Our Board

Meet the members of our Board responsible for everything from making key decisions on strategy to safeguarding the financial interests of our members.

Meet the Board

The role of our Board

The main role of our Board is to focus on the Society's strategy and ensure that all the resources are in place for us to meet our goals and objectives. This includes making sure that the financial controls and risk management systems are robust to protect both the Society and its members.

The Group is headed by the Board which is accountable to the members of the Society and whose principal role is to:

  • Be collectively responsible for the success, including the long term success, of the Group and for acting in the best interest of the Society and our members as a whole (both current and future). It may also consider the interests of other customers, colleagues, suppliers and the wider community.
  • Have responsibility for the overall management of the Group within a framework of risk management which supports and directs financial security, fair outcomes and a Group built on trust.
  • Establish a sustainable business model and set the strategy of the Group consistent with that model.
  • Develop the culture of the Group and set a ‘tone from the top’ to ensure that the desired values and behaviours are Board-led.
  • Have oversight of the Group’s operations ensuring that appropriate resources and systems of risk management and internal controls are in place.
  • Have responsibility for the maintenance and integrity of statutory and audited information on the Society’s website. Information published on the internet is accessible in many countries with different legal requirements. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
You can find out further details in the Terms of Reference.
 
You can view the role profiles here of our Chair of the Board, Senior Independent Director and Chief Executive.
 
The details of all our directors are below.

Non Executive Directors

Picture of John Heaps

 

John Heaps LLB

Chair of the Board
Joined our Board in 2014 as Chairman Designate, becoming Chair of the Board in 2015.

Background and career

A qualified lawyer, John worked in the legal profession for 40 years and joined the senior management team of corporate law firm Eversheds in 1999. He was appointed Chairman of Eversheds in 2010 for a four year term and retired in 2015.


Skills and experience

John has extensive commercial and legal experience in his leadership role in shaping Eversheds’ long-term strategy as it grew into a major international law firm. In the last few years he has contributed to the development and success of both the Society, including driving Board succession, as well as the various financial bodies of which he had been a member.


Other roles

Member of the Audit and Constitutional and Governance Committee of the International Bar Association. 
Member of the Advisory Board of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange.


Committee membership

Chair of Board Governance and Nominations Committee.

Picture of Annemarie Durbin

 

Annemarie Durbin BComm, LLB, MSc

Chair of the Board Designate
Joined our Board in 2023 as Chair of the Board Designate.

Background and career

Annemarie Durbin has 35 years' international business and banking experience, including retail, commercial, corporate and institutional banking. She spent the majority of her executive career with Standard Chartered, a FTSE 100 international bank, culminating in membership of the Group Executive Committee. She held a variety of global and business roles, including being CEO and Executive Director of Standard Chartered’s publicly listed entity in Thailand and CEO in the Philippines. Annemarie has also held a range of non-executive positions, including WH Smith Plc, Santander UK plc and was Chair of Cater Allen Limited. Annemarie is also an executive coach and mentor.


Skills and experience

Annemarie is a highly experienced executive with a strong background in banking, leadership and talent, transformation, and corporate governance. She also has significant experience in relation to remuneration, including as a Remuneration Committee Chair, and extensive experience in respect of audit, risk and responsible banking from her membership of the relevant Committees at Santander UK plc.


Other roles

Non-Executive Director, Chair of Remuneration Committee and member of Nomination Committee at Persimmon Plc. Non-Executive Director, Chair of Remuneration Committee and member of Management Engagement, Audit and Risk and Nominations Committees at Petershill Partners LLC.

Picture of Alison Hutchinson

 

Alison Hutchinson BSc, CBE

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director and Vice Chair
Joined our Board in 2015 and became Vice Chair and Senior Independent Director in October 2020.

Background and career

Alison started her career at IBM, progressing to the role of Global Director of Online Financial Services. She joined Barclays Bank in 2000 holding a number of senior management positions. Alison moved to specialist mortgage provider Kensington Group plc in 2004 as Managing Director and then Group Chief Executive, leading the successful sale of the business to Investec in 2008. She left Investec in 2008 and launched The Pennies Foundation, a registered charity which supports digital donations to good causes. She has been the Chief Executive of the Pennies Foundation since 2009. 


Skills and experience

Alison has a strong background in technology, retail and charity sectors as well as extensive experience in the retail financial services sector. She has more than 35 years of management and Board level experience. Alison was awarded a CBE in 2016 for services to the economy and charities.


Other roles

Chief Executive of The Pennies Foundation, Senior Independent Director of DFS Furniture plc and Senior Independent Director of Foresight Group Holdings Ltd.


Committee membership

Member of Remuneration Committee, Group Risk Committee and Board Governance and Nominations Committee.

Picture of Guy Bainbridge

 

Guy Bainbridge MA (Cantab), ACA

Independent Non-Executive Director and Whistleblowing Champion
Joined our Board in 2019.

Background and career

Guy worked in the audit profession for 36 years with KPMG, including 24 years as a partner. He was also a member of KPMG’s UK Board for seven years and its European Board for five years. He was the Lead Audit Partner for a number of banking clients including Barclays, ING and HSBC.


Skills and experience

Guy is a banking expert and brings recent and relevant experience of the UK banking sector. He has comprehensive knowledge of the regulatory environment in which we operate.


Other roles

Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at ICE Clear Europe Ltd and a Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee at Manulife Financial Corporation.


Committee membership

Chair of Audit Committee and member of the Group Risk Committee and Board Governance and Nominations Committee.

Picture of Angela Darlington

 

Angela Darlington BSC, FIA

Independent Non-Executive Director and Non-Executive Director for Workforce Engagement
Joined our Board in 2022.

Background and career

Angela spent 20 years working for Aviva PLC in a variety of senior roles – culminating in her serving as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UK Life following a period as Interim CEO of UK Insurance, where she was responsible for leading the UK Insurance business and a member of the Aviva Leadership Team. Prior to her CEO roles, Angela was the Group Chief Risk Officer for Aviva PLC for four years, responsible for leading the Risk Function at Group level.


Skills and experience

Angela has significant experience of the financial services sector with a deep technical expertise in relation to risk as well as the ability to contribute to a wider strategic agenda.


Other roles

Independent Non-Executive Director of Rothesay Life and Member of Council for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.


Committee membership

Chair of Group Risk Committee and member of Audit Committee.

Picture of Debra Davies

 

Debra Davies BA Hons, Business Studies

Independent Non Executive Director
Joined our Board in 2023.

Background and career

Debra has over 25 years of experience in financial services. After starting in Market Research, she spent the remainder of her executive career with American Express, in a variety of senior roles including leading the UK Consumer Business, leading Product Marketing globally and rolling out the American Express business across 55 Countries. She represented the Company’s interests in major Joint Ventures in the Middle East, Belgium and Switzerland where she was the Chair of Swisscard. She has held a range of non-executive and committee Chair roles with AXA UK plc and Credit Suisse international.


Skills and experience

Debra has a strong background in profit and loss leadership, customer service, marketing, technology transformation and digital innovation, as well as Partnership development and management. Her experience spans business to consumer and business to business across many countries and cultures.


Other roles

Non-Executive Director at AXA UK plc, Chair of the Remuneration Committee and member of the Audit and Risk Committees. Non-Executive Director of Intrum AB, member of the Transformation Committee.


Committee membership

Chair of Remuneration Committee and member of Group Risk Committee.

Picture of Dina Matta

 

Dina Matta BSc, BA (Hons)

Independent Non-Executive Director
Joined our Board in April 2021.

Background and career

Dina began her career in strategy and technology consulting prior to joining HSBC/Midland Bank in London. She subsequently worked with UBS, British Telecom and ING Bank in a transformation capacity within their retail, corporate and wholesale business divisions. More recently, Dina joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in October 2021 as the Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer overseeing the Bank’s digital transformation with direct responsibility for the Bank’s data management, technology and administrative service departments as well as the bank wide transformation office.


Skills and experience

Dina is an engineer and economist and has over 30 years’ experience in transformation, operations and technological innovation working across industries both in Europe and the US.


Other roles

Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.


Committee membership

Member of Remuneration Committee.

Picture of Mark Parsons

 

Mark Parsons BA, FCMA

Independent Non-Executive Director and Board Consumer Duty / Member Champion
Joined our Board in 2020.

Background and career

Mark was Chief Executive of Coventry Building Society from 2014 until his retirement in April 2020. Mark has significant experience working within retail financial services including roles at Barclays and Abbey National, as well as time at PricewaterhouseCoopers. At Barclays he was the Chief Financial Officer for Retail and Business Banking and also served as the Deputy Chief Executive of Barclays UK Retail Bank.


Skills and experience

Mark has over 35 years’ experience in financial services and has a range of executive experience across finance, human resources, product, retail management, risk management and investor relations.


Other roles

Non-Executive Director of Fairstone Capital Group Ltd.


Committee membership

Member of Audit Committee and Group Risk Committee.

Picture of Jennelle Tilling

 

Jennelle Tilling B.Bus, BA

Independent Non-Executive Director
Joined our Board in 2021.

Background and career

Jennelle spent over 17 years working for Yum! Restaurants International in a variety of senior marketing roles - culminating in her serving as the Global Chief Marketing Officer for KFC, responsible for the company’s marketing, communications, innovation, digital presence and reputation in over 125 countries. Jennelle is the Founder and Chief Brand Strategist at London-based brand consultancy Marketing with Insight.


Skills and experience

Jennelle has over 25 years’ consumer marketing, digital and innovation experience with leading global FMCG and food retail brands.


Other roles

Non-Executive Director of Shaftesbury Capital Plc, Senior Independent Director of Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd and Trustee for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.


Committee membership

Member of Remuneration Committee.

Executive Directors

Picture of Susan Allen

 

Susan Allen BA Hons (Econ), ACIB, ACT, OBE

Chief Executive Officer
Joined the Society and our Board in 2023.

Background and career

Susan was most recently Head of Customer Transformation at Barclays where she was responsible for leading and supporting all colleagues in frontline teams to deliver a differentiated customer experience.

Prior to that Susan was responsible for all of Santander's UK Retail and Business banking businesses, supporting 15 million customers and with a nationwide network of branches and customer contact centres, following her role as Chief Transformation Officer. Susan is a former Board member of UK Finance.


Skills and experience

Susan has more than 25 years of experience in financial services having held senior executive positions at a number of large retail banks in the UK. Susan has been a proud champion of diversity and inclusivity throughout her career. She is also a member of the Building Societies Association Council.


Other roles

Member of the Board of Trustees for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Picture of Alasdair Lenman

 

Alasdair Lenman MA, ACMA

Chief Finance Officer
Joined the Society and our Board in 2017.

Background and career

Alasdair began his career on the management training programme at Mars Inc. where he spent a number of years working in sales, before moving into finance. Since then, he’s gained significant experience in the financial services sector, including as Finance Director of Retail Products for Lloyds Banking Group and Group Chief Finance Officer for BGL Group.


Skills and experience

Over 20 years of experience in Finance working in a variety of Board level roles, both non-executive and executive. These include CFO and Interim CEO of YBS, Audit Committee Chair for both Sainsbury’s Bank and Coventry Building Society and a number of roles at Lloyds Banking Group.

Picture of David Morris

 

David Morris BA, MA

Chief Commercial Officer
Joined the Society in 2018 and our Board in 2022.

Background and career

David began his career at Citigroup and has subsequently worked at various Financial Services institutions across the UK and internationally. Prior to joining YBS David was the Head of Products at Coventry Building Society. He is responsible for the innovation, development and on-going management of the Society’s mortgages and savings products, YBS’s marketing and its digital channels, mortgage distribution and the Society’s branch network. David is also responsible for our Commercial Lending and is Chair of Accord Mortgages Limited.


Skills and experience

David has over 15 years of experience in retail banking and has a strong track record of driving commercial performance in financial services organisations, including the mutual sector.

The work of our committees

Discover the four committees who monitor how we manage various aspects of our Society and make recommendations to the Board on how we can improve.

Corporate Governance

Read how corporate governance helps shape the way the Board protects the interests of the Society and its members.

You might also be interested in