Board of Directors

John Mountain, Interim Chief Executive Officer

Executive Director

John Mountain joined Starling in 2015 occupying key leadership roles, first as Chief Information Officer, leading the team that built the technical architecture for the Starling platform, and then as Chief Operating Officer, providing continuity and strategic leadership between technology, back office and customer-facing operations.

He is a director of Engine, Starling’s Software as a Service subsidiary, and is a past director of Pay.UK. He previously spent 15 years as a technical architect, including with BJSS, working for clients such as Lloyds Bank and Waitrose. At Starling he has been a pivotal member of the Executive team from the early days, helping to shape the bank’s strategy.

Anne Boden MBE, Non-Executive Director

Anne founded Starling Bank in 2014 after a distinguished global career in financial services. Her previous roles include Chief Operating Officer of Allied Irish Banks, Head of EMEA, Global Transaction Banking, for RBS and Executive Vice President Europe, Transaction Banking, for ABN AMRO.

A computer scientist by training, Anne is a Fellow of the Royal Chartered Institute of IT. She was awarded an MBE for services to financial technology in 2018.

Anne is chair of the government’s Women-led, High-growth Enterprise Taskforce, which aims to increase the number of women-led high-growth businesses, with a particular focus on regions outside of London.

Lázaro Campos, Non-Executive Director

Lázaro 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. Lázaro is also co-founder of FinTechStage, which specialises in innovative ecosystem builds for global financial services organisations.

Carolyn Clarke, Independent Non-Executive Director

Chair of both the Audit Committee and the Ethics and Sustainability Committee

Carolyn is an expert in the fields of risk, assurance, control, compliance and conduct. She has held a number of senior executive and board positions, including most recently as Head of Audit, Risk and Control at Centrica, and prior to that, a 20 year career at PwC. Carolyn specialises in the impact of people, behaviours and culture on organisational risks and outcomes. Carolyn is the Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. She chairs the audit committee for two green technology growth companies, Elcogen Group and Agilyx.

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 Bank’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.

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 lately 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 committee of PPRO Holding.

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 also a partner at Altered Capital, a venture capital and private equity fund manager.

David Sproul, Chairman

Chair

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 terms as Chief Executive & 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 director of Safanad and BusinessLDN and a senior adviser to Bridgepoint Group.

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, sits on the Board of England Netball and Acin, is chair of SchoolOnline, an online learning platform and is a director, chair of the board remuneration committee and member of the board audit committee of Haleon, a consumer healthcare company.

Ian Jenkins, Independent Non-Executive Director

With over 35 years of 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.

Faisal Galaria, Independent Non-Executive Director

Faisal has over 25 years experience growing and leading teams in global consumer technology companies including Spotify, Kayak, and Skype. 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. Faisal stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Blippar in 2022, one of the UK’s first tech unicorns. 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.