Business Finance Market
(trading as Finance Nation)

A professionally qualified career banker with over 35 years banking experience Craig began his career with Lloyds TSB Bank before moving to Alliance & Leicester and Santander.

At Santander, after working in the regional office in Bilbao he was responsible for establishing and developing the corporate banking business across the North East and Cumbria building a loan book in excess of £500M across real estate, healthcare, education and trading businesses.

One of the Atom Bank founders, a high profile UK challenger bank, the bank is widely regarded as one of the most successful of the new breed of UK challengers. Craig was responsible for developing the strategy and overseeing the build of the business function which originated over £600M of applications in the 18 months post launch.

More recently he was the founder of Bank North, another Northern based challenger bank, specifically SME focused, which despite the recent pandemic, successfully obtained its banking licence in 2021.

Andy has over 30 years experience in the banking sector, working for an array of well-known banks in a variety of capacities, bringing with him a wealth of sector knowledge.

Most recently Andy was Commercial Relationship Manager at Virgin Money, providing advice and guidance on sourcing the relevant business finance solutions to meet the needs of organisations throughout the UK.

Having been in Financial Services in the main since September 1977, Ken has had a full and varied career. He spent time in Branch Banking, Human Resources, Commercial Marketing, various Regional Office roles and in Commercial Lending. Ken worked for four years in the private sector in a multi functional PLC continuing his compliance focus there before undertaking recent years in compliance consultancy work in Financial Services firms.

Having worked through his bank examinations with the Scottish Institute of Bankers he became a subject Prize Winner in Investment in 1986 and later obtained a Degree in Financial Services from Napier University in Edinburgh. Ken brings a range of skills to the team in the areas of Compliance, Human Resources, Team Management and Commercial Lending.

Alison qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in Newcastle before joining a mutual insurer, becoming Group Finance Director in 2007.

Following a merger with one of the world's largest P&I clubs in 2014, she took on the role of Group Chief Risk Officer for the enlarged group, responsible for establishing and embedding the risk and compliance function worldwide. More recently she has led the finance and central services functions for a multi academy trust, effectively acting as both CFO and COO.

Alison has non executive roles at Health Shield Friendly Society, where she is chair of the risk committee, at Bernicia as an independent member of the audit and risk committee, and at Smart Works Newcastle, where she is the treasurer.

A professionally qualified career banker with over 25 years banking experience. Stephen began his career with Lloyds TSB Bank working in both front-line roles and developing an in-depth knowledge of legal securities before spending six years in the public sector managing administration and logistics support.

In 2012 he returned to banking and worked with both Santander and Atom Bank, where he was directly responsible for overseeing the build of the business function, specifically the design and build of the back-office support and processing. He subsequently managed the whole of the back-office processing for both commercial and residential lending products.

Stephen provided some of the early strategic input around effective back-office processing behind Bank North which subsequently achieved its banking licence in August 2021.

A certified project professional with over 20 years designing and delivering large-scale, complex transformation programmes for multinational corporations. Matt began his career in marketing, managing high-profile campaign portfolios for clients such as Microsoft, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard and KLM. From there he built a successful career as an independent consultant, helping client companies in healthcare, engineering technology and financial services deliver better outcomes for their customers through business process improvement, culture change and the adoption of innovative digital technologies.

In 2018, whilst at Domestic & General, he led a “Customer First” Transformation Programme that covered every facet of D&G’s UK operations. The programme resulted in D&G achieving a 20% valuation uplift and full regulatory approval as an insurance provider.

Paul is an accomplished and commercially-astute Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with more than 25 years’ experience enabling a global organisation to pivot and change direction and realise its strategic goals.

Operating at senior leadership level, Paul took ownership for building world-class agile business and technology operations, promoting digital solutions and scaling out international platforms to extend from B2C to B2B.

Paul has played integral roles in strategic growth and expansion, undertook technical due diligence as part of major M&As, spearheaded digital and business transformation involving process and technology, and launched groundbreaking innovative solutions. A culturally diverse leader committed to equality and diversity, Paul acted as a key sponsor for important initiatives such as ‘Women in Technology’.