Management Team

Charlene is responsible for designing and implementing people strategies designed to increase engagement and enhance employee experience.  These are largely across the areas of recruitment, talent development, wellbeing and learning.  Charlene is part of the Institute’s Wellbeing and Core Values Teams, with a strong interest in promoting a culture which allows our colleagues to thrive.

Charlene holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies and an MSc in Human Resources from Napier University, and has over 15 years' experience in the human resources field gained at various different organisations. In addition, Charlene has recently achieved a qualification in executive coaching. 

Jennifer has responsibility for our organisational partnerships and collaborations and has worked at the Institute for 14 years.  Her role includes managing business development activities, through building and growing relationships with banks, banking institutes, universities, professional education bodies and wider bank training organisations.  Strategic relationship management, flexibility, and teamwork (both externally and internally) are key strengths.

Prior to joining the Institute, Jennifer worked in retail banking for over 20 years, holding a variety of managerial and training roles.  She is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute, a Chartered Banker, and holds an MBA (Hons) with Bangor University Business School.  She is also a Board Member of EBTN (Europe Banking Financial Services Training Association).

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and dog.

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In May 2023 Karen was appointed as People Manager, Learning & Development

Karen’s remit includes developing a robust learning and development strategy to facilitate colleague learning and supporting one of the Institute’s main people objectives. Embedding a culture of continual learning, upskilling and consolidation of knowledge amongst our colleagues. Ensuring learning and development of our people remains a top priority

Karen joined the Institute in April 2016 as a Professional Standards Manager within the Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board (CB:PSB), then appointed Head of Professional Standards January 2018. Partnering with UK banks and consultancy firms to raise professionalism in banking, through professional development and supporting firms to educate their people on sustainability, climate change and green finance. 

Prior to this, Karen’s career was within Santander (formally Abbey National) for 30 years within a wide range of departments, inc: Retail Banking and Learning & Development, covering all areas of the L&D spectrum.

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As Head of Quality Assurance and Standards (QA&S), Katie is responsible for two main areas; Educational Quality and Evaluation. This involves developing, maintaining, enhancing and overseeing the Institute’s quality assurance systems as well as reviewing other external organisations’ programmes against the Institute’s standards. As an approved Credit Rating Body and a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Accredited Body, the Institute is subject to a number of external reviews considering the quality of the Institute’s UK and international educational and related activities, for which the QA&S department leads the response. 

Katie has been at the Institute since the start of 2015 and held roles as Head of the Awarding Body, Acting Head of Professional Standards (leading the strategic development and operations of the Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board (CB:PSB) and Professional Standards Manager.

Prior to joining us here at the Institute, Katie worked for RBS for over 25 years, across a wide range of departments including Retail Banking, Group Technology, Business and Commercial Banking and Human Resources. In her later years at RBS, Katie designed and implemented Professional Standards and Accreditation programmes for the Group and also defined the Global policy for Professional Qualifications.

Katie is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute, a Chartered Banker and a Chartered IT Professional (Member of the British Computer Society). She is also an Associate Fellow (Advanced) of the Awarding and Assessment Academy.

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With effect from July 2023, Lynn is our Educational Content Development Specialist, responsible for developing and managing our educational training content and academic programmes to ensure they align to our core strategic goals and priorities, creating engaging and effective learning experiences that enhance the knowledge and skills of professional bankers globally.

Prior to joining the Institute in 2011, Lynn worked with us as an Academic Associate. Roles included authoring, consulting, developing assessments, tutoring, and facilitating professional and personal development workshops for members.

Lynn worked in banking for 21 years in a diverse range of roles, including serving customers through direct banking channels, operational management, HR, management training and leadership development. Having developed a passion for coaching, she set up her own coaching, training, and consultancy business, specialising in coaching leaders in education and delivering coaching skills training for teachers. She has also worked for the Scottish Qualifications Authority where she led and managed teams engaged in the delivery of a range of assessment and quality assurance services leading to the certification of National Qualifications.

Lynn has a Bachelor of Education degree and a Masters in Coaching. She is a qualified teacher, trainer and executive coach, a Chartered Fellow of the Institute, and a former Young Banker of the Year.

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Margot is responsible for leading the Institute's global marketing function, driving the Institute's brand and communications strategy to achieve our global growth ambitions. Under Margot's leadership, the marketing team are responsible for all Institute events, social media, digital platforms, thought leadership, communications and brand. 

Margot has over 10 years' experience working in marketing, working in a variety of digital and managerial roles. Margot brings an ability to blend offline and online marketing together, measuring impact through analytics and developing strategies aligned to commercial goals. 

Mark is responsible for Learning Partnerships, with a focus on the Institute’s diverse and prestigious array of international collaborations. He has over 30 years of experience in a variety of educational roles that have seen him develop and manage qualifications in professional, schools and the further and higher education sectors.

Mark has developed a wide range of educational programmes ranging from basic training courses / e-learning, general qualifications for school-age children, professional qualifications to undergraduate, post-graduate level qualifications and apprenticeships integration and delivery. Mark has experience of a developing and maintaining variety of qualifications in a range of banking and wider financial services disciplines, including law and regulation, professional ethics, wealth management, residential lending, trade finance, retail and business banking, social issues and environmental sustainability.

Mark has worked with banks, educational institutions and independent banking Institutes in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Gulf and Asia, with his experiences here including curriculum creation and review and individual programme development, third-party teaching centre management, programme approval and alignment with regulatory needs.

Martin is responsible for leading our Member and Partnership Engagement Team. He is responsible for supporting and improving the membership journey proposition in collaboration with colleagues and commercial partners.

Martin joined us bringing with him experience in qualification development, publications and event management gained from both the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Higher Still Unit. He joined the education team in 2001 with a particular focus on events and has overseen the steady development of our seminar and events programme. Martin has also served as Governance Manager, providing the secretariat function for Council and Committees, and as Head of Membership.

Following the establishment of our Operations Division, he was appointed to head the Member and Partnership Engagement Team with a wide remit including membership engagement, service excellence, maintenance of member records, marketing, events and member communications, including delivery of the Chartered Banker magazine.

Martin has a particular interest in developing our digital content and is a champion for harnessing the power of the web to deliver enhanced services to members.

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Matthew is responsible for leading the implementation of the Institute’s strategic and operational plans for public affairs, key stakeholder engagement and communications.

Matthew has over 25 years’ experience working as a senior Parliamentary/Political Affairs Professional with a wealth of skills across all areas of public affairs, joining the Institute in 2015 to help raise its profile, impact and influence. Matthew has worked for MPs, co-founded a public affairs agency and run think-tanks providing him with considerable knowledge of the operations of regulators and government. He is also an expert in the UK Parliamentary Process.

Matthew was Administrative Secretary to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Building Societies and Financial Mutuals between 2003 and 2013 and immediately prior to working for the Institute, was Chief Executive of the financial services think-tank, New City Agenda.

Contact details
Email: [email protected]  Tel: 07720 684226
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Scott is responsible for managing our Member Engagement Team, Business Support Team, IT & Innovation, Assessment and Project Management Function.  Scott joined the Institute in 2018 as our Senior Project Manager and helped oversee our move to online exams.  He is trained at Practitioner level in both Prince2 and Agile.  Previous to working at the Institute, he was a Corporate Relationship Manager at a major UK bank and has over 10 years’ experience in banking, sitting some of the Institute’s qualifications whilst in that role.

Scott’s key values are to focus on strong customer service, promoting a good environment for colleagues to work in and provides development opportunities.

Shona is responsible for monitoring relevant regulatory and policy developments affecting the retail banking sector. This is a key role in strengthening the Institute’s reputation and profile within the relevant regulatory communities, as well as in supporting colleagues and members to remain informed of current and future developments. Shona is also part of the Institute’s Thought Leadership team, with a strong interest in deriving content that promotes our key strategic theme of sustainable, responsible banking.

With over 25 years' experience in the financial services sector, Shona has held a number of strategic positions within the Institute since joining in 2015. Committed to ensuring professional standards are practical, Shona has participated in many regulatory consultations, and has led development not only of the Institute’s own responses but also those of key Institute partnerships, such as the Chartered Body Alliance and the Sustainable Finance Education Charter.

Shona was Secretary for the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Skills from 2008 until 2014 and continues to attend these meetings on behalf of the Institute.

Shona is a qualified Behavioural Scientist, holding an MSc in the discipline from the University of Stirling. Her master’s thesis investigates potential opportunities for mortgage lenders to engage and support borrowers to make home energy efficiencies.

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Tracy is our Head of Corporate Governance, working closely with the Institute’s Executive Team and Board of Trustees to provide effective & proactive governance leadership across the full Institute governance remit. Tracy is responsible for Institute compliance with relevant legislation and regulation, including our responsibilities to OSCR, and providing advice on a variety of legal matters, in particular commercial contracts. Tracy has 15 years’ experience in the education sector where she provided strategic vision and leadership across all operational functions including Governance, Risk Management, Data Protection, Health & Safety, HR, IT and Facilities.

Prior to moving into the education sector,  Tracy was a Regional Operations Manager at Barclays Bank PLC and has over 14 years’ experience in banking.

Tracy is also the Data Protection Representative for the Institute, ensuring our obligations under UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), tailored by the Data Protection Act 2018 are fully satisfied.

Tracy is currently embarking on the learning modules available within the Principles for Responsible Banking Academy to further develop her knowledge in this area.

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