Our leadership

Andrew Learoyd

Chairman of the Board

Term of office
Appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in February 2010 and became Chairman of the Board in May 2016.

Committee membership
Andrew has chaired the Nomination Committee since September 2018 and is a member of the Remuneration Committee and the Market Disclosure Committee. He also chairs the ESG Committee, and attends meetings of the Risk and Compliance Committee and Audit Committee by invitation. Andrew also took on the role of designated Non-Executive Director for workforce engagement with effect from 1 January 2021.

Independent
On appointment.

Skills and experience
Andrew spent 23 years working in investment banking as a research analyst, in corporate finance, equity capital markets and finally as Chief Operating Officer of the Equities Division in Europe of Goldman Sachs. He retired as a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs in 2006. Andrew has been involved as an angel investor, Non-Executive Director and consultant to several start-up businesses.

External appointments
Andrew is also a Director of Funding Circle Ltd. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Schwanhäußer Industrie Holding, a consumer products manufacturer based in Germany, and Threshold Sports Limited, which creates and delivers outdoor events for the public, corporate and charity sectors.

Samir Desai CBE

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Term of office
Samir founded Funding Circle in 2010, and was appointed to the Board as Chief Executive Officer in January 2010.

Committee membership
Samir is a member of the Market Disclosure Committee and attends meetings of the Risk and Compliance, Remuneration, Audit and Nomination Committees by invitation.

Independent
Not applicable.

Skills and experience
Prior to founding Funding Circle, Samir was a Management Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and an Investment Executive at Olivant, a private equity firm that invests in financial services businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In 2015, Samir was awarded a CBE for services to financial services.

External appointments
None.

Oliver White

Chief Financial Officer

Term of office
Oliver was appointed to the Board as Chief Financial Officer on 15 June 2020.

Committee membership
Oliver is a member of the Market Disclosure Committee and attends meetings of the Risk and Compliance, Remuneration and Audit Committees by invitation.

Independent
Not applicable.

Skills and experience
Oliver has spent the majority of his 30 years’ experience working in financial services, payments and lending. He joined from Vanquis Bank where he served as Chief Financial Officer. He was formerly the Chief Financial Officer at Barclaycard, where he managed a global business with combined assets of £40 billion, £5 billion of revenues and £1.6 billion of profits. Oliver is a chartered management accountant and holds an MBA from Warwick Business School.

External appointments
None.

Hendrik Nelis

Non-Executive Director

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

Committee membership
Hendrik is a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee.

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), Callsign, Celonis, CHECK24, Instana, Miro and WorldRemit. 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.

Committee membership
Neil is a member of the ESG Committee.

Independent
No.

Skills and experience
Neil is a Co-Founder and Partner of Index Ventures. Neil was previously a Director of Photobox Holdco Limited, Supercell Oy and The Climate Corporation.

External appointments
Neil is currently a Director or observer on various boards of companies based in the UK, Europe and the US, including Prodigy Investments Limited, Raisin GmbH, Nexthink SA and Pitch Software GmbH. He is also the Co-Chair of Human Rights Watch.

Eric Daniels

Non-Executive Director

Term of office
Eric was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in September 2016. He became Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee in September 2018.

Committee membership
Eric chairs the Risk and Compliance Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee.

Independent
Yes.

Skills and experience
Eric was previously Group Chief Executive Officer of the Lloyds Banking Group, the FTSE 100 listed banking group, retiring in 2011. Prior to joining Lloyds in 2001, he spent 25 years with Citigroup in a range of management positions.

Eric holds a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Cornell University.

External appointments
Eric currently holds a range of business appointments which include as a Partner at Abako Partners, an adviser, mentor and Non-Executive Director of Russell Reynolds Associates and a board member of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He also advises several innovative technology companies.

Geeta Gopalan

Senior Independent Director

Term of office
Geeta was appointed to the Board as a Non-Executive Director in November 2018. She became Chair of the Audit Committee in November 2018.

Committee membership
Geeta chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Risk and Compliance Committee and the Market Disclosure Committee. Geeta will also join the Nomination Committee and take on the role of Senior Independent Director to succeed Bob Steel later this year.

Independent
Yes.

Skills and experience
Geeta has over 25 years of experience of financial services and retail banking, particularly payments and digital innovation. Geeta was formerly Executive Chair of Monitise Europe. Among the many roles in her career, Geeta was Director of Payment Services with HBOS plc and previously Managing Director, UK Retail Bank and Business Development Head EME at Citigroup. She is a chartered accountant.

External appointments
Geeta serves as Non-Executive Director of Virgin Money UK PLC (formerly CYBG plc) (where she is Chair of the risk committee and a member of the audit, governance and nomination, and remuneration committees), Wizink Bank S.A. (where she is Chair of the risk committee and a member of the audit committee) and Ultra Electronic Holdings plc (where she is a member of the audit, nomination and remuneration committees).

Matthew King

Non-Executive Director

Matthew has over 36 years of experience in financial services. Having qualified as a solicitor with Slaughter and May, Matthew held a number of risk management positions with HSBC over a 15-year period across Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe. Matthew is currently a Non-Executive Director of Prodigy Finance Limited, which provides funding to international students at over 750 universities and colleges worldwide, and he is Non-Executive Chairman of Savannah Resources plc, an AIM-listed mining and exploration company which is developing a lithium mine in Portugal and a mineral sands mine in Mozambique.

Helen Beck

Non-Executive Director

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, Head of McLagan Europe (part of Aon) and held roles in human resources in Fidelity International.

Helen serves as Non-Executive Director of Ashmore Group PLC (where she is Chair of the remuneration committee), Governor of the University of Bedfordshire, Governor of John Whitgift Foundation and independent member of the remuneration committee for The British Olympic Committee.

Lucy Vernall

Company Secretary, General Counsel and Chief People Officer

Lucy is responsible for the Legal, Compliance and People functions of the business. She is also the Company Secretary for the plc. Lucy joined in 2014 and oversaw the process for full Financial Conduct Authority authorisation of the UK regulated business. In addition to working on the acquisition of Funding Circle's European business in October 2015 and a number of capital raises – including a £82 million investment round in January 2017 – she was part of the core team working on the October 2018 listing of Funding Circle Holdings on the London Stock Exchange. Lucy took on responsibility for the People function in August 2019. 

Lucy was one of the founder members of Kemp Little LLP, a technology focused City law firm, where as Head of Corporate she worked on M&A, equity and debt financing for financial services and FinTech companies. She was Managing Partner of Kemp Little from 2009 to 2011 when she became Wonga’s first General Counsel and built up the company’s international legal team.