Board and Management

Mark Stephens

Non-Executive Chairman

Mark is currently the Chair of the Board Risk Committee of Birmingham Bank and has over 30 years’ of experience in UK banking across a wide range of functional areas. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Allica Bank and of Harrods Bank, and prior to those was Deputy CEO and one of the founders of Aldermore Bank.

Committees:

• Board Risk Committee
• Board Audit Committee
• Remuneration Committee (Chair)
• Nomination Committee (Chair)

Carl D’Ammassa

Chief Executive Officer

Carl has more than 25 years’ experience working in commercial and SME finance, with extensive divisional managing director and CEO experience built across a number of UK based businesses. Carl previously held the position of CEO at White Oak UK, a specialist lender to SMEs. Prior to this Carl was Group Managing Director at Aldermore Bank, leading its growing business lending franchise. He spent over a decade at GE Capital, and later took roles at Hitachi Capital and Hydrex Ltd. Carl has previously been Chair and a Board Director of The Leasing Foundation and was a Non-Executive Director of AFS Group Holdings Ltd.

Gavin Morris

Chief Financial Officer

Gavin was appointed Chief Financial Officer in May 2018 and possesses over 25 years’ of financial services experience across banking and commercial and SME lending. Gavin has deep finance expertise in a regulated environment from his time at GE Capital Bank in the role of Acting CFO and in a number of “Head of” finance roles including Treasury, Regulatory Reporting, Controllership, Pricing and FP&A. Gavin is a qualified chartered accountant and spent 10 years with KPMG.

Nicole Coll

Independent Non-Executive Director

Nicole is a qualified chartered accountant with over 20 years’ global financial services experience, including serving as Chief Finance Officer at Bank and Clients PLC, Chief Financial Accountant at the Bank of England and senior finance roles at Société Générale.

Nicole is currently a non-executive director of Dudley Building Society where she is deputy chair, senior independent non-executive director and chair of the audit committee. In addition, she is an independent member of the audit, risk and compliance committee at Charities Aid Foundation.

Committees:

• Board Risk Committee
• Board Audit Committee (Chair)
• Remuneration Committee
• Nomination Committee

Thomas Grathwohl

Independent Non-Executive Director

Tom is a former GE Capital Senior Managing Director with over 40 years’ of distribution finance industry experience. Tom assisted in the sale process of GE Capital Commercial Distribution Finance to Wells Fargo in 2016. During his tenure at Wells Fargo, Tom assisted in the global integration of the GE Capital Commercial Distribution Finance Business.

Committees:

• Board Audit Committee
• Board Risk Committee
• Remuneration Committee
• Nomination Committee

Sheryl Lawrence

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Sheryl is a chartered accountant and holds an MBA from London Business School and an LLM from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. She has held senior executive roles at Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Santander, Coventry Building Society, Nationwide Building Society and Provident Financial Group. Sheryl began her banking career at NatWest Bank in 1996, after 11 years’ multi-sector experience with Coopers & Lybrand.

Sheryl is an independent non-executive director of Morses Club PLC and RCI Bank UK Ltd, chairs the board audit committee of both firms and chairs the remuneration and people committee at RCI Bank UK Ltd.

Committees:

• Board Risk Committee (Chair)
• Board Audit Committee
• Remuneration Committee
• Nomination Committee

Haakon Stenrød

Non-Executive Director

Haakon is an Investment Director at Watrium AS and a Board Member for Ultimovacs, a cancer biotech company listed in Oslo. He was previously a partner with ABG Sundal Collier, the leading Nordic investment banking group. He has broad transaction experience in M&A, equity capital markets, debt and restructuring advisory. He holds an M.Sc. in Industrial Economics and Technology Management from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Goi Ashmore

Chief Risk Officer

Goi joined us in August 2023 most recently from Metro Bank (UK), where he was responsible for second line of defence for financial, prudential and strategic risks and prior to that the position of Chief Risk Officer at Bank North, based in Manchester. Goi has over 18 years’ senior management experience in Risk and Treasury gained at Barclays, and Atradius, including holding senior risk management responsibilities, including Underwriting, Compliance and Financial Crime. He has in-depth experience of implementing systems and controls in a regulated environment, and a thorough understanding of cyber security in the sector.

Goi has held a number of non-executive positions in the third sector including chairing the Audit and Risk Committee for Shelter and Treasury Committee for Riverside Housing Group. He is currently Treasurer and Pro Chancellor Elect for Swansea University.

Paul Atherton

Director - Operations

Paul has more than 15 years’ experience within the banking and financial services industry and is a senior operations and project leader with a proven track record within start-up and challenger banks during the design, implementation and growth phases. Part of the mobilisation team at OakNorth and later Head of Operations as well as holding various Operational and Transformation leadership roles at Aldermore Bank, Paul has led customer services and collections, lending and savings products, cash and treasury operations, data management and transformation and change.

Richard Baxter

Chief Credit Officer

Richard has over 30 years’ commercial, risk and business change experience, across the asset based lending (ABL), SME finance and the wider banking spaces. Richard has previously held roles at Aldermore where he led the portfolio risk team, covering the invoice and specialist finance product lines. Before Aldermore, he built a strong portfolio of experience at the Royal Bank of Scotland in its ABL, invoice discounting and working capital product divisions.

Garry Frew

Chief Commercial Officer

Garry has over 17 years’ experience in global business finance with a focus on building customer relationships at a senior level. He has previously held positions at Wells Fargo as strategic relationship leader where he managed a large team and was for responsible for a $3 billion global portfolio, and GE Capital where he held a number of director-level roles focused on managing key accounts and delivering strategic targets.

Garry has an executive MBA from London Business School and extensive experience of financial planning, analysis and reporting.

Charlie Michael

Chief Sustainability & People Officer

Charlie has more than 20 years’ financial services experience, including ten years at Aldermore Bank as well as spending time at Merrill Lynch and Formation Asset Management. Charlie has worked across all HR disciplines, including business partnering, HR support services, training and development, as well as talent management and recruitment. Charlie is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.