Our leadership - Funding Circle Holdings plc (LSE: FCH)

Our leadership

Board of Directors

Ken Stannard

Chair of the Board

Term of office
Ken was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in January 2025 and Chair of the Board in May 2025

Independent
Yes.

Skills and experience
Ken brings 30 years’ experience in credit, lending and payments, having held senior executive roles at Lloyds Banking Group, Capital One and American Express, and most recently as CEO of Cabot Credit Management. Prior to his executive roles, he was a partner at Oliver Wyman LLC. Ken has an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford.

External appointments
Ken is currently Chair of Castle Trust Capital Plc, Castle Trust Holdings Limited and Viewture Limited. He is currently also a Non-Executive Director of Verastar Ltd. and Chair of its Remuneration Committee and Lead Director of Cepal Hellas Financial Services S.A.

Lisa Jacobs

Chief Executive Officer

Term of office
Lisa was appointed to the Board as Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2022.

Independent
No

Skills and experience
Lisa joined Funding Circle in 2012 and was previously UK Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to Funding Circle, Lisa worked as a Management Consultant, both independently and for the Boston Consulting Group, where she had a financial services focus. She has had roles in NGOs in Tanzania and India.

External appointments
None.

Tony Nicol

Chief Financial Officer

Term of office
Tony was appointed to the Board as Chief Financial Officer on 1 January 2025.

Independent
No

Skills and experience
Tony joined Funding Circle in 2018 as Director of Finance. Prior to Funding Circle, he was Group Financial Controller at IG Group Holdings plc, where he was responsible for all financial reporting including budgeting and forecasting. Before then, Tony worked at PwC as an Assurance Director auditing and advising listed and private businesses in a number of sectors. Tony is an FCA of the ICAEW and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Bristol.

External appointments
None.

Helen Beck

Senior Independent Director

Term of office
Helen was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in June 2021. Helen is also the Senior Independent Director.

Independent
Yes.

Skills and experience
Helen has over 25 years of experience in financial services, particularly in remuneration design, regulation and human resources. Helen was formerly a Partner at Deloitte and, among her previous roles in her career, Helen was Global Head of Reward at Standard Bank and Head of McLagan Europe (part of Aon) and held roles in human resources at Fidelity International. Helen was also previously a Non-Executive Director of Irwin Mitchell.

External appointments
Helen serves as Non-Executive Director of St James's Place plc (where she is Chair of the Remuneration Committee), Hampshire Trust Bank, Picton Property Income Limited (where she is Chair of the Remuneration Committee) and as an adviser of Charles II Realisation LLP. Helen is an independent adviser for the Wellcome Foundation’s Remuneration Sub-Committee and is an independent member of the Remuneration Committee for The British Olympic Association.

Hendrik Nelis

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Hendrik was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in September 2013.

Independent
No.

Skills and experience
Hendrik joined Accel in 2004 and focuses on software, fintech and consumer internet companies. He led Accel’s investments in KAYAK (NASDAQ: KYAK, acquired by Priceline), Showroomprive (EPA: SRP), Funding Circle (LON: FCH), Celonis, CHECK24, Instana, Miro and Zepz.
Hendrik started his career in Silicon Valley as an engineer at Hewlett‑Packard before founding a venture‑backed software company. He is from the Netherlands and graduated from Harvard Business School and Delft University of Technology.

External appointments
Hendrik serves as Manager, Partner Director and/or Member at a number of Accel entities, as well as a Director or supervisory board member of several other companies.

Neil Rimer

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Neil was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in March 2011.

Independent
No.

Skills and experience
Neil is a Co-Founder and Partner of Index Ventures. Before starting Index Ventures, he spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. Neil was previously a Director of Photobox Holdco Limited, Supercell Oy and The Climate Corporation.

External appointments
Neil is currently a Director on various boards of companies based in the UK, Europe, the Cayman Islands and the US including Raisin GmbH, Nexthink SA, Sofia Holdings Limited, Taxfix GmbH and Typeform S.L. He is also the Co-Chair of Human Rights Watch.

Maeve Byrne

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Maeve was appointed to the Board as Non-Executive Director on 2 June 2025.

Independent
Yes

Skills and experience
Maeve brings 30 years’ experience within financial services, having held senior executive roles at Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. Most recently, seconded as Chief Financial Officer of the Non Core division of RBS. Prior to her executive roles, she was a partner at KPMG. Maeve is a Chartered Accountant and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Accountants in Ireland. Maeve has a BCom from University College Dublin.

External appointments
Maeve is currently Non Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at LendInvest Plc and M-Kopa Holdings Limited.

Richard Harvey

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Richard was appointed to the Board as Non-Executive Director on 1 August 2025.

Independent
Yes

Skills and experience
Richard brings over 30 years’ experience within financial services, having held senior roles at HSBC, GE Money and Barclays. Most recently, as Global Head of Retail Banking Products at HSBC Holdings plc and Chief Executive of GE Money (UK Unsecured). Richard previously served as a director on the boards of GE Capital Bank UK and HSBC Bank of Nevada. Richard has a BA in English Literature from University of Bristol.

External appointments
Richard is currently Non-Executive Director at both the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the UK Money and Pensions Service, an arms-length body of the DWP. In addition, Richard is a Trustee Director of Citizen Advice (Runnymede and Spelthorne).

Tamsin Todd

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Tamsin was appointed to the Board as Non-Executive Director on 13 July 2026.

Independent
Yes

Skills and experience
Tamsin brings over 25 years of experience in business strategy, product management and technology. Having held senior roles at Dunnhumby, Findmypast, Addison Lee, TUI, Betfair, Microsoft and Amazon. Most recently as Interim COO at Dunnhumby and CEO of Findmypast. Tamsin has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Imperial College London.

External appointments

Tamsin serves as Non-Executive Director of The Gym Group plc (where she is Chair of the Remuneration and Sustainability Committees), Auction Technology Group plc (where she is Chair of the Remuneration Committee) and INTO University Partnerships.

Sarah Whiteley

Company Secretary and Chief Legal Officer

Term of office
Sarah was appointed Company Secretary and Chief Legal Officer in January 2026.

Independent
Not applicable

Skills and experience
Sarah has over 20 years advising listed and PE backed financial services firms across Europe and the US. Prior to joining Funding Circle, Sarah was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Cabot Credit Management, Non-Executive Director of the Credit Services Association and previously in private practice at Clyde & Co. Sarah has a Master of Laws from King's College, London.

External appointments
Sarah is currently Non-Executive Director of the Dame Vera Lynn Children's Charity.

Executive Committee

Lisa Jacobs

Chief Executive Officer
Skills and experience
Lisa is the CEO of Funding Circle, the leading UK small business credit platform, which enables small businesses to borrow, pay and spend. To date the platform has extended more than £16bn to small businesses, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. During her time at Funding Circle, as UK Managing Director, she led the UK business through the pandemic becoming one of the largest lenders under the CBILS government loan scheme; and as Chief Strategy Officer she led capital raising from Series C to IPO; and led the company’s international expansion with two acquisitions. She was named as AltFi’s CEO of the Year 2022 and Fintech Woman of the Year in 2021. She has also been named on the Innovate Finance FinTech PowerList 2017-2023.
Prior to Funding Circle, Lisa was a strategy consultant at BCG. She has also worked for NGOs in Tanzania and India.
Lisa studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford.

Alexander Allen

Managing Director, Term Loans & Chief Customer Officer
Skills and experience
Alexander leads the UK business and is responsible for the strategic direction and overall performance of Funding Circle in the UK. Alexander joined Funding Circle in early 2018 as UK Strategy Director, before also taking on the roles of Commercial Director and then also Change Director with responsibility for driving commercial performance across the UK business, setting strategic plans, developing and launching new product propositions and managing programme delivery. He has also had spells leading the Marketing, Brand and Operations teams in the UK and Europe.
Prior to Funding Circle, Alexander began his career at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, before going on to serve 7 years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Green Jackets/The Rifles. Since leaving the army he has worked in several roles including 4½ years with Bain & Company in London, advising a number of multinational companies across financial services, utilities, business information, health and education. His specialisms included corporate and business unit strategy, organisational and op model design, salesforce effectiveness and performance improvement. He has also held leadership roles in working with NGOs in Haiti and building a retail services business in the UK and Ireland.
Alexander holds an MA (Oxon) from the University of Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.

Greig McEwan

Chief Technology Officer
Skills and experience
As Chief Technology Officer, Greig is responsible for all of Funding Circle’s technology capabilities globally.
Greig is a customer-driven technology leader, with more than twenty years’ experience working in fast-paced digital organisations. He has served as CTO for businesses as diverse as sennder, one of Europe’s leading digital freight-forward platforms, and both the Paddy Power and Betfair brands.
Greig also has extensive experience in leading change delivery and transformation for companies such as Ladbrokes and Yell. He started his career as a developer for the National House Building Council.

Greig holds a Masters Degree from Glasgow University.

Belkacem Krimi

Chief Risk Officer
Skills and experience
Belkacem brings more than 20 years of experience in risk management to his role as Global Chief Risk Officer at Funding Circle, following 5 years as Chief Risk Officer for Europe.
Prior to joining Funding Circle, Belkacem held various risk leadership roles within GE Capital across Asia and Europe at both a regional and national level. He has unique international experience across credit cycles with a deep knowledge of most consumer and retail commercial lending products. Within Funding Circle, his leadership during the Covid crisis has been critical in ensuring that SMEs continued to be supported through the pandemic whilst protecting investor returns.

Tony Nicol

Chief Financial Officer
Skills and experience
Tony joined Funding Circle in 2018 as Director of Finance. Prior to Funding Circle, he was Group Financial Controller at IG Group Holdings plc, where he was responsible for all financial reporting including budgeting and forecasting. Before then, Tony worked at PwC as an Assurance Director auditing and advising listed and private businesses in a number of sectors. Tony is an FCA of the ICAEW and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Bristol.

John Nolan

Chief People Officer
Skills and experience
John is responsible for the People function at Funding Circle and leads Funding Circle's people strategy, including recruitment, talent management and succession, culture, diversity, equity and inclusion, and people operations. John joined Funding Circle in 2018, supporting the UK and CE businesses, before taking responsibility for the US People organisation in 2019.
Prior to Funding Circle, John held leadership positions in HR and Finance at Barclays and HSBC. He began his career at Deloitte as a Consultant in their strategy and human capital practice, advising and providing implementation services to clients across both the public and private sectors, including pharmaceuticals, technology and financial services.
John holds a Masters Degree from Ollscoil na Gaillimhe (University of Galway) in Ireland, and is a chartered management accountant.

Tim Trailor

Managing Director, Cards
Skills and experience
As Managing Director, Cards, Tim is responsible for spearheading the continued growth and innovation of Funding Circle's credit card and working capital solutions for small businesses.
Prior to joining Funding Circle, Tim held various leadership roles, including Chief Risk Officer at Envisso and Capital on Tap, Chief Credit Officer at Monzo Bank, and Vice President at Klarna. His experience lies in launching and scaling high-growth lending products, alongside his deep credit cards expertise and knowledge of the fintech market. He began his career at CapitalOne and has also worked at Barclays, HBOS, Dollar Financial Group, and SRC Transatlantic. Tim holds an MBA and MSci from Imperial College, London.

Sarah Whiteley

Company Secretary and Chief Legal Officer
Skills and experience
Sarah has over 20 years advising listed and PE backed financial services firms across Europe and the US. Prior to joining Funding Circle, Sarah was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Cabot Credit Management, Non-Executive Director of the Credit Services Association and previously in private practice at Clyde & Co. Sarah has a Master of Laws from King's College, London.

Sarah is currently Non-Executive Director of the Dame Vera Lynn Children's Charity.