International Advisory Board Member
Background
Simon is Director, Workplace Transformation, Santander UK. He holds a BA in Economics specialising in Maths and Statistics from the University of the West of England (Bristol).
After spending several years in commercial/operational roles and as a General Manager in the Marketing industry, Simon joined Santander in 2004. He spent 3 years working in the Finance Division where he was the Head of Change Management.
Simon joined the Santander Universities Global Division in 2007 as the Operations Director and the UK's Deputy Director. Simon was responsible for all back-office functions in the division such as Finance, Planning, Branch Expansion, Product Development, Infrastructure, IT Projects, HR, and Marketing and Communications.
In 2014, Simon was appointed Managing Director of Santander Universities Division in the UK. He was responsible for relationships with over 70 higher education institutions established by long-term agreements through which the bank provides funding for undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships, academic and non-academic awards, internships, engagement between the bank's university partners and SMEs as part of a series of initiatives launched by Santander. Simon also managed the performance of over 56 university campus branches and corporate services/initiatives linked to any of the partnerships.
At the end of 2015 Simon as appointed as Managing Director for one of the three retail divisions in Santander UK (London and East). The Division consisted of almost 3,000 people, serving over 4 million customers with a balance sheet of £58 billion. Simon was responsible for all aspects of customer experience, people leadership, commercial success, and risk.
After four years of successfuly transforming the success of the retail division, Simon was asked to lead some of the bank's critical transformation initiatives. These have included Simplification, Culture, Financial Crime and, in his current role, coordinating the complexities of People and Workplaces in the post-pandemic era.
Simon is married and has 2 children.