Board of Trustees

Paul Denton has over 35 years 'experience in financial services. He has held a number of senior roles at RBS, NatWest and Co-operative Bank and has been the Chief Executive of Scottish Building Society since 2019.

He joined the Institute as a member in 1988 completing the professional qualifications of the time (Associate / Members).

Paul is proud to have been a Chartered Banker since its launch in 2000, a Fellow since 2004 and a Trustee since 2021.

He also has an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and a BA (Hons) from Abertay University.

Paul is a member of the FCA Small Business Practitioner Panel, a member of UK Finance Mortgage Board and a Pension Trustee for the Building Societies Association.

Katherine has spent most of her career in the financial services industry.  Initially a programme director by trade, she managed regulatory, and people change in NatWest Group during some of the most challenging times in banking.  

Her academic background is in HR disciplines, holding a MA and MSc from Heriot-Watt and the University of Edinburgh respectively, and she is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

However, she is a fan of reinvention, and is now a technologist.  After 4 years heading up the Security Services function for the NatWest Group, she is now on a mission to digitise the colleague experience and has moved into the bank's Technology team. 

Outside of work, Katherine has held non-executive roles in the college sector and is a Lay Member of the Council of the Law Society of Scotland.  She is a supporter of STEM initiatives and has previously helped run events designed to encourage young people to consider careers in cyber security, technology, and banking. 

She is happiest when running through a theme park after her three young boys and believes in creating the right opportunities so that everyone can access learning and drive their own professional development, throughout their whole career.   

Dougie is currently Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK, the Payment Systems Operator responsible for the day to day running of the core UK domestic payment schemes and services.

With almost 40 years’ experience in financial services Dougie’s journey started with Clydesdale Bank in 1985 and he has enjoyed a varied career path encompassing branch banking, sales and service support, relationship management, programme management and payments.

Over the years Dougie has held a number of board level positions across the various payment schemes companies. A Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and an Associate of the Chartered Management Institute, Dougie has also served as a Pension Scheme Trustee and a Trustee Director of the Bank Workers Charity.

Outside of work, Dougie is heavily involved in Rugby, chairing Scottish Rugby’s National Championship Committee, in addition to holding several positions at his home club. Cycling, walking, and travel fill his remaining time.

After graduating with a degree in Economics, James spent some time working in private client and investment banking with Lloyds Bank before joining what is now Nottingham University Business School, where he completed a PhD in strategy and consumer decision making in financial services in 1996. James spent a number of years at the University of Nottingham, including a three-year posting at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia. During his time at Nottingham, James fulfilled a variety of leadership and management roles, culminating with a period as Dean of the Business School. James has also worked at what is now Bayes Business School in the City of London and more recently at the University of Leicester where he was Dean of the School of Business. In November 2021 James left Leicester to join Nottingham Trent University as Director of the newly formed Centre for Finance, Technology and Society, his current role.

James is a member of Advisory Board of the Financial Markets and Institutions SIG of the British Accounting and Finance Association. James is a also Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, a Certified Member of the Chartered Banker Institute and a Certified Green and Sustainable Finance Professional. James has been involved in a number of research projects and collaborations with organisations such as HM Treasury; the Thoresen Review (on behalf of HM Treasury), the Financial Services Authority (now the FCA), the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Services Institute of Australia and Toynbee Hall focussing on policy related issues, both in a consultative capacity and as a member of expert panels. James has also worked with the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and Willis Towers Watson PLC on research related to pensions and consumer behaviour. James was also co-organiser of an ESRC seminar series entitled Financial Services and Consumers: Issues and Challenges in a Context of Change with a total of six seminars being held in London, Edinburgh, and Nottingham. James has collaborated on a number of occasions with the Chartered Banker Institute both as a member of roundtable discussion on professionalism and standards in banking and to produce a major report on Professional Pride in Banking. He was also instrumental in bringing CBI accredited programmes to Nottingham University Business School.

Away from work, James spends time with his family and is based in Nottingham. He likes to get on his bike when he gets the chance and when the weather is nice. He is also a qualified age-grade rugby union coach and referee, a member at his local club West Bridgford RFC, and a Nottingham RFC season ticket holder. He is a debenture holder at Murrayfield and attends most Scotland matches.

Gill is an economist who has spent most of her career at the Bank of England, where she was Director of the Centre for Central Banking Studies (CCBS) until 2019 and Director of the Central Banking Qualification until 2023.  In these roles she worked with many central banks and financial regulators providing bespoke training in more than 70 countries.  Gill played a key role in developing master’s level on-line qualifications, in partnership with the University of  Warwick, and is committed to raising standards in financial services through continuous professional development.

Gill has an MA in economics from the University of Cambridge. She has more than 10 years’ experience in board level roles, including as chair of the London based charity, International Students House.  Gill is married and spends as much of her free time as possible playing tennis.    

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.

Greg is passionate about developing people and has led high performing, diverse teams across Financial Services at Executive level for over 15 years.

Greg started his career with Natwest in 1987 on the graduate scheme. Since then, he has had extensive experience in Corporate, Commercial, Business, Credit and Risk across both Natwest and RBS. He led the RBS Corporate and Commercial Business, across the UK as part of the Divestment plans to form Williams & Glyn.

Since leaving RBS in 2017 Greg led the Cynergy Bank Property Finance, Commercial and Bridging teams as a SMF 6, growing the business materially over a 3-year period and was then appointed Chief Operating Officer, SMF 24 with wide ranging responsibilities including resilience, remediation projects, change, transformation, partnering, outsourcing, customer experience and leading complex and diverse operational teams.

Greg has extensive experience across large, and more recently the 'challenger' market through scale Leadership, Committee, Advisory and Board roles including Chair of Credit Committee. Passionate about the environment - leading delivery of ISO140001 for Cynergy Bank and a champion for change.

Currently, Non-Executive Chair of Deploy Capital Limited and Advisor to a range of growing businesses in the Financial Services sector.

A member of the Institute and keen to play an active role as a Trustee. Greg is married to Emma, lives in Dorset, with the children having 'virtually' flown the nest they have been replaced with Cats, Chickens, Goats and Donkeys!

John has over 34 years’ experience within Financial Services undertaking a myriad of Executive leadership positions across multiple jurisdictions and markets, together with Trustee and Board membership. During the last 10 years with NatWest, he was the Human Resources Director for the Bank’s Commercial and Wealth Management franchises and the Director of Organisational Effectiveness, a remit that included: Behavioural Science, Skills and Organisational Capability, Culture, Learning & Development, Leadership, Talent & Succession, Organisational Design, Strategic Workforce Planning and Recruitment.

John is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and a qualified Executive coach having been awarded an MSc from Henley Business School in Coaching & Behavioural Change.  He is also a Certified Bank Board Director and is currently completing a professional Doctorate with a focus on line management; creating organisational value beyond individual performance.

Peter has worked in the financial services industry since 1981 and for the past twenty years has focussed on governance, risk and regulation. During this time, he has worked at the Financial Services Authority, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the Prudential Regulation Authority, and, the Financial Conduct Authority.

He has extensive industry related education and is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He is also a Chartered Banker, Chartered Governance Professional, Chartered Director and Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.  He is a former Director of the Institute of Operational Risk, and former Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee and Chair of the Board of Islington Law Centre.