Board of Directors
David Sproul
Chair of the Board and Chair of the Board Nomination Committee
David brings over 30 years’ experience in key leadership roles across the financial and professional services sectors. He holds a wealth of expertise in strategy, risk management, M&A and organisational and operational transformation.
David served as Global Deputy Chief Executive of Deloitte following his eight-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.
Key external appointments:
Chair of the Board and Nomination Committee, Pennon Group plc
Chair of the Board of Governors, University of Hertfordshire
Raman Bhatia
Executive Director and 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 and 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.
Tracy Clarke
Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Board 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 positions across compliance, human resources, corporate affairs, brand and marketing positions, culminating in the roles of Chief Executive Officer, Europe and Americas and Global Chief Executive Officer, Private Banking.
Tracy has a deep understanding in a wide range of areas from organisational culture to risk management and compliance. She has extensive experience as a remuneration committee chair, having held this position in various companies across a diverse range of sectors, including media and financial markets infrastructure.
Key external appointments:
Chair of the Remuneration Committee, TP ICAP plc
Chair of the Remuneration Committee, Haleon plc
Non-Executive Director, Inchcape plc
Colin Bell
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board Risk 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
Lazaro Campos
Investor Non-Executive Director
Lazaro is a fintech investor and entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience in global finance. He co-founded and is the Chair of FinTechStage, a company specialising in innovation programmes for the financial services sector. Prior to this, Lazaro was the Chief Executive Officer of SWIFT, the global banking network, where he led the company through a major transformation and its re-positioning as a commercially driven, innovative, and customer-centric cooperative.
Lazaro is a highly-experienced Non-Executive Director having served as the Senior Independent Director of the Bank of England’s RTGS/CHAPS Board and the Chair of DirectID, an open banking platform.
Key external appointments:
Senior Independent Director, International Workplace Group plc
Chair of the Advisory Board, PPRO Holdings GmbH
Chair of the Board, Payoneer Europe Limited
Julie Chakraverty
Independent Non-Executive Director
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
Faisal Galaria
Independent Non-Executive Director
Faisal has over 25 years’ experience growing and leading teams in global consumer technology companies including Spotify, and Skype. He has expertise in strategy, international growth and digital transformation, and has been involved in several 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 at Magic Leap, a leading enterprise computer vision and AI company. 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.
Darren Pope
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board Audit 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)
