Recognise Bank’s leadership team is made up of highly talented individuals with a wide range of exceptional experience. Get to know them below, and if you like what you see, why not check out our live vacancies?
That’s how many collective years of financial services experience our executive team has.
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Simon has over 30 years of experience in driving transformational change and scaling high-growth businesses in financial services. With a strong technical background and a passion for building exceptional teams, Simon has held leadership roles at several prominent financial institutions.
Before joining Recognise as CEO, Simon was CEO of Nomo Fintech, where he led the technology company that developed and supported Nomo Bank, the fully digital international sharia-compliant brand of Bank of London and The Middle East plc.
Previously, Simon was CIO and part of the founding team at Allica Bank, CIO at Harrods Bank and held senior technology roles at Aldermore, Lloyds Banking Group and the Santander Group.
Simon is also a Non-executive Director at Health Shield Friendly Society Ltd and adviser to the Board of CoCo Global Ltd.
Georgina qualified as a Real Estate solicitor with Linklaters in 2004 before joining Citigroup in 2006 where she held senior legal and compliance roles within Corporate Finance and in Financial Crime across all business lines.
Georgina is the Chief of Staff to the Office of the CEO & General Counsel as well as Company Secretary to the Board. She is also the Chief Compliance Officer (SMF 16), MLRO (SMF 17) and DPO. Georgina has held Board Directorships at a number of UK challenger banks where she has honed her C suite experience since 2013. Georgina provides expert counsel to the Board and CEO and is an integral member of the EXCO at Recognise Bank.
Tristan has over 20 years of international executive and consulting experience with a breadth of knowledge in both banking and the SME sector.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds an MA from Oxford University.
Before joining Recognise as CFO, Tristan was Head of Finance at StreamBank Plc, a specialist lender, where he helped to build the Finance and Regulatory functions of the bank from concept through to fully operational.
Prior to this, Tristan spent several years as an independent consultant, covering multiple industries and countries, following roles looking after Accounting Policy at MUFG and Fixed Income products at Morgan Stanley.
Ronelle has worked in several senior management and operational roles across the investment, real estate, and financial services sectors, both in the UK and overseas and has led complex financing of over £500m in debt.
Ronelle also leads the Bank in its partnership with Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF).
Prior to this, Ronelle spent five years in operational roles within the Air Force – managing large teams, projects, and operations.
Caroline has over 25 years of experience in SME banking. Caroline many years of experience working with start-up and challenger SME banks, she was part of the executive team taking Ashman Bank to AWR and also built and led the Commercial Mortgages team at Aldermore Bank. Caroline is known in the market for developing and delivering market facing propositions that support SME’s achieve their goals.
Simon is a seasoned risk executive with over two decades of experience in the UK and EU banking sectors with expertise in enterprise risk management, credit, operational, and other prudential risks. Simon started his banking career working for Santander, Barclays and RBS.
He subsequently spent 9 years in specialist risk consulting before becoming Chief Risk Officer at Fiinu Bank Limited, a FinTech banking startup, in 2022. Most recently, Simon served as the CEO Designate for a new bank startup, where he led the development of the regulatory business plan and the preparation of the banking licence application.
Simon holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and a MEng from the University of Birmingham. Outside of work, Simon enjoys judo, cycling, cooking, music, and watching rugby.
Steve has had an extensive executive career in banking, leading corporate and commercial banking businesses at RBS/NatWest, managing Santander’s UK banking businesses and as CEO of Shawbrook Bank, Hodge Banking Group and successfully leading the banking licence application for StreamBank.
He is the Chair of Bank of Ireland and an INED at Bank of Ireland Group and Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank. He was previously President of the Chartered Banker Institute and holds advisory roles with Kingsley Healthcare and Black Lion Ventures.
Steve took up the role of Chair at Recognise Bank in November 2024, having served as an Investor Non-executive Director since January 2024.
Simon Wainwright has over 40 years’ experience in banking and insurance, including Nationwide, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC where he has held senior positions in strategy, commercial & corporate banking, and insurance. In addition to this he has been a country CEO and a global COO in Commercial Banking.
In the last 14 years he has worked in reinsurance for Reinsurance Group of America, where he has been UK MD, COO and CEO of the EMEA region for the last 6 years. He also sits on the Group ExCo of RGA. Since the start of 2026 he has been interim Chief Information Officer, looking after the global technology needs of RGA through a team of 1,400 experts.
He also serves as Chair of Family Building Society and Pinnacle Insurance.
Within Recognise Bank, he chairs the Board Nominations and Independence Oversight Committee.
Suzanne has enjoyed a long executive career in internal audit and risk management in financial services. She is a Chartered Accountant and has held a senior role at the Bank of England along with Chief Internal Auditor roles at Yorkshire Building Society and the investment bank, Peel Hunt.
She is also a Non-executive Director at HBL Bank UK, a specialist bank serving the South Asian diaspora and The Exeter, a mutual life and general insurer. She was previously a Non-executive Director at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Within Recognise Bank, she chairs the Audit Committee and is also Recognise Bank’s Whistleblowing Champion.
Greg has gained extensive experience in corporate, commercial, business, credit and risk across both NatWest and RBS over a 30-year career. He led the RBS Corporate and Commercial Business across the UK, before moving to Cynergy Bank, where he led Property Finance, Commercial and Bridging teams, before being appointed Chief Operating Officer. Greg has significant experience in the ‘challenger’ market through leadership, committee, advisory and Board roles. Greg is passionate about the environment – leading delivery of ISO140001 forCynergy Bank and is a champion for change.
Greg is Independent Non-Executive Chair of Deploy Capital Limited, a specialist boutique lender in the SME market. He is also Deputy Chair, Chair of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee, and a Trustee of the Chartered Banker Institute, the pre-eminent professional body representing finance professionals in the UK and overseas.
Within Recognise Bank, he chairs the Board Risk Committee.
Julian is a senior financial services and fintech executive with extensive experience leading high-growth organisations from co-founder and COO at Starling Bank to driving scale as CEO of Zodia Custody, the digital asset custodian.
Following the sale of Zodia Custody, Julian will be the CEO of SCVentures backed Zodia Solutions, providing digital asset software infrastructure to banks across the globe.
Within Recognise Bank, Julian is a member of Board Risk and Board Audit Committees.
Alison is a customer focused leader, with a breadth of financial services experience, having headed up commercial marketing teams across the Barclays Group. This includes leading both business and corporate marketing, together with the b2b Barclaycard payments business.
Alison is a Non-executive Director, Consumer Duty Board Champion and Remuneration and Nomination Chair at the Stafford Building Society, a mutual providing a range of mortgage and savings solutions.
In addition to her financial services experience, Alison is a Non-executive Director at University Hospital Southampton, a large NHS teaching hospital, and a Trustee of the Hospital Charity.
Within Recognise Bank, she chairs the Remuneration Committee and is also Recognise Bank’s Consumer Duty Champion.
Andy brings extensive financial services experience, with a background spanning senior leadership roles across banking, risk and commercial functions.
He is currently a serving banking executive (CRO designate at a new bank start-up) and was previously CRO at Alba Bank Ltd, a specialist SME lender/new bank authorisation and Group CRO at Aldermore Group plc, a successful UK challenger bank.
Prior to this, Andy was an Expert Partner at Bain & Co. He also spent over 20 years at NatWest Group plc, where he held several senior business and risk roles, most recently as Managing Director, Commercial & Private Banking. During this time, he co-founded NatWest’s Esme Loans Ltd, an award-winning SME digital lending platform.
