Our Leadership Team

Shareholder, Non-Executive Director

Jim is one of Scotland’s best known and most successful Businessmen and Entrepreneurs. He is Chairman and CEO of Clyde Blowers and has been the chief architect of its impressive growth record since buying into the business in 1992.

Jim has a wealth of experience investing and operating businesses through many economic and market cycles. In the past 20 years he has invested in 20 platform acquisitions, overseen 15 exits including 2 public listings.

He has led a number of public to private transactions, mergers, demergers, spin outs and turn arounds. Jim is the founding shareholder, director and a driving force behind the creation of Alba.

Independent Non-Executive Director

Anne has recently moved into a full time career as a non-executive director following an extensive executive career which majored on the leadership of business and technology transformation. Anne’s principal expertise is financial services albeit she has worked across a range of industries and in many geographies.

She has led the turnaround of many technology functions within major banks including Abbey/Santander, Bank of Ireland, ANZ and EnergyAustralia. In her last two roles she was responsible for defining and leading an extensive business and IT transformation required to restore organisational stability and control while introducing new digital capability in support of a new business strategy.

Anne is currently a non-executive director of two Australian based Fintech companies; Mint Payments, a listed mobile and electronic payments company and Archa, a start-up focused on the provision of a corporate credit card for SME’s. She has also joined the Board of Piraeus Bank in Greece.

Non-Executive Chair and Chair of Nominations & Remuneration Committee

Jeremy has in excess of 40 years’ experience of retail and SME banking, and was the founder Chair of AlbaCo during 2018-2022, when he stood down as a result of a conflicting role.

Jeremy is delighted to now return to lead the Bank to successful Authorisation. An Independent Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Jeremy was awarded the IoD Non-Executive Director of the year in 2018.

Jeremy was previously Chair of Airdrie Savings Bank, and is currently Audit Committee Chair for Wesleyan Bank Ltd.  Amongst his other Scotland based roles, he Chaired a PRA regulated Insurance Company, chaired a leading Wealth Management business, and is currently Chair of a £15 Billion Fund Management business.

Independent NED and Chair of Board Risk Committee

Bill has over 30 years of experience in lending which encompasses a diverse range of business sectors, operational approaches and regulatory & governance models.  He has undertaken a number of senior roles during his executive career, culminating in his appointment as Chief Credit Officer at Santander UK. He has also held executive positions at Lloyds Bank, Otto Versand UK and was Head of Banking Consultancy at Experian.

Bill is currently a Non-Executive Chairman for Market Mortgage Ltd, an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board Risk Committee at RCI Bank UK and an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board Risk Committee at Wesleyan Bank.

Independent NED and Chair of Board Audit Committee

Following an executive career in banking finance and CRO roles, Neil Holden has held a range of NED roles in banking and financial services, most recently Saffron Building Society and Integrated Financial Arrangements (the Transact wrap platform) from which Boards he retired in 2023 after 9 and 12 years’ service respectively.

He has chaired most types of Board Committees and Boards but most often chairs the Board Risk or Board Audit Committee given his background as a mathematician, chartered accountant, and CRO.

His current Board positions are Chair of Trustees of the Saffron Building Society Pension Scheme, and NED of Stanbic International Insurance Limited.

Non-Executive Director

Andrei has over 25 years’ experience in Banking, Start-ups, Fintech covering UK, Europe & CIS markets. He has a successful track record in Board Advisory and Key Leadership Roles and extensive experience in Start-ups, Transformation, & Digital Financial services.  With in-depth knowledge of the product development and strategy, as well as full credit risk & customer life cycle he has high customer orientation & commercial focus.

He has a proven track record of identifying & developing new opportunities, improving business processes & strategy and is recognised as a business oriented, innovative and creative problem-solving Leader.

Chief Executive Officer

Jonathan brings leadership experience across start-up, scale-up and established firms to Alba’s commercial proposition, along with deep expertise in UK mid-market debt, corporate finance and capital advisory. 

Prior to joining Alba, Jonathan was CEO and Co-Founder of Bank North where he led the Bank from concept, through build and full PRA/FCA regulatory approval, to successful market entry.  He was previously Divisional Managing Director at Santander Business (the SME division of Santander UK), having also worked with Deloitte and Lloyds Banking Group.

At Alba, Jonathan is leading the team developing a compelling range of commercial finance products aimed at supporting UK SMEs.

Chief Financial Officer

Matt joins Alba from NatWest where he was the Finance Director for Commercial & Institutional Finance for circa 3 years. This role supported business banking, commercial & corporate banking, NatWest markets and RBS International with £130bn lending, £215bn deposits and £100bn RWAs. Prior to that he spent 3 years as Director of Finance & Investor Relations and held other finance roles at RBS.

He was a non-executive director at Coutts for over 4 years. Prior to this he was a Group Accountant at Johnson Matthey having trained as a charted accountant at Deloitte.

Chief Risk Officer

Andrew brings over 25 years’ experience in financial services, including Aldermore Bank plc, where he served 3 years as Chief Risk Officer. Prior to that he was an Expert Partner at Bain & Co in their Financial Services & Digital practice and, before that, worked over 20 years in NatWest Group where he held a number of senior business and risk roles, most recently MD, Commercial & Private Banking. He was also Co-Founder of NatWest’s Esme Loans Ltd an award winning SME digital lending platform.

As CRO Andy is focussed on helping create a safe, scalable and sustainable bank, ensuring that Alba has the full confidence and backing of key stakeholders, and offering compelling SME lending and online savings propositions to our customers

Chief Operating Officer

Chief People Officer

Sue has over 25 years experience working across all areas of HR including leading centres of excellence, delivering HR projects and programmes; building and leading HR functions and People Strategies. She creates structurally aligned, commercially focused, flexible and agile HR teams and facilitates a culturally aligned team right across the business.

Sue has worked across a number of different industries including Telecoms, Professional Services, Financial Services and Banking; working in businesses of different sizes, constructs and levels of maturity and latterly leading the HR build for Bank North to support PRA/FCA regulatory approval.

Sue brings to her current role a deep experience and passion for Organisation Design and Development, believing that building the right culture at Alba is paramount to our success. 

Chief Technology Officer

Al is a proven end-to-end Transformation Director successfully completing 5 full Banking platform launches, 3 of which completed within 7 months.  He has skills of ownership and delivery of portfolios of complex change programmes ensuring organisational alignment/oversight, timely and cost effective delivery with a “can-do” attitude.  Shaping and delivery of greenfield bank proposition in the Czech Republic

Extensive Banking product experience including product design, organisation and operational design/run and delivery of operational metrics and MI to inform growth and risk strategies.  Active member of Bank Executive Committees ensures solutions meet organisational, regulatory and customer needs.  Shapes strategy collaboratively with Boards and other executive owners so that solutions deliver the expected outcomes.  Builds and coaches teams to promote ownership of solutions and continuous improvement.

Worked successfully with regulators through 2 full Bank mobilisations and recognised by accreditation to SMF24 (Chief Operations SMF). Extensive experience working with third party suppliers to deliver end-to-end solutions including operational resilience