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Our Board

Lord Levene of Portsoken KBE
(Chairman)

Peter Levene started his career in the Defence Industry. Subsequently, he was asked by Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, to act as Personal Advisor in the Ministry of Defence and then as Permanent Secretary in the role of Chief of Defence Procurement, a position which he held for six years. He thereafter held a number of Government posts, as Advisor to the Secretary of State for the Environment; to the President of the Board of Trade; and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was appointed as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Efficiency and Effectiveness from 1992 to 1997. During this period, he also served as Chairman of the Docklands Light Railway and then Chairman and Chief Executive of Canary Wharf Ltd.

He is an Alderman of the City of London and served as Sheriff from 1995-96. He served as Lord Mayor of London for the year 1998-99. He received a knighthood in 1989 and became a life Peer in July 1997.

Later he became Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank in the UK. In 2002 he was elected as Chairman of Lloyd’s, the world’s leading insurance market, a post he held for 9 years until 2011.

Peter Levene currently also holds three non-executive directorships, as Chairman of General Dynamics UK Limited and on the boards of Haymarket Group Ltd and China Construction Bank. He is a Member of the House of Lords Select Committee for Economic Affairs.

Sir David Walker
(Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director)

Sir David Walker is a senior advisor to Morgan Stanley International where he previously held the position of Chairman and Chief Executive. Sir David was formerly an Executive Director of the Bank of England, Chairman of the Securities and Investment Board (precursor of the FSA), a Deputy Chairman of Lloyds Bank and Vice Chairman of Legal and General. He is a member of the Group of Thirty and has undertaken public reviews on the LMX reinsurance spiral (1992), disclosure and transparency in private equity (2007) and governance in financial institutions (2009).

Lord Brennan of Bibury QC
(Non-executive Director)

Lord Brennan is a member of the House of Lords. In 1999 he was Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales. He is also Chairman of the Caux Round Table Global Governing Board, Chairman of Juridica Investments Limited, Chairman of Omega Business Solutions Pvt Limited and Vice Chairman of AJ Prospekt Capital Limited. His special interests include international development and financial and corporate governance, in particular in connection with the recent financial crisis.

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
(Non-executive Director)

Lord Forsyth is Deputy Chairman of Evercore Europe Investment Banking. Before joining Evercore he was a Director of Corporate Finance at Flemings, Vice Chairman Investment Banking Europe at JPMorgan and Deputy Chairman at JPMorgan UK. He is a Non-executive Director of J&J Denholm Ltd and of the Centre for Policy Studies and from October 2005 to October 2006 he chaired the Tax Reform Commission.

Lord Forsyth is a member of the House of Lords and sits on the Select Committee on Economic Affairs. He was MP for Stirling from 1983 until 1997. He served in Government for more than 10 years as Secretary of State for Scotland, as a Minister of State at the Home Office and Department of Employment and as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary.

Lord McFall of Alcluith
(Non-executive Director)

Lord McFall is a member of the House of Lords. He was MP for West Dumbartonshire from 1987 until he retired at the 2010 General Election. During that time he held various positions in both opposition and as a Government Minister and, from 2001 to 2010, was Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee. His parliamentary interests are foreign affairs and international development and at a local level, regeneration and community development.

Gary Hoffman
(CEO)

After graduating from the University of Cambridge, where he read Economics, Gary’s career began at Barclays when he joined the graduate trainee scheme in 1982. Throughout his time with Barclays he had responsibility for service and sales to Barclays’ retail customers in the UK. Gary set up Barclaycall, (the telephone banking service) and launched the company’s internet banking service. He held several senior and Board-level customer focused roles at Barclays, which included responsibility for UK Banking and Barclaycard. Gary was latterly Vice-Chairman of Barclays plc from 2006-08, before agreeing to take on one of the toughest challenges in retail banking when he joined Northern Rock in 2008 as Chief Executive and was responsible for its rescue, stabilisation and restructure. In July 2008 Gary received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Northampton, having been made a Visiting Professor in 2007. Most recently, Gary has been appointed as the new Independent non-executive Chair of the Football Foundation.