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Information about Saffron Building Society
The Board of Saffron Building Society includes two full-time executive directors and six non-executive directors. The Chairman is responsible for leading the Board and is not involved in the day-to-day management of the Society. The Board is responsible for directing and supervising the Society. It sets the strategy for the business, ensures that the correct financial and human resources are in place for the Group to meet its objectives and reviews management performance.
Click on the images below to find out more information about each of the directors.
Nick has nearly 40 years’ experience in financial services, working primarily in the areas of treasury, capital markets, risk management, retail and commercial banking. Most recently he was CEO of AIB Group (UK) plc (2009 to 2012), a retail and commercial bank operating in Great Britain as Allied Irish Bank GB and in Northern Ireland as First Trust Bank. Previously he was AIB plc Group Chief Risk Officer (2008) and Group Treasurer (2001 to 2008).
From 1982 to 2001 he held a number of technical and managerial roles in treasury, asset and liability management, funding and trading for AIB plc. Nick retired from AIB in December 2012. Nick is a Non-Executive Director of Bank Leumi (UK) plc, of Eskmuir Property Group, of Cambridge & Counties Bank and a Trustee for a major family settlement. Nick joined the Board in March 2014 and was appointed Vice Chairman in May 2016 and became Chairman in April 2020 following Geoff Dunn’s retirement.
He is a Member of the Remuneration and Loans Committee and chairs the Nominations Committee. He is a Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Colin joined the Board in 2014 as Chief Financial Officer before being promoted to Chief Executive Officer in September 2015. Colin is passionate about developing the role of Saffron as a modern mutual business, providing service to new and existing Members and the wider community.
Prior to joining the Society, Colin held a number of senior finance positions with Barclays, Caudwell Group and Willis Group having previously qualified with PwC. Colin is a Chartered Accountant (FCA) and lives in North Essex.
Trevor joined the Board in June 2020 and has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry. His early career started in Yorkshire Bank where he was the Financial Controller and director of a number of Group companies, before being appointed as the Group Chief Accountant of the parent company, Clydesdale Bank PLC, in 2006. Trevor’s responsibilities at that time covered regulatory and financial reporting, as well as risk management oversight and a variety of other associated areas.
Trevor is a Chartered Management Accountant and a Chartered Banker and immediately prior to joining the Society had been the Finance Director at Ipswich Building Society since December 2017.
Gary is an IT leader with 30 years’ experience in industry including retail, manufacturing, health and services. As IT Director at the National Blood Service (NBS) he led the successful implementation of the award winning Pulse programme which created a single system for managing the blood supply in England, from donor to hospital. After leaving the NBS he joined Welcome Break, the Motorway Services provider, completely refreshing and replacing the business systems. He then went on to lead the IT team at Sodexo UK & Ireland running a variety of systems over 2,000 sites. He started to work for WM Morrisons in 2006, as IT Director where he was key to the launching and leading of the Evolve programme, one of Europe’s largest retail IT transformations. After leaving WM Morrisons he joined Dixons Group the electrical retailer as Group IT Director.
In 2014 he decided that after 25 years in operational IT management it was time for a change and is pursuing a consulting and a non-executive career. He was a Governor at Bedfordshire University and the Lantern School Ely, and was a Director of Cambridge Rugby Union Football Club.
Neil is a Chartered Accountant with 40 years’ experience in financial services. After qualifying with Thomson McLintock & Co (now KPMG) he held a number of executive roles in financial services mainly in financial control and risk management with JP Morgan, Hambros Bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank and Standard Bank Group. After leaving Standard Bank in 2006 Neil set up his own risk and governance advisory business consisting of non-executive directorships and advisory work for other clients.
Neil is a non-executive director of IntegraFin Holdings plc, Stanbic International Insurance Limited, Sberbank CIB (UK) Limited, and AlbaCo Limited and chairs various Board Committees in these companies.
Neil joined the Board in March 2014 and chairs the Audit Committee. Neil also chairs the Society’s Pension Scheme.
David is a risk management leader with 40 years’ experience in financial services across both consumer and corporate lending in the UK and across Europe.
His executive career includes both risk management and business leadership roles within Lloyd’s Banking Group (1988-2000) where he was Credit and Risk Director of the Asset Finance division and GE Capital (2000-2016) where latterly he was CRO of the European Leasing division, Managing Director of the Green Financing division and CRO and Management Board Member of GE’s Dutch bank, Artesia.
From 2016, David was CEO and from 2019 a NonExecutive Director of Allium Lending Group
Robin joined the Board in January 2021 bringing over 20 years’ experience in senior financial services roles. His early career was spent in consulting with Touche Ross and then in retail with the Sears Group. In 1997 he joined the Barclays Bank Group and held senior roles in its credit card business, as Deputy Finance Director at Barclaycard and as Chief Financial Officer of Barclays Private Bank. In 2002 he joined Scarborough Building Society as CFO becoming CEO in 2008 prior to its merger with Skipton Building Society where he became Commercial Director.
In 2012 he joined Leeds Building Society where he was Chief Financial Officer. Robin is a Chartered Management Accountant
Jenny is a marketing and commercial leader with over 25 years’ experience spanning consumer goods, media and oil/utilities. Jenny studied Chemistry and later an MBA, leading to an early career in sales and marketing with British Gas and Shell Oil. She has served as a senior Commercial Leader and Chief Marketing Officer in Procter & Gamble, Mars, Yell Group and SSE. She now runs her own business consulting across business and charitable sectors with a focus on marketing strategy, innovative propositions and the implications of digital marketing on sales, products and customer service.
In addition to her Non-Executive roles at Saffron Building Society, she is also Non-Executive Director of Commonwealth Games England.
Jenny joined the Board in 2015 and chairs the Remuneration and Loans Committee.
Jenny became Senior Independent Director and was appointed Vice Chair in May 2020.
Antony joined the Executive Team in September 2015 as IT Director, responsible for IT at Saffron.
He joined Saffron in 2011 as the Chief Architect for the Technology Transformation programme and is a senior IT professional with over 20 years’ experience in industry, including education, commercial and financial sectors.
John Penberthy-Smith was appointed as Chief Commercial Officer in April 2020.
John is a customer centric commercial leader, with a track record of connecting businesses with their consumers. His executive career spans, retail, telecoms, public sector and financial services including senior roles at Dixons Stores Group, Vodafone, Three, Eircom and the Money Advice Service.
Rajeev joined the Executive Team as Chief Risk Officer in January 2019, responsible for all risk entered into by Saffron.
He was previously the Head of Credit Risk and has also worked at Santander, Nationwide and Barclaycard, across both secured and unsecured lending.
Our people are our greatest asset so we’d like to introduce you to some of them.
Meet the Saffron teamFor details of the companies included in the SBS Group please see our SBS Group Structure.
SBS group structureSaffron Building Society is your regional building society that understands your needs. We pride ourselves on being a mutual organisation, which means we're owned by you, our members and exist solely for your benefit.
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