Board of Directors

David Sproul, Chairman

Chair of the Nomination Committee

David has more than 30 years’ experience in key leadership roles across the financial and professional services sector. He brings extensive experience of strategy, risk management, M&A and organisational and operational transformation. David served as global deputy chief executive of Deloitte following his 8 year term as chief executive and senior partner of Deloitte UK and North West Europe. During this time, he led the firm’s globalisation, transformation of its market positioning to be a leading professional services firm and drove changes to create a more inclusive culture, focused on opportunity for all. David is a director of Safanad, a governor of the University of Hertfordshire and a senior adviser to Bridgepoint Group.

Raman Bhatia, Group Chief Executive Officer

Executive Director

As Group CEO, Raman is responsible for leading the business and setting Starling’s strategy with the board.

Before joining us in summer 2024, Raman was the CEO of OVO, one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers. He led OVO’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, risk management and the design, development, deployment and commercialisation of digital platforms, products and channels within the UK and Europe.

Before HSBC, Raman worked in consumer tech as VP at HouseTrip and Director of Strategy at Expedia for EMEA. Earlier in his career Raman worked as a management consultant at Bain as well as an advisor to governments and international development agencies on urban governance and planning.

Raman holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is also a Trustee at Business in the Community, where he chairs a cross-sector Cost of Living Taskforce.

Declan Ferguson, Chief Financial Officer

Executive Director

Declan joined Starling in 2017 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2022. He is responsible for the Bank’s financial operations and management, including in respect of capital and liquidity. Declan also has responsibility for the Group’s strategic and corporate development activity, capital raising and longer term financial and business planning. Prior to Starling, he trained as a chartered accountant at PwC where he led engagements on the turnaround, restructuring and sale of European banks, large loan portfolios and other credit-related transactions involving UK and European banks.

Tracy Clarke, Senior Independent Director

Chair of the Remuneration Committee

Tracy brings considerable international banking and financial services experience to the Board, following a 35 year career with Standard Chartered Bank, where she held a portfolio of leadership, compliance, human resources, corporate affairs, brand and marketing positions, culminating in the role of chief executive officer, Europe and Americas and global chief executive officer, Private Banking. She is a director of TP ICAP, chair of SchoolOnline, an online learning platform and a director, chair of the board remuneration committee and member of the board audit committee of Haleon, a consumer healthcare company.

Lazaro Campos, Non-Executive Director

Lazaro is a fintech investor and entrepreneur with more than 30 years’ experience in global finance. Until 2012, he served as chief executive officer of SWIFT, the global banking network, where he led its re-positioning as a commercially driven, innovative and customer centric cooperative. He is also co-founder of FinTechStage, which specialises in innovative ecosystem builds for global financial services organisations. Lazaro is also chairman of the board of DirectID, chairman of the advisory board of PPRO, and an independent member of the Payoneer Europe Limited board.

Julie Chakraverty, Independent Non-Executive Director

Chair of the Ethics & Sustainability 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.

She is an experienced non-executive director, currently serving global cyber security firm NCC Group as senior independent director and she recently joined the board of AJ Bell. Previously, Julie was senior independent director and board risk committee chair at Aberdeen Asset Management (now abrdn), and served on the boards of Santander UK, the insurer Amlin, and the hospitality company Spirit Pubs (now Greene King). She is also the founder of the employee engagement platform Rungway. Julie is the Board Consumer Duty Champion.

Faisal Galaria, Independent Non-Executive Director

Faisal has over 25 years’ experience growing and leading teams in global consumer technology companies including Spotify, Kayak, Skype and Magic Leap. He has extensive experience of strategy, international growth and digital transformation and has been involved in a number of tech and Web3 IPOs in the UK and the US. In 2022 Faisal stepped down as chief executive officer of Blippar, one of the UK’s first tech unicorns and more recently as chief growth officer of the Magic Leap. In addition to his executive roles, he previously served as senior partner at Alvarez & Marsal where he led the digital and media practices across EMEA. Faisal sits on the advisory board of Imperial College Business School.

Ian Jenkins, Independent Non-Executive Director

With over 35 years’ experience, Ian has held a range of chief financial officer, chief risk officer and chief operating officer roles within banking and financial services, including at Diem Networks, HSBC, Santander and Credit Suisse. He is a chartered accountant and brings varied finance, risk, operations and strategy expertise to the Board. Ian served as the interim chief financial officer of abrdn from May to November 2023, and is currently the chief financial officer and the transformation director for the asset management business at abrdn.

Marian Martin, Independent Non-Executive Director

Chair of the Risk Committee

Marian is a chartered accountant with a background in risk management. As an executive she was latterly chief risk officer of Virgin Money during a period of significant growth and strategic development, including the company’s listing on the London Stock Exchange. In addition to her role at Starling, she is a non-executive director and chair of the board risk committee of Castle Trust and a non-executive director and chair of the board audit and risk committees of PPRO Holding.

Darren Pope, Independent Non-Executive Director

Chair of the Audit Committee

Darren brings more than 30 years of experience in the retail banking and financial services sectors, where he has held a range of senior and board level positions. He is skilled in board governance and has an in-depth understanding of financial and risk matters, including managing relations with investors and regulators. He has significant experience of both IPO and M&A transactions.

Darren is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at Hargreaves Lansdown. He previously served as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at Network International Holdings, a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Virgin Money UK, Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Equiniti Group and Chair of HSBC Innovation Banking. He has also held several executive banking and finance roles at Lloyds Banking Group and was the Chief Financial Officer of TSB Bank.

Marcus Traill, Non-Executive Director

Marcus began his career as an analyst at Bank of New Zealand and Owens Group prior to joining the McPike Global Family Office (MGFO) and QuantRes. He co-led the private investments division of the MGFO, played key roles in the trading of various financial markets quantitative trading strategies for QuantRes and was responsible for managing the operations of the group. Marcus is a partner at Altered Capital, a venture capital and private equity fund manager.