Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Chairman operating in the Banking space. If you think a Chairman is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Cyrus Ardalan
Chairman of OakNorth
Follow Cyrus Ardalan:
About : OakNorth is the creator of the ON Credit Intelligence Suite – proven cloud software that transforms commercial lending
Darren Campili
Vice Chairman, European Healthcare Investment Banking of Barclays
Follow Darren Campili:
About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Ken Brown
Chairman of Equity Capital Markets for Europe and the Middle East of Barclays
Follow Ken Brown:
About Barclays: Barclays is a global financial services company that provides various financial products and services worldwide.
Matt Cooper
Chairman of Tandem
Matt Cooper is Chairman of Octopus. Before joining Octopus, Matt was Principal Managing Director of Capital One Bank (Europe) where he led the team guiding strategy and operations. He helped the UK arm grow from a start-up to a business employing more than 2,000 people and generating over £275 million in revenue.
Follow Matt Cooper:
About Imaginatik, Tandem, VouchedFor: Tandem is building a bank and financial management universe, focused on freeing users from financial stress by making money simple.
Jonathan Symonds
Deputy Group Chairman of HSBC
Jonathan Symonds CBE was appointed as Deputy Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc in August 2018 and has been an independent non-executive Director since April 2014. He has extensive international financial and governance experience. Mr Symonds was previously Chairman of HSBC Bank plc, HSBC’s European subsidiary, which offers services to clients in the UK and Continental Europe. Mr Symonds was Chief Financial Officer of Novartis AG from 2009 to 2013. Before joining Novartis he was a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs; Chief Financial Officer of AstraZeneca plc; and a Partner at KPMG. His governance experience includes roles as non-executive Director and chair of the audit committees of Diageo plc and QinetiQ plc. He is currently Chairman of Proteus Digital Health Inc. and of Genomics England Limited. He is also a non-executive director of Rubius Therapeutics, Inc. Mr Symonds is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has a BA, First Class Honours in Business Finance from the University of Hertfordshire.
Follow Jonathan Symonds:
About HSBC: HSBC is a banking and financial services organization that offers a comprehensive range of services.
Stefano Marsaglia
Chairman, Global FIG of Barclays Investment Bank
Mediobanca SpA, Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank, hired Barclays Plc’s Stefano Marsaglia to be co-head of corporate and investment banking. Marsaglia will be based in London, and will report to Alberto Nagel, Mediobanca’s chief executive officer and the other co-head of corporate and investment banking. Mediobanca will use the hire to expand its London presence while making the city its European center for all sector and capital-markets teams, according to the statement. The strategy includes a focus on the region’s financial institutions.
Follow Stefano Marsaglia:
About Barclays Investment Bank: Barclays Investment Bank offers large corporate clients with strategic advisory, financing, and risk management solutions.
Marc Deschamps
Managing Partner & Executive Chairman of Drake Star Partners
Marc Deschamps is Managing Partner & Executive Chairman of Drake Star Partners. Marc combines a highly successful internet entrepreneurial and corporate leadership track record, with an award-winning M&A career dedicated to the tech and internet sectors. Prior to Drake Star Partners, Marc co-founded LD&A Jupiter in 2004, leading over 70 M&A and private equity international transactions. Marc’s career is all committed to the growth of tech and internet companies. Prior to co-founding Drake Star Partners, Marc served as COO of British Telecom, where he led the broadband internet multi-billion-pound launch and roll out in the UK. He also was Chello NV’s Co-Founder, the first broadband ISP and one of the first unicorns in Europe. As such, Marc led Chello NV through a $1 billion IPO on NASDAQ and AEX before its sale to Liberty Global as part of the UPC group. He began his career in technology management roles at Logitech (launching innovative products) and Philips (European marketing of new media publishing CD-I, CD-ROM). He co-founded his first IT company at the age of 17 providing race series such as Formula 1, IndyCar and NASCAR with revolutionary timing IT. Marc is and was non-executive board director in multiple innovation companies including some of the leading Indian IT providers, Canadian new media pioneers and the first European wind power operator. Marc founded and invested in multiple IT and internet companies. Marc holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Polytechnique de Montréal in collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. Marc published research in Artificial Intelligence and received scholarships from National Research Council of Canada as well as Power Corp. Marc lives in London with 3 kids, is Canadian and British national, multilingual and lived in some 6 countries.
Follow Marc Deschamps:
About Drake Star Partners: Drake star partners is an international investment bank focusing on the technology, media and communications sectors.
Alexandre Harkous
Founder & Executive Chairman of OneWealthPlace
Alexandre, BI-SAM founder, has over 20 years of solid experience in strategy and information systems for the Capital Markets and Asset Management industries. He began his career at Mitsubishi Bank as Head of IT before joining Demachy Worms & Cie Bank as Projects Director and then SIP in 1995 as Client Management Director. In 1998 he joined Deloitte Consulting where he developed the Asset Management Expertise Center working closely with various global clients such as HSBC, Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro AM and Dresdner RCM Global Investors. Throughout his career, Alexandre gained a significant international experience in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and a solid experience in business development, strategy, change management and systems for banking and asset management including securities services, portfolio management and analytics. Alexandre holds a Degree in Engineering and Computer Science.
Follow Alexandre Harkous:
About OneWealthPlace: One Wealth Place’s mission to support the digital transformation of private wealth banks and global asset services companies.
Kosta Kantchev
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Nexo
Follow Kosta Kantchev:
About Credissimo, Nexo: The World’s Leading Regulated Financial Institution for Digital Assets
William E. Matthews
Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer of National Commerce
William E. Matthews, IV serves as Chief Financial Officer for South State Corporation. Prior to the merger with South State, Mr. Matthews was the Chief Financial Officer of CenterState Bank. Before joining CenterState Bank, Mr. Matthews served as the President of National Commerce Corporation (“NCOM”), the Chief Financial Officer and the Vice Chairman of NCOM; the Executive Vice President of NCOM and its subsidiary bank, National Bank of Commerce (“NBC”), and the Vice Chairman and the Chief Financial Officer at NBC and as a Director of both NCOM and NBC. Mr. Matthews also served as the Executive Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer at First American Bank and was a Partner at New Capital Partners. Prior to joining New Capital Partners, Mr. Matthews was the Executive Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer at Alabama National Bancorporation, Chief Financial Officer at RBC Bank (USA), and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at NBC He has over 20 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing and investment management in privately owned and publicly traded companies Mr. Matthews earned an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University.
Follow William E. Matthews:
About National Commerce, South State Bank: National Commerce is a a financial holding company that provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, and business owners.
Alick Varma
Founder and Chairman of Osper
Alick Varma is the Founder and CEO at Osper, established in 2012. Osper offers a safe MasterCard prepaid debit card with a simple mobile banking app with separate logins for young people and parents. All money on Osper is safely managed by a European regulated bank. Alick previously worked at McKinsey and Spotify, and also trained to be a maths teacher.
Follow Alick Varma:
About Osper: Osper is a prepaid debit card and mobile banking service empowering young people to manage their money responsibly.
Hani Kablawi
Chairman of International of BNY Mellon
Follow Hani Kablawi:
About BNY Mellon: BNY Mellon is an investment company that provides investment management, investment services, and wealth management services.
Mushegh Tovmasyan
Chairman and Founder of Zenus Bank
Mushegh Tovmasyan is the Founder and Chairman at Zenus Bank.
Follow Mushegh Tovmasyan:
About : The first U.S. bank made for people outside the U.S.
Phil Hollingdale
Executive Chairman of Cushon
Phil Hollingdale is co-founder of digital wealth company Smarterly who aim to turn the UK’s workforce into a nation of investors. Employers promote Smarterly as an employee benefit, to help people build healthy saving habits with the convenience of saving directly from their pay, often with a contribution boost from the employer as a more accessible complement to pensions. Smarterly use sophisticated algorithms to analyse over 1,000 funds, build ready-made portfolios and comparison tables and then automatically monitor each customer’s individual portfolio on a daily basis. This is Phil’s sixth start-up tech venture. He’s also an active investor and advisor in several businesses across different sectors including Fintech, Healthtech and the Gig Economy.
Follow Phil Hollingdale:
About Cushon: Cushon is a fintech company that provides investment, pension, financial wellbeing and workplace savings.
Bob Wigley
Chairman of UK Finance
Bob Wigley was Chairman of Merrill Lynch, EMEA until 2009. He was a Prime Minister’s Ambassador for UK Business and member of the court for the Bank of England. He now invests in and chairs numerous growth business’ with disruptive business models. He is a visiting fellow of Oxford University, Saïd Business School and an honorary fellow of Cambridge University, Judge Business School. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a degree and honorary doctorate from Bath University.
Follow Bob Wigley:
About UK Finance: UK Finance is the collective voice for the banking and finance industry.
Antony Jenkins
Founder & Executive Chairman of 10xbanking
Antony’s focus on driving innovation in the digital economy also extends to his role as Group Chairman of Currencies Direct, the leading UK non-bank provider of foreign exchange and international payment services; and his role as a board member of Blockchain, the world’s leading software platform for digital assets. He is a Board Director of Fannie Mae, sitting on the US mortgage lender’s Strategic Initiatives and Technology Committee and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Antony is a strong believer in the need for businesses to support the future workforce to acquire the right skills to thrive in the digital era; his commitment to education is recognised in his role as Chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships, an employer-led organisation established to promote high-quality apprenticeships by 2020. He was previously the Group CEO of Barclays plc for three years until July 2015.
Follow Antony Jenkins:
About 10xbanking: 10xbanking offers a digital banking platform that will transform the way financial services providers operate.
Bill Fitzgerald
Chairman of Featurespace
Bill Fitzgerald is a Co-founder at Featurespace.
Follow Bill Fitzgerald:
About Featurespace, University of Cambridge: Featurespace provides an adaptive behavioral analytics technology and automated deep behavioral networks for risk management.
David Tyler
Chairman of Sainsbury’s
Appointed to the Board on 1 October 2009, David became Chairman on 1 November 2009. He is also Non-Executive Chairman of Hammerson PLC and a Non-Executive Director of Burberry Group PLC. He was previously Finance Director of GUS PLC (1997-2006) and has held senior financial and general management roles with Christie’s International PLC (1989-96), County NatWest Limited (1986-89) and Unilever PLC (1974-86). He was Chairman of Logica PLC (2006-12) and of 3i Quoted Private Equity PLC (2007-09), and a Non-Executive Director of Experian PLC (2006-12) and of Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (2007-09). He has also been Chairman of Hampstead Theatre since 2012.
Follow David Tyler:
About Sainsbury’s: Sainsbury’s operates supermarkets and convenience stores, an online grocery and general merchandise operation, as well as Sainsbury’s Bank.
Archie Norman
Chairman London of Lazard
Follow Archie Norman:
About Coles, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Lazard, Marks & Spencer: Lazard is a financial advisory and asset management firm focused on income strategies, alternative investments, and private equity funds.
William Rucker
Chairman of Lazard
Follow William Rucker:
About Lazard: Lazard is a financial advisory and asset management firm focused on income strategies, alternative investments, and private equity funds.
Nigel Wicks
Chairman of British Bankers Association
Sir Nigel Leonard Wicks GCB CVO CBE is the Chairman of the BBA. Sir Nigel Wicks is the Chairman of the British Bankers’ Association and a Director of The Edinburgh Investment Trust plc. He served as non-executive Chairman of CRESTCo, the settlement system for UK and Irish securities, from 2001 until its merger with Euroclear plc in 2002 when he became Deputy Chairman and Chairman in 2007. He stood down as Chairman of Euroclear on December 31st 2013. Sir Nigel served, on appointment by the UK Prime Minister, as Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life between March 2001 and April 2004. He was a non-executive director of Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited from 2004 to 2006. He was a Commissioner, Jersey Financial Services Commission between 2007 and 2012. He was a member of the EU Committee of “Wise Men” on European Securities Regulation (the Lamfalussy group) from 2000 to 2001. Sir Nigel was a member of the British Civil Service for thirty-two years. From 1989 to 2000, he was Second Permanent Secretary and Director of International Finance at HM Treasury. Before this, he was Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; Economic Minister at the British Embassy in Washington DC; UK Executive Director at the World Bank and the IMF; and Private Secretary to Prime Ministers James Callaghan and Harold Wilson.
Follow Nigel Wicks:
About : The BBA is the leading trade association for the UK banking sector with more than 230 member banks headquartered in over 50 countries
Gavin Littlejohn
Chairman of Financial Data and Technology Association
Gavin Littlejohn is a fintech entrepreneur with experience of developing innovative solutions to mass market problems. Gavin was appointed as Convenor of the Fintech Stakeholder Group of the UK Open Banking Implementation Entity in October 2016. He serves as a Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the Financial Data and Technology Association www.fdata.org.uk where he successfully led the campaign to have account aggregation added to PSD2. Gavin is well-renowned as the Founder of Money Dashboard, and acted as its CEO until July 2015.
Follow Gavin Littlejohn:
About Financial Data and Technology Association: The Financial Data and Technology Association is a trade association.
Jonathan Rowland
Chairman and Founder of R8 Group
Follow Jonathan Rowland:
About R8 Group, Redwood Bank: R8 Group is building the next-gen banking ecosystem for a decentralized economy.
Mark Suter
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Digital Vega
Mark has 30+ years of front office experience in the Global FX market. Mark has managed cash and derivative businesses for Chase Manhattan, Royal Bank of Scotland, Banque Paribas and Standard Bank. In 2000, Mark joined Dresdner Bank to help build and roll out the Piranha and Click and Trade online platforms. With a strong mix of experience in Option trading and development of online trading systems. Mark was approached by FXall to develop a multi-bank FX options trading platform; as the shareholding and business focus changed, the option project was shelved in 2007. Mark’s view was that an opportunity clearly existed, backed by increasing demand from a range of clients, partnering with worldflow, an e-commerce development specialist. He went on to co-found Digital Vega.
Follow Mark Suter:
About Digital Vega: Digital Vega is a privately held company operating the Medusa FX Option trading platform.
Andrew Irvine
Chairman of the board and Founder of MatchPlace Limited
Follow Andrew Irvine:
About MatchPlace Limited: New generation Fintech platform. Integrating Financial Services solutions, bridging the gap between Financial Institutions and SMEs
Chris Skinner
Chairman of The Financial Services Club
Chris Skinner is an independent commentator on the financial markets and, as Balatro, Chris assists clients as an advisor, as well as sometimes being commissioned to write or speak on their behalf at conferences and tradeshows. As well as being Chief Executive of Balatro, Chris chairs the European networking group the Financial Services Club. The Financial Services Club is a prestigious meeting place, and allows networking between members and regulators, practitioners and futurists. Our guest speakers include Charlie McCreevy, John McFall, Angela Knight and other luminaries shaping the future of banking and insurance. Chris is well-known for his regular columns and for his daily blog, which can be found at The FinanSer. He has also written several books on banking, covering retail and investment banking, payments and the supply chain, and general technology trends. Current titles include “The Future of Banking”, ‘The Future of Finance after SEP’ and “The Future of Investing after MiFID”. Chris is a Judge with the TradeTech Awards and with the Asian Banker’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services program, and a contributor to the World Economic Forum. Chris worked for various technology firms and is a co-founder of the website for strategists www.shapingtomorrow.com. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Services, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurance Practitioner.
Follow Chris Skinner:
About The Financial Services Club: Aim of FSC is any firm that is interested in understanding and planning for the future operating environment for the UK Financial Services.
Tom Flannery
Executive Chairman of Reward Finance Group
Tom Flannery joined Reward Investments as Executive Chairman in 2011.
Follow Tom Flannery:
About Reward Finance Group: Reward Finance Group offers a finance solutions that is put together to meet specific business needs.
Kamil Kuthubdeen
Executive Chairman of Lemon Holdings Limited
Kamil Kuthubdeen is the founder and chairman of Lemon Holdings. Lemon Holdings a Venture Capital firm based in London, UK. Lemon Holdings UK invests in early stage technology startup companies, offering base level support and partnership opportunities.
Follow Kamil Kuthubdeen:
About : Venture Capital Firm based in London, UK
