invest in and scale breakout digital brands, powered by data science.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Representative Director
- Shareholder
Jamie is a Director at UK Government Investments (UKGI) where he has worked since October 2016, where he also leads the Corporate Governance practice and management of the portfolio, and until July 2021 was a Non-executive Director on the Board of the Royal Mint.
Prior to joining UKGI, he spent 10 years at HM Treasury where he specialised in public spending, including being involved in several spending reviews and major infrastructure policy. During this period, Jamie took a two-year career break to work as a Governance Specialist at the World Bank based in Jakarta.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Trustee
- Investment Banker
- Non - Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee
Jenny Knott is both a board level investment banker with over 30 years' experience, as well as a leading innovator in financial technologies.
Jenny has extensive board experience having served on Boards of Global Investment Banks, Corporates and Charitable organisations for over 25 years.
Jenny is a Trustee and the Chair of the Board Audit and Risk Committee for OCA, a scientific research charity for female cancers. As the Chairwoman of Equiida, a global, senior executive leadership advisory firm, she promotes the science that greater inclusivity improves business performance and innovation. Jenny is a Nonexecutive director (NED) for Simply Health, a 150 year-old mutual with the purpose to improve health outcomes for the many, and she is particularly focused on their digital services strategy. Jenny is also an independent NED and the Chair of the Remuneration Committee for Gresham Technology plc, a software business who bring confidence and trust to data. Jenny is a co-founder of FinTech Strategic Advisors, assisting Clients with their FinTech investment and adoption strategies and supporting start-ups to achieve scale and commercial success.
As an investment banker, Jenny was CEO of a UK and International Investment bank, Finance Director and COO; she is widely respected for leading the modernisation and transformation of her organizations and for her knowledge of technical finance, emerging technology and regulatory environments.
Jenny believes in stakeholder capitalism and supports the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Capitalism and ESG Metrics as being a ‘must' for a successful business to thrive and survive. Jenny acts as mentor and advisor to a number of CEOs and is a frequent public speaker on emerging FinTech as well as the commercial benefits of truly innovative and inclusive Board and Corporate cultures.
Job Titles:
- Chief People Officer
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Prior to joining the British Business Bank, Karen was Human Resources Director and a member of the Executive Committee at WH Ireland, a private wealth management, financial planning and capital markets services company. Prior to joining WH Ireland, Karen was Head of Human Resources at Merian Global Investors where she focussed on organisational effectiveness, culture, talent acquisition, and supporting multiple business change agendas. Karen began her career working within a large team at the Department for Education. Karen holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management from Middlesex University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Venture Capital Solutions
Ken Cooper is responsible for the design and delivery of a range of British Business Bank programmes that support the flow of venture investment into smaller UK businesses.
Ken has been responsible for designing and managing a range of UK Government-backed equity support programmes such as the Angel Co-Fund, the Enterprise Capital Funds and the VC Catalyst. These provide more than £2bn of finance to smaller businesses with a further £200m committed to venture funds annually.
Previously Ken had a similar role in Capital for Enterprise and before that was responsible for the UK Government's SME finance policy within the Small Business Service.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Trustee of the Charity Sightsavers
Louis Taylor is CEO of the British Business Bank. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK's export credit agency, for seven years. He also held roles as a Director General in the Department for International Trade, and a member of its Executive Committee and Management Board.
Before joining UKEF, Louis held a range of senior roles at Standard Chartered Bank, including from 2013 to 2015 as Chief Operating Officer of Group Treasury, based in London. Before that, he spent three years as the bank's CEO for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, based in Ho Chi Minh City. During this time he was also Vice Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham). He joined Standard Chartered in London in 2004, working in Group Corporate Development, which undertakes the bank's acquisitions, divestments and other inorganic growth initiatives.
His earlier career included eight years working for JP Morgan in debt capital markets and mergers and acquisitions, and five years in corporate development and strategy with two industrial companies, Cookson Group plc and BTR plc.
Louis is a trustee of the charity Sightsavers, which prevents sight loss and avoidable blindness, and promotes equal rights for the disabled. He is also a former chair of trustees of the charity Music in Prisons, which runs music education projects to help rehabilitate offenders, and a former chair of governors of the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. He has an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Commercial Managing Director, Small Business Lending
Louise joined the British Business Bank in January 2016 as the Start Up Loans Account Director and was appointed Commercial Managing Director in Small Business Lending in May 2023. Louise has over 20 years of financial services experience and has previously worked in various relationship management, customer service and MI roles, including at Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Middle Office
Mark joined British Business Bank in October 2022 as the Managing Director of Middle Office.
With over 30 years Financial Industry tenure, Mark has extensive experience building Operational teams and implementing systems, most recently with one of the Banks delivery partners, Cynergy Bank. Previously, Mark spent 25 years with Barclays across multiple disciplines as well as roles with Co-Operative Bank and Swinton Group.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Technology Delivery
Martin is the Managing Director - Technology Delivery having joined the Bank in 2020 initially as the Technology Delivery Director.
Martin has responsibility for the development and delivery of the IT Strategy partnering with business leaders to set the target technology architecture and leading the teams that deliver the technology changes required.
Martin has over 25 years' experience in technology strategy, software development, and managing technology change in the financial services sector.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
- Senior Banker
Matthew has worked as a senior banker and financial regulator in the UK, EU and Bermuda.
Matthew was a member of the Management Board of Nordea between 2016 and 2022, most recently serving as Chief Risk Officer. Previously he was at Lloyds Banking Group in the role of Group Director, Conduct, Compliance and Operational Risk.
Matthew was Deputy Governor and Member of the Commission (Board) of the Central Bank of Ireland between 2010 and 2013. During this period, he served as Deputy Chairman of the European Banking Authority (EBA). He was also a member of the Managing Board of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the Board of Supervisors of the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA).
Matthew was also Chief Executive of the Bermuda Monetary Authority and worked at the UK Financial Services Authority in a number of roles involving banking supervision, markets policy and exchange and clearing house supervision.
He is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Cambridge University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Non - Executive Director
Nat worked in the private sector as an entrepreneur, consultant and venture capitalist. He remains an active investor in alternative assets.
Since 2002, Nat has been active in the social impact market. He co-founded Impetus Trust, the first UK venture philanthropy trust fund. He was a founding trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation and chaired the finance and endowment committee. He has been the founding Chair of Social and Sustainable Capital, one of the largest social impact investing funds in the UK. Nat chaired the National Lottery Community Fund in England.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Senior Independent Director and Chair of Risk Committee
Neeta is an experienced Risk Professional with over 25 years experience working in the financial services private and public sectors across a range of risk disciplines.
Until the end of 2016, Neeta was the Chief Risk Officer at TSB Bank plc and was a key member of the Executive team that was responsible for creating the bank that was divested from Lloyds Banking Group and undertaking a successful IPO in 2014. She is currently on the Board of Quilter plc and is a member of its Board Audit Committee, Board Risk Committee and Board Technology and Operations Committee.
Neeta started her career at the Bank of England, undertaking a variety of roles both in the Bank's own banking department and in its supervisory function. She moved to the FSA on its creation, leaving in 2000 to move into consulting where she worked with a range of financial service clients on risk and regulatory matters. Thereafter, she has held senior positions at both banks and insurance companies, in a range of roles covering operational, credit and regulatory risks.
Neeta holds a BSc in Accounting and Law from Southampton University. She has been a Justice of the Peace for 20 years.
Job Titles:
- Deputy General Counsel
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Oonagh joined the British Business Bank in November 2016 as a Director in the Legal team and was appointed Managing Director, Legal & Governance in August 2023. With a background in structured finance, Oonagh previously worked in house in investment banking for over 20 years, primarily at RBS Markets in London and Asia, having qualified originally with City law firm Simmons & Simmons.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
Paddy is our Chief Operating Officer and joined us in 2016. Paddy initially held the Change Director role developing the Bank's project delivery capability. He now leads our Operations function responsible for IT, Information Security, Data Management Office and Operational Control.
He has over 20 years' experience in Financial Services, previously working for KPMG as a management consultant and before that with Nationwide Building Society.
Paddy has led a range of advisory and transformation initiatives, including digital transformation, data, technology , market entry strategies and customer experience. At Nationwide Building Society Paddy worked across various teams and was involved in one of the largest UK core banking programmes.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Internal Audit
Rebecca joined British Business Bank in May 2021 as the Internal Audit Director and was appointed Internal Audit Managing Director in January 2023. Rebecca has over 15 years of Internal Audit and Risk experience in the Financial Services sector. Rebecca is a chartered accountant and spent her early career working in financial reporting auditing and accounts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Small Business Lending
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Data Management Office
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Core Finance
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, Sustainability
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Leadership Team
- Managing Director, UK Network
British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at www.british-business-bank.co.uk