GB Bank appoints new Chair

Specialist bank GB Bank has appointed a new Board Chair and recruited two new board members.

The North East-based bank has appointed SME lending expert Mike Kirsopp as Chair with property and banking industry figures Andrew Telfer and Ian Henderson joining as Non-Executive Director and Investor Director respectively.

Kirsopp has over 40 years of experience in SME lending. He was CEO at Cambridge & Counties Bank Ltd from 2014 to 2021, where he was part of the team recruited to mobilise the bank and gain its full banking licence, also taking the bank through break-even and to profitability. Prior to this he ran his own consultancy business, Mike Kirsopp Associates, and had a long career at Lloyds TSB as a Strategy and Change Director and Mid-Corporate Real Estate Director.

Kirsopp joined GB Bank as a Non-Executive Director in July 2021 and has been acting as interim Chair since November 2022.

Andrew Telfer joins as Non-Executive Director after a career spanning over 30 years in the construction and property development sector. Telfer joined Wilmott Dixon, one of the UK’s largest construction and property services businesses, in 2002, subsequently becoming a main board member in 2008.

During his time at Willmott Dixon, Telfer was heavily involved with the successful flotation on AiM of the property services business as CFO. Later, he helped rapidly grow the company’s property development division, as its CEO, to a £2.5bn pipeline of assets, including the Build To Rent sector.

An accountant by training, Telfer worked at Big Four accountancy firm EY within the mergers and acquisitions team before joining Wilmott Dixon. He currently has his own property development projects and is the Deputy Chair of Robertsons, one of the largest family-owned construction, infrastructure and support services businesses in the UK.

Ian Henderson has over 30 years of executive experience within Financial Services in the UK, having worked in senior positions at RBS, Barclays and Shawbrook Bank during his career. Henderson was the CEO at Shawbrook Bank where he accelerated the integration of the Singer and Friedlander asset finance business and led the due diligence on the acquisition of Centric Commercial Finance. His last executive position was as CEO for private bank and SME-focused lender bank Arbuthnot Latham.

Henderson who joins GB Bank as Investor Director, is the current Chair of the Risk Committee at challenger bank Metro.

Stephen Lancaster, Co-Founder and CEO of GB Bank, said: “These appointments represent a real step-change in GB Bank’s development and complete a formidable boardroom team. Mike has been an integral part of the business since he joined us in 2021 and has been a superb interim Chair so we are delighted that he will now be taking on the role permanently.”

“We are also thrilled to be able to bring on board people of the calibre of Andrew and Ian.Their experience and know-how at senior levels in the finance, property and development sectors will prove invaluable as GB Bank expands in our North East heartland and across the country.”