How are Banking Practitioners changing Banking for good? The view from Practitioners

Erich Hoefer is a co-founder and the COO of Starling Trust Sciences where he leads the company’s AI research, software development, and services delivery.  Starling is a leading culture and conduct management platform offering thought leadership, advisory services, and technology for managing culture and governance continuously and at enterprise scale.  In his role, Erich works with Starling’s world-leading Academic and Science Advisors to translate discoveries in the field of computational social science into actionable insights and solutions.

Prior to joining Starling in 2017, Erich was the Vice President of Corporate Development & Innovation where he led global growth strategies, M&A, and new venture development for Choice Hotels International.  While at Choice, Erich launched and subsequently led an innovation lab at Choice Hotels where he created a strategic framework and processes for developing, funding, and executing corporate ventures and led the investment and launch of three separate ventures.

Erich holds an MBA degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Ian is a Bank Non-Executive Director and former CEO of Kyckr, an Australian listed RegTech business providing global KYC solutions to banks, payments services providers and other regulated businesses.  He joined Kyckr after a 30-year career in retail and business banking and wealth management.  He is an independent Non-Executive Director at Metro Bank, Chair of its Risk Oversight Committee and a member of its Audit Committee.  

Ian is also a Member Trustee of the Chartered Banker Institute.  From 2012, he was actively involved in the UK Challenger Bank sector holding CEO roles at Arbuthnot Latham & Co Limited, Kensington and Shawbrook Bank.  Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer of the Private Banking Businesses in Barclays Wealth and before that he was with RBS for 21 years.  His final role there was as CEO of RBS International.  He also held the positions of Chief Operating Officer Retail Banking and Marketing Director RBS & NatWest.  Ian holds degrees in Economics and Finance from Scottish and Canadian universities and an MBA.

Andrew began his banking career with The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and was selected to join their Accelerated Management Development Programme. Through this programme he rapidly gained experience in Retail, Corporate & Commercial banking and lending, Treasury & Capital Markets, Group Internal Audit, and managed restructuring programmes for some of the Bank’s subsidiary companies, whilst completing his Chartered Banker qualifications.

He left RBS in 2000 and began to develop a strong specialism in financial services risk management, whilst broadening his experience into other financial services sectors, and held various senior risk positions in firms including: Baillie Gifford & Co, The Royal London Group and Standard Life plc, where he took a leading role in their Risk function during their de-mutualisation and flotation on the UK stock market.

Andrew then spent the following 7 years in management consulting (including KPMG) up to Partner level, specialising in financial services risk & regulation. He consulted to several of the CEOs and CROs in Britain’s largest banks and led several major FSMA Section 166 Skilled Persons Reviews. He also undertook due diligence work on behalf of HM Treasury, on the banks applying to the Government’s Asset Protection Scheme, during the global financial crisis.

In 2013, he left consulting to become an Interim Executive, and developed a deep specialism in Interim Chief Risk Officer (SMF4) positions. Some of his interim executive clients included: Metro Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Cambridge & Counties Bank, Al Rayan Bank, Kleinwort Benson and Schroders, amongst several others.

During 2022, Andrew decided to apply the extensive knowledge and experience that he had gained as an Interim CRO to a permanent position within banking, and in August 2022 he was appointed by Barclays Bank UK as Managing Director and Chief Controls Officer, with specific responsibility for the customer and product verticals within the UK Bank.

Andrew is a qualified Chartered Banker and Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute. He also holds an MBA degree from the School of Business at Oxford University, in addition to other professional qualifications from the International Compliance Association and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

With a strong interest in keeping up to date with new and emerging technologies, he recently completed an Executive Education Programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management, on Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for Business Strategy.

Splitting his time between his homes in Edinburgh and Central London, Andrew is also a Board Trustee for a charitable organisation called Vauxhall City Farm, an inner-city farm in Central London.