Colin Bell

Chair of the Board*
Chair of the Board Nomination Committee*

As a former Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank and HSBC Europe, Colin combines commercial experience with a specialised background in compliance, risk and controls. 

Over his nine-year career with HSBC, Colin served as a member on the boards of HSBC Bank, HSBC Singapore and Quantexa. He has extensive expertise in leadership, risk management and financial crime prevention, having served as the Group Chief Compliance Officer and Group Head of Financial Crime Risk at HSBC, and Head of Compliance and Operational Risk Control at UBS. 

Previously, Colin spent 16 years in the British Army, holding a variety of command and staff appointments, including operational service and roles within the UK Ministry of Defence and NATO.

Key external appointments:

• Non-Executive Director, Man Group plc

• Non-Executive Director, Julius Baer Group Ltd

* Subject to regulatory approval

Julie Chakraverty

Interim Senior Independent Director*
Chair of the Board Risk Committee*

Julie brings more than 30 years of financial services and technology leadership experience to the Board. She built her executive career at UBS where she held multiple leadership roles, and created an award-winning portfolio risk management platform. 

Previously, Julie was Senior Independent Director and Board Risk Committee Chair at Aberdeen, and served on the boards of Santander UK, the insurer Amlin and the hospitality company Spirit Pubs (now Greene King). She was also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the employee engagement platform Rungway.

Key external appointments:

• Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Cyber Security Committee, NCC Group plc

• Non-Executive Director, AJ Bell plc

• Non-Executive Director, easyJet plc

* Subject to regulatory approval

Raman Bhatia

Executive Director
Group Chief Executive Officer

Raman brings significant leadership experience across the financial services, energy and technology sectors. He offers a deep understanding of digital transformation, large-scale operational management, and strategic innovation, with extensive experience of navigating complex regulatory environments to drive sustainable growth. 

Before joining Starling in 2024, Raman was the Chief Executive Officer of OVO, where he led the company’s acceleration into green and sustainable technology and successfully campaigned for government support for customers during the energy and cost-of-living crisis. 

Prior to OVO, Raman was the Head of Digital Bank for HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management in the UK and Europe. As a member of the Executive Committee, he led innovation, new digital ways of working, and the commercialisation of digital platforms across the region.

Declan Ferguson

Executive Director
Group Chief Financial Officer

As Group Chief Financial Officer, Declan manages the Group’s overall financial operations and is responsible for its financial management. He also has responsibility for the Group’s strategic growth both in the UK and internationally as well as leading M&A and corporate development activity, capital raising and allocation, investor relations as well as longer term financial and business planning. 

Declan joined Starling in 2017 as Head of Strategy, later becoming Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to this, Declan trained as a chartered accountant (ICAEW) at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on financial services and gained experience across a range of business lines from audit, valuation and corporate finance. Latterly he spent time leading engagements in the turnaround and restructuring of European banks, as well as on a range of large loan portfolio and credit-related transactions involving UK and European banks.

John Mountain

Investor Non-Executive Director

John is a software and banking technology executive who was part of the Bank’s founding team. He joined Starling in September 2015, led the build and launch of its core banking platform, and later served in several Starling Executive roles, including as Chief Information Officer, Chief Operating Officer and latterly Interim Chief Executive Officer. 

John is a former director of Engine by Starling Limited and Pay.UK. Since leaving Starling in 2024, John has worked independently as a consultant to a number of start-up and scale-up technology businesses.

Dan Olley

Independent Non-Executive Director

Dan brings more than 30 years’ experience leading technology-enabled growth, digital transformation and customer-focused innovation across a range of industry sectors.

He was most recently CEO of Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest retail investment platform, where he led a significant business transformation across strategy, client experience, marketing and proposition development. Prior to this, Dan was CEO of dunnhumby, a global leader in consumer insights and data analytics, working with major retailers and brands to use deep customer understanding to improve performance and create growth. 

Earlier in his career, Dan held senior leadership roles at RELX, WPP and RoyalBlue. He has lived and worked internationally and brings deep experience in scaling customer-led businesses, improving commercial performance, and applying technology, data and AI to strengthen customer propositions, enhance colleague experience and unlock new opportunities for growth.

Darren Pope

Independent Non-Executive Director
Chair of the Board Audit Committee
Interim Chair of the Board Remuneration Committee

Darren brings over 30 years of experience in the retail banking and financial services sectors primarily in publicly listed companies. He has held a range of senior and board-level positions. He is skilled in board governance with an in-depth understanding of M&A, financial and risk matters, including managing investor and regulatory relations. 

Darren previously served as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at Network International Holdings and Equiniti Group. He chaired the Remuneration Committee and the Audit Committee at Virgin Money UK, chaired the Audit Committee at Hargreaves Lansdown, and was Chair of Silicon Valley Bank UK (now HSBC Innovation Banking). His executive career included several finance roles at Lloyds Banking Group and serving as Chief Financial Officer of TSB Bank where he led its IPO.

Darren is the Board Whistleblowers’ Champion.

Key external appointments:

• Chair of the Board Audit and Risk Committee, Glas Cymru Holdings Cyfyngedig (Welsh Water)