Executive Moves:
Senior Appointments in Financial Services
Welcome to our insights into C-suite and executive movements across Financial Services.
In this edition of our ongoing series tracking senior leadership transitions, we highlight some of the key appointments and moves announced between April and June 2026.
Building on momentum in Q1, senior leadership hiring this quarter has remained strong across financial services. Changing market conditions, increased regulatory scrutiny, and overall growing confidence, as noted in The Guardian’s City coverage, continue to drive demand with organisations continuing to invest in senior talent to navigate change and seize new opportunities.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Board appointments remain a strong feature this quarter, reflecting organisations’ ongoing focus on strategic execution. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) hiring has also remained active, with around one-third of the appointments we tracked resulting from internal succession. This reflects a growing emphasis on developing leadership pipelines, a theme explored further in our recent article, ‘CFO Succession Strategy‘. At the same time, the route from CFO to CEO continues to gain momentum, with finance leaders taking on broader strategic responsibilities, as discussed in our article on ‘Mastering the transition from CFO to CEO’.
Another notable trend this quarter is the continued level of movement in human resources and reward leadership. Similar to CFO moves, a key theme among Chief People Officer (CPO) appointments this quarter is that many of these roles have been filled through internal promotions or moves within the same organisation, highlighting the importance firms are placing on retaining knowledge while strengthening their leadership teams.
More broadly, most executive moves continue to take place within the financial services sector, with leaders typically moving between adjacent subsectors rather than leaving the industry altogether. We explore sector-bound hiring in more detail in our recent article on ‘The future of CPO hiring’.
Overall, leadership movements this quarter reinforce the sector’s continued focus on succession, continuity, and deep industry expertise as organisations adapt to an evolving market and position themselves for future growth.
In this report, we highlight leadership moves across:
- CEO & Board
- Human Resources & Reward
- Finance
- Digital & Technology
You can also view last quarter’s executive moves here
If you’re looking to partner on upcoming appointments or succession planning, please get in touch.
- Annette Barnes: Appointed permanent CEO of Leeds Building Society after serving as Interim CEO since June 2025, marking the first female CEO appointment in the organisation’s 151-year history.
- Christian Hoffman: Appointed Global CEO of Commercial Risk at Aon, having previously served as Global Specialty & Financial Products Leader and Head of M&A for North America.
- Enrique Alvarez Labiano: Named CEO of OSB Group, effective September 2026, moving from his role as CEO of Retail and Business Banking at Santander UK.
- Aimee Gethin: Appointed CEO of Zuto, the leading car finance fintech. Aimee joined the business in 2015 and has served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) since 2020.
- William Lin: Named independent Non-Executive Director (NED) of Schroders, effective May 2026. He will also join the Nomination and Governance Committee.
- Kennedy Okwudili: Appointed Executive Director of Zenith Bank, in a move aimed at strengthening its senior management team and supporting its internal leadership pipeline.
- Tanate Phutrakul: Named independent NED of Standard Chartered and will join the Audit and Board Risk Committees.
- Rachel Kentleton: Appointed independent NED and Chair of the Audit Committee at Shaftesbury Capital.
- Elizabeth Chambers: Appointed to the Board as an independent NED at AJ Bell.
- James Barnard: Named Group CEO of InsurTech Open GI, having previously served as COO for Aviva General Insurance. He will succeed Simon Badley to lead the company’s next phase of growth.
- Richard Fearon: Appointed NED of Nottingham Building Society, effective September 2026.
- Danuta Gray: Appointed NED of Lloyds Banking Group and member of its Responsible Business Committee.
Human Resources & Reward
- Shahina Kasak: Named permanent CPO of W1M following a period as Interim CPO at the same organisation.
- Caroline Smith: Appointed CPO of Barclaycard Payments, having previously served as CPO at esure Group.
- Eleanor Tanner: Named CPO of Thomas Miller, having previously held the Director of People role at law firm Shoosmiths.
- Gail Stanley: Appointed HR Director for the International and Global Facultative businesses at Gallagher Re, having previously held senior HR positions at KPMG, Noor Bank and Barclays.
- Louisa Meyer: Appointed CPO of global online trading and investments company IG Group, having previously spent nearly 11 years with Flutter Entertainment, including five years as CPO.
- Sian Myers: Appointed CPO of Railpen, the manager of the UK railway pension scheme. Sian joins from insurance company Ageas UK, where she also held the CPO role.
- Faye Farrant: Named CPO of Shackleton, a British financial adviser, having spent four years at Schroders Personal Wealth, now Lloyds Wealth, also as CPO.
- Kim Randers: Appointed CPO of Moneycorp, having previously held the same title at Service Express.
- Claire Mogford: Appointed CPO of Aviva Investors. Claire joins from Aviva’s wealth business, where she was People Director.
- Tom Stevenson: Appointed CPO for Reinsurance International at Aon, having previously held the Lead People Partner role within Reinsurance Solutions UK.
- Stephen Forbes: Named Group Reward Director of Legal & General, effective 1 July. Stephen has been working as a consultant with 3XO since leaving Credit Suisse in 2023.
- Cara Bell: Named CFO of Nottingham Building Society. Cara brings experience across regulated banking, fintech, asset management and global mid-cap organisations, and most recently served as Group CFO of Iris Worldwide.
- Stephen Williams: Appointed CFO of Tees, a legal and financial services provider, moving from TECNIQ, where he also served as CFO.
- John Hourican: Named CFO of CVC Capital Partners and appointed to the Board, effective September 2026. John was previously CEO of NewDay, where he led the business since 2019.
- Manus Costello: Appointed Group CFO and Executive Director of the Board of Standard Chartered. Manus takes up the role after joining the company in April 2024 as Global Head of Investor Relations.
- Nathan Bavidge: Named CFO of Clear Group. He is currently CFO at Three Rock Group, the parent company of Chill Insurance, Quote Devil Insurance and Ivernia MGA.
- Guy Stevens: Appointed Group CFO of TBC Bank Group. He brings extensive experience from senior financial institution advisory roles at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Deloitte and UBS.
- Din Mustaffa: Appointed CFO of Evelyn Partners, having previously served as Deputy CFO. The appointment follows NatWest Group’s acquisition, expected in summer 2026.
- Adam Royal: Appointed CFO of GB Bank, having previously served as Head of Finance within the business.
- Rachel Lawrence: Announced her intention to retire as CFO of Secure Trust Bank after six years in the role. She is expected to step down in 2027.
- Navneet Govil: Set to depart as CFO of SoftBank Investment Advisors, the manager of the SoftBank Vision Fund, after a decade with the organisation.
- Parker Wertz: Appointed CFO of Aberdeen Investments’ asset management business. He joins from BNY, where he was Head of Finance for International and CFO of Newton Investment Management.
- May Wong: Appointed CFO of BMW Group Financial Services and Alphabet in the UK and Ireland. She joins from BMW Group Financial Services Australia, where she currently serves as CEO.
Digital & Technology
- Phil Young: Appointed Chief Information Officer (CIO) of MS Amlin, having previously held senior technology roles at organisations including Virgin Group, Transport for London and Amazon Web Services.
- Donato Lucia: Named Vice President of Technology at Revolut, having previously held the Head of Technology role and following co-founder Vlad Yatsenko’s move into a NED position.
- Michael Spiteri: Appointed Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Legal & General, having previously served as Managing Director for the Group’s Digital Platform.
- Mark Topham: Appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO), Retail at Investec, having previously served as CTO, CIO and, most recently, COO of Sainsbury’s Bank.
- Steve Coldwell: Appointed Interim CTO of Chaucer Group, having previously served as Head of IT at insurer Apollo.
- Sameer Gupta: Appointed Chief Data and AI Officer at Lloyds Banking Group, joining from DBS Bank, where he most recently served as Managing Director and Chief Analytics Officer.
- Mark Lewis: Appointed Interim CTO at Coventry Building Society, having previously served as CIO, Global Finance and Cross Functions Technology at HSBC.
- Jason Selby: Appointed CTO at Ageas UK, having previously held technology leadership positions at St. James’s Place, HSBC and Aviva.
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