Management Structure

Executive Committee (ExCo)

The Executive Committee (ExCo) will report to Stephen Hester and be accountable to the Board. It will meet bi-weekly and focus on substantive business decisions cutting across issues of Group-wide significance.

  1. Group Chief Executive
  2. Chief Executive of Global Banking and Markets
  3. Chief Executive, UK Corporate
  4. Chief Executive, RBS Insurance
  5. Chief Executive, Citizens and Head of Americas
  6. Group Finance Director
  7. Chief Administrative Officer
  8. Head of Restructuring and Risk
  9. UK Retail, Wealth and Ulster Bank
  • Group Chief Executive

    Stephen Hester

    Stephen Hester

    Appointed to the Board on 1 October 2008, and to the position of Group Chief Executive on 21 November 2008. Stephen Hester was chief executive of The British Land Company PLC. He was previously chief operating officer of Abbey National plc and prior to that he held positions with Credit Suisse First Boston including chief financial officer, Head of fixed income and co-Head of European Investment Banking.

    In February 2008, he was appointed non-executive deputy chairman of Northern Rock PLC, a position he relinquished on 1 October 2008. He is also a trustee of the Foundation and Friends of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Foundation.

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  • Chief Executive of Global Banking and Markets

    John Hourican

    John Hourican

    Previous to his appointment as Chief Executive, Global Banking and Markets in October 2008, John was Chief Financial Officer at ABN AMRO and a member of the Managing Board. John has held a variety of senior positions within the Investment Bank at RBS including Head of Leverage Finance Europe & Asia, Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director of the division. Prior to joining RBS, John worked at Price Waterhouse in Dublin, Hong Kong and London.

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  • Chief Executive, UK Corporate

    Chris Sullivan

    Chris Sullivan

    Chris Sullivan was appointed Chief Executive of the UK Corporate Banking Division including SME and the GTS Division in August 2009. These businesses hold market positions of 1st (in the UK) and 5th (globally) respectively.

    Chris' previous role was as Chief Executive of RBS Insurance, which is the second largest general insurance provider in the UK. Its businesses sell and underwrite retail, wholesale and commercial insurance and sell products (motor, home, pet, travel, breakdown cover, life and commercial insurance) over the telephone and internet as well as through partnerships and brokers. Prior to this, Chris was Chief Executive of Retail and Deputy Chief Executive of Retail Markets.

    Chris is Vice Chairman of the Association of British Insurers, Chairman of the General Insurance Council, a member of the CBI Presidents Committee and was a previous Chairman of the CBI SE Council.

    Chris has a proven track record in growing businesses, which he demonstrated in the five years he was Chief Executive of Lombard Asset Finance where he developed the business to a leadership position in the UK and Europe.

    Working initially in a number of sales and sales management roles he was appointed head of Group Training and Development in 1991. The role reflected his sustained interest in leadership and management development and initiated his close working relationship with Professor Harry Schroder (Princeton). In 1993, Chris became the National Sales Director for Lombard Business Finance, moving on to become Managing Director and later Chief Executive of Lombard Group, a business he joined from school in 1975.

    FCIBS - Chris Sullivan earned his Fellowship of Chartered Institute of Bankers Scotland for his services to Scottish Banking in various roles throughout his career.

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  • Chief Executive, RBS Insurance

    Paul Geddes

    Paul Geddes

    Paul Geddes was appointed as Chief Executive of RBS Insurance in August 2009, and is leading a significant turnaround of the business, which returned to profit in the first quarter of 2011, ahead of its planned divestment from the Group in 2013. The business is Britain’s leading motor and home insurer, with over 4m policies and some of the best known brands in the industry, including its own brands Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege and Green Flag, as well as partners like Sainsbury’s, Prudential and Nationwide Building Society. It also has a successful commercial insurance business in NIG, and a successful and growing franchise in Germany and Italy, where it is the number one direct motor insurer.

    Prior to his move to Insurance, Paul was CEO of UK Retail Banking, RBS Group from 2006, where he led one of the UK’s largest retail banking businesses and a team of over 30,000 through a challenging period for the industry, improving its customer and financial performance against peers. He initiated a major transformation programme involving a significant investment in technology and the repositioning of NatWest behind "Helpful Banking". He joined RBS Group in 2004 as Managing Director, Marketing & Strategy, Retail Banking.

    Before financial services, Paul held a number of senior roles in multi-channel retailing. He was appointed Marketing Director at Argos in 2001, a role which included responsibility for Argos’ online business. During this period the company increased sales by fifty per cent, doubled profits and won awards for marketing and eCommerce, as well as Retailer of the Year 2003. His career began at Procter & Gamble, with UK and European roles, followed by senior Marketing roles in retailing at Superdrug and Comet.

    Paul read PPE at Oxford, graduating in 1990, and remains a supporter of his college through music scholarships. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, a member of the ABI Board and a member of the FSA Practitioner Panel.

    He is married with two daughters and lives in London. Away from work, he has a keen supporter of the arts and an active musician.

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  • Chief Executive, Citizens and Head of Americas

    Ellen Alemany

    Ellen Alemany

    Ellen joined RBS America in June 2007 from Citigroup, where she was CEO for Global Transaction Services. She was also a member of the Citigroup Operating Committee, Corporate and Investment Planning Group, and Global Banking Operating Committee. Ellen began her banking career at Chase Manhattan Bank in 1977, working in Operations, Structured Trade, and the Media and Electronics Department as a Senior Lender. She is currently the only woman responsible for one of the top ten commercial banking institutions in the US.

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  • Group Finance Director

    Bruce van Saun

    Bruce van Saun

    Appointed to the Board in October 2009, Bruce Van Saun has more than 25 years of financial services experience. From 1997-2008 he held a number of senior positions with Bank of New York and later Bank of New York Mellon, most recently as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer and before that responsible for the Asset Management and Market Related businesses. Prior to that, he held senior positions with Deutsche Bank, Wasserstein Perella Group and Kidder Peabody & Co. Since 2008 he worked as an advisor to US Private Equity companies.

    Bruce has an MBA in Finance/General Management from the University of North Carolina along with a BSBA from Bucknell University.

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  • Chief Administrative Officer

    Ron Teerlink

    Ron Teerlink

    In April 2008 Ron joined the RBS group as Chief Executive of Business Services, becoming the Group Chief Administrative Officer in February 2009. At the same time he was re-appointed to the Managing Board of ABN AMRO to oversee the integration programme.

    Ron started his career with ABN Bank in 1986 as an IT/Systems analyst and held various functional positions before becoming Chief Operating Officer of the Wholesale Clients Business in 2002. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Group Shared Services in 2004 and joined ABN AMRO's Managing Board in January 2006, where he was responsible for Services and Market Infrastructure. Ron holds a Masters degree in Economics from Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit and is married with two children.

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  • Head of Restructuring and Risk

    Nathan Bostock

    Nathan Bostock

    Nathan joined The Royal Bank of Scotland on 1st June 2009 as Head of Restructuring and Risk with Responsibility for the newly formed Non-Core Division & APS, the Global Restructuring Group and the control functions of Group Legal & Secretariat and Risk Management. The Non-Core Division holds the assets which will be wound down or sold to reduce the size and improve the risk profile of the RBS balance sheet and is also responsible for the management of the assets covered by the UK Government’s Asset Protection Scheme.

    Before joining RBS, Nathan spent eight years with Abbey National plc in several roles and was latterly the CFO and main Board Director responsible for Products & Marketing, HR, Insurance and Cards. He joined Abbey in 2001 and took up the role of Head of Financial Markets & Portfolio Business Unit.

    Before joining Abbey, Nathan spent ten years with RBS in a number of roles, including Chief Operating Officer of Treasury and Capital Markets and Group Risk Director. During this period RBS experienced substantial growth culminating in the acquisition of NatWest.

    A Chartered Accountant, Nathan worked with Coopers & Lybrand, before starting his career in banking. He spent seven years in Chase Manhattan Bank in a variety of areas and functions. He also holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics.

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  • UK Retail, Wealth and Ulster Bank

    Brian Hartzer

    Brian Hartzer

    Brian Hartzer is 42 years old, a joint US and Australian citizen and is married with 4 young children. A Princeton graduate, he joined ANZ in 1999 to run their Consumer Finance business (credit cards, merchant services and personal loans) until 2004. He then took over the full Retail bank portfolio (including SME and Wealth), and in 2008 added the role of Chief Executive Australia for all ANZ business lines, as well as Global Segment Lead for Retail. Before joining ANZ, Brian was a financial services consultant in New York, San Francisco and Melbourne for 10 years.

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Management Committee (ManCo)

The Management Committee (ManCo), comprising our major businesses and functional leaders, will meet 3 - 4 times annually and will be a vehicle for strategy and business performance review.

As Executive Committee plus:

  1. Chief Executive, Global Transaction Services
  2. Group General Counsel
  3. CEO, UK Corporate & Institutional Banking
  4. Head of Non-Core Division and APS
  5. Group Treasurer
  6. Chief Architect
  7. President, Global Banking & Markets
  8. Chief Executive, Ulster Bank
  9. CEO Asia
  10. Head of Communications and Group Chief Economist
  11. Global Head of Markets
  12. Group Human Resources Director
  13. Deputy Group Risk Officer
  14. CEO, Wealth Management
  • Chief Executive, Global Transaction Services

    Scott Barton

    Scott has been with RBS for 16 years, joining from Andersen Consulting.

    Initially focused on corporate coverage in London, he also spent four years in New York and Houston.

    On GBM’s formation, Scott ran the UK corporate coverage franchise, while also working to build an RBS franchise in the Middle East.

    Post-RBS and ABN AMRO coming together, Scott moved out to Dubai to run the Middle East and Africa hub, spanning the full array of the GBM businesses.

    In 2009, he returned to the UK to run Large Corporate banking, spanning Corporate banking Division’s FTSE 350 UK coverage business, the global shipping business and the trustee and depositary business.

    Most recently Scott has moved to become CEO of GTS.

    Scott has a First in Management Sciences from Loughborough University and an MBA from Cass Business School. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

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  • Group General Counsel

    Chris Campbell

    Chris Campbell

    Chris joined RBS in August 2005 as Deputy General Counsel and Director, Group Legal. He has responsibility for Group Legal, which provides legal support both at Group level and to all of RBS’s divisions and businesses globally. Chris also has overall responsibility for managing the Group’s relationships with its external UK legal advisers.

    Prior to joining RBS, Chris was a partner for 18 years in Scotland’s largest law firm, Dundas & Wilson, and was Managing Partner from 1996 until he joined RBS. Chris graduated from Edinburgh University in 1980 (LLB Hons) and is an Honorary Professor in Commercial Law at the University of Glasgow.

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  • CEO, UK Corporate & Institutional Banking

    Mark Catton

    Mark Catton

    Mark rejoined the RBS Group in August 2007, having previously worked for NatWest. He is responsible for leading the RBS Corporate and Institutional franchise in the UK.

    In his previous role, Mark was a Managing Director in Barclays Capital, responsible as Chief Operating Officer for European Investment Banking and Debt Capital Markets, and for managing the relationship with Barclays Corporate across EMEA. Mark spent his previous five years as part of the Corporate Executive team of Barclays, responsible for a number of its client and product businesses in the UK and Continental Europe.

    Mark has more than 20 years' experience in corporate banking and financial markets.

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  • Head of Non-Core Division and APS

    Rory Cullinan

    Rory Cullinan

    Rory joined RBS in early 2009 to Head the Non-Core Division and the Asset Protection Scheme. He had previously worked at RBS as Head of Equity Finance from 2001 – 2005 and was a CBFM Board Member. Before rejoining RBS, his previous role was Co-Managing Partner and Group Board Member at Renaissance Capital. He has worked for a variety of Financial firms including Permira Advisors, Verdoso Investments (a company he co-founded), Pembridge Investments, Citibank & Barclays.

    Rory has the ability to lead and manage multi-national businesses across various industries and has extensive experience of disposals, investments and restructuring across the Americas, EMEA and Russia.

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  • Group Treasurer

    John Cummins

    John Cummins

    As Group Treasurer, John manages the treasury function for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. He is responsible for the management of the Group’s capital, liquidity, and structural FX & interest rate risk and his role also includes responsibility for funding the Group balance sheet, and the management of the Group’s capital and resources policies.

    In his previous role John managed the Treasury function for Standard Life Assurance Group.  He also filled the role of Finance Director, Standard Life Bank on an interim basis. In 2006 John was appointed Director of IFFIm, a AAA rated development institution.  The IFFIm Board is responsible for the management of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation Company (IFFIm), registered as a UK Charity. The IFFIm has raised over $2bn for vaccines in the developing world.

    John holds an MA in Modern History from Oxford University and an MBA from Bradford University. He completed the Corporate Finance Course at London Business School and attended the Risk Management in Banking programme at INSEAD.

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  • Chief Architect

    Kevin Hanley

    Kevin Hanley

    Kevin joined the Bank in 2009 as Chief Architect with responsibility for strategy and architecture within Business Services and for managing the Business Partner community.

    Prior to joining the Bank, Kevin was the Head of Services within ABN AMRO with responsibility for all Technology, Operations, Property and Procurement Services across the Group. During his time with ABN AMRO Kevin held a number of senior positions including being the Services COO and leading the Operations Strategy and Change function.

    Prior to his time at ABN AMRO, Kevin was a Partner in Accenture's Global Capital Markets practice based in London. Kevin led the UK Capital Markets strategy practice during his time with Accenture and was the client partner responsible for overseeing all of their work at a number of leading institutions, including being the ABN AMRO client partner for over 5 years. He has over 20 years industry experience having worked at many different financial institutions in Europe and the United States of America.

    Prior to joining Accenture, Kevin obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge University.

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  • President, Global Banking & Markets

    Suneel Kamlani

    Suneel Kamlani

    Suneel joined RBS as President of Global Banking and Markets in April 2010. He has global responsibility for GBM's logistics and control functions, including Finance, Risk, Legal, Operations, Technology, Human Resources, and Communication and Marketing.

    As a member of the GBM Executive Committee and the RBS Group Management Committee, Suneel plays an integral role in setting business strategy and ensuring that the infrastructure and control environment successfully supports that strategy.

    Suneel has more than 25 years of experience in investment banking, most recently as Chief Operating Officer for UBS’s Global Investment Bank and as a Member of the UBS Group Managing Board. Throughout his career, he has worked in London, New York and Hong Kong and has held a variety of leadership positions at UBS, notably as Global Head of Debt Capital Markets, Head of European Fixed Income, Head of US Debt Capital Markets and Head of Investment Banking & Fixed Income in Asia. Suneel began his investment banking career at Bankers Trust Company in New York.

    He has an extensive track record of arranging and executing capital markets transactions for corporations, financial institutions and governments in over 30 countries. He has served as a member of the SIFMA Europe Board, the Bank of England’s Fixed Income Committee and the IIF’s Working Group on Crisis Resolution.

    Suneel holds a BA in Economics and Finance from Northwestern University.

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  • Chief Executive, Ulster Bank

    Jim Brown

    Jim Brown

    Jim Brown is Chief Executive of Ulster Bank Group with responsibility for Ulster Bank businesses in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Jim is also a member of the RBS Management Committee.

    Prior to taking up his role in Ulster Bank, Jim was CEO for Retail and Commercial Markets in Asia and Middle East with responsibility for the RBS retail and commercial banking franchise in nine markets.

    Before joining RBS, Jim worked in ABN AMRO holding a variety of senior positions including Head of Consumer Clients Asia and Country Manager for Taiwan.

    Mr. Brown has also worked in Citibank holding various key positions in retail and consumer banking in Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.

    Married with family Jim is in the process of moving to Ireland.

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  • CEO Asia

    John McCormick

    John McCormic

    John McCormick is Chairman & CEO of RBS Group in Asia Pacific. This role combines responsibility for Wholesale & Investment Banking (GBM), Wealth (RBS Coutts) and Global Transaction Services (GTS) and numbers about 12,500 staff. He is a member of the RBS GBM Executive Committee and the RBS Group Management Committee.

    Based in Hong Kong, John became Chairman and CEO, Asia Pacific in December 2005. From 2002 to 2005, he was responsible for the RBS global sales and marketing activities across asset classes in financial markets. In 2005, John was also Treasurer of the Wealth Management Division which included product development and delivery to clients of Coutts, Coutts Bank von Ernst, RBS Coutts International, RBS International and Adam & Co.

    From March 2000 to January 2002, John was the RBS Global Head of Rates / Fixed Income. In this role, he successfully combined the fixed income and derivative activities of NatWest Markets, Greenwich NatWest and RBS.

    Prior to RBS, John worked in Bank of America for 16 years in Ireland, UK and the US. He was responsible for Bank of America's derivatives business in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joined BOA in 1979 following a brief period with Bank of Ireland in Dublin.

    John's early years were spent in trading FX, cash and the early stages of interest rate and currency derivatives. In 1982, John moved to Chase Manhattan Bank in London, and then Bahrain, where he was responsible for regional asset and liability management and forward FX business. He returned to Bank of America in Dublin in late 1983 where he was appointed Bank of America's youngest Treasurer.

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  • Head of Communications and Group Chief Economist

    Andrew McLaughlin

    Andrew Mclaughlin

    Andrew McLaughlin is Head of Communications and Group Chief Economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Before joining the Group, he spent three years with Ernst and Young working in corporate finance. Andrew holds a first class honors degree in Economics and Politics, and a PhD, for which he was awarded the Walter Bagehot prize for best UK dissertation in the field of government and public administration. He published a book on the automobile industry in 1998.

    He is a member of the University of Nottingham Globalisation and Economic Policy Advisory Board, the UK Government's Business Forum on Tax Competitiveness and the Confederation of British Industry's Economic Affairs Committee.

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  • Global Head of Markets

    Peter Nielsen

    Peter Nielsen

    Peter Nielsen is the Global Head of Markets. From 2005 to 2009 he was Global Head of Rates, Local Markets, Currencies and Commodities. Prior to that, between 2001-2005 he was Global Head of FX, Currency Options, Emerging Markets, Equities and Futures. From 1998-2001 he served as Global Head of Sales and Marketing for NatWest, and subsequently for RBS, and from 1995-1998 he was Head of Trading and Sales for NatWest Bank in North America.

    Between 1993 and1995 he served as Senior Managing Director, running the US based Treasury and Securities operation for CIBC/Wood Gundy in New York. Prior to 1992 he spent 10 years at Citibank and Bank of America both in the US and in Asia.

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  • Group Human Resources Director

    Elaine Arden

    Elain Arden

    Appointed to the role of Group Human Resources Director in October 2010.

    Prior to that Elaine was HR Director for RBS Business Services Division.

    A graduate of Strathclyde University, she joined the RBS graduate programme in 1990. In 1996 she joined Clydesdale Bank as Head of Employee Relations, responsible for all aspects of employee relations and employment policy. She returned to RBS 2 years later and took on a series of HR roles across a number of businesses including IT, Credit Cards and RBS Insurance during the merger of Direct Line and Churchill.

    Elaine is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Banking in Scotland and a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

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  • Deputy Group Risk Officer

    David Stephen

    David Stephen

    David joined RBS in July 2010 and is responsible for the Risk functions in all RBS Divisions and the global credit and operational risk functions. David chairs the RBS Group Risk Committee.

    Spanning a 25 year career in the finance industry he has lived and worked in London, New York, Hong Kong and Melbourne for both full service and investment banks. Most recently for Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for credit strategy and portfolio management and ANZ Bank where he was Group Chief Risk Officer and was a member of the bank's Management Board.

    David is a graduate of Melbourne's Monash University and is a fellow of the RSA

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  • CEO, Wealth Management

    Rory Tapner

    Rory Tapner

    After studying Law, Rory joined Rowe & Pitman in 1983, working in the corporate finance department. When Big Bang occurred in 1986, Rowe & Pitman merged into SG Warburg, along with Ackroyd & Smithers and Mullens & Co, creating a truly integrated financial services platform. He went on to run the UK Corporate Finance department of this new entity. In 1995, SG Warburg then merged into Swiss Bank Corporation at which point Rory became Global Head of its Equity Capital Markets division.

    In 1999, following a further merger, this time between UBS and SBC, Rory was appointed joint Global Head of Investment Banking, a role which he fulfilled for nearly 5 years.

    In 2004, he was then appointed Chairman and CEO of UBS Group across Asia Pacific, responsible for Investment Banking, Wealth Management and Asset Management. He joined the UBS Group Executive Board in 2006.

    In September 2010 Rory joined RBS as the Chief Executive of the Wealth Management division. He is a member of the RBS Group Management Committee and a Director of Coutts & Co and RBS Coutts.

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