Dame

Alison Rose

DBE
Born
Alison Marie Rose

November 1969 (1969-11) (age 54)
NationalityBritish
Alma materSt Aidan's College, Durham, Durham University
OccupationBanker
TitleFormer CEO, NatWest Group
Term2019–2023
PredecessorRoss McEwan
SuccessorPaul Thwaite
SpouseDavid Slade[1]
Children2

Dame Alison Marie Rose-Slade DBE (née Rose; born November 1969[2]) is a British banker, who was chief executive (CEO) of NatWest Group from November 2019 to July 2023. She became the first woman to lead a major UK lender after leading government investigations into the poor representation of women in business. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 Birthday Honours. Later that year, she resigned from her position at NatWest for what she admitted was a "serious error of judgement", after she broke client confidentiality in relation to the closure of a client's account (Nigel Farage).

Early life

Rose was born in 1969.[3] She grew up overseas in a military family, settling back in the UK when she was 15.[4][5][6][7] She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Durham University in 1991.[8][9]

Career

Rose started her career as a graduate trainee with NatWest in 1992.[8]

She was appointed a member of RBS's executive committee on 27 February 2014.[10] In October 2014, as head of commercial and private banking at RBS, she announced a new plan for the bank to bring more women into decision-level and board-level positions.[11] In August 2015, she encouraged her managers to reconnect with the SMBs part of their clientele.[12]

In September 2018, she was nominated to lead the Treasury's review focusing on barriers for women in business.[13] In November 2018, she became deputy chief executive of NatWest Holdings.[14][15]

In March 2019, the UK Government published a policy paper, the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, which found that only one in three UK entrepreneurs is female, and less than one per cent of UK venture funding goes to all-female teams.[16][17][18]

In April 2019, Rose was "widely-tipped" to succeed Ross McEwan as CEO.[8][14][19]

Rose was the chief executive of commercial and private banking at Royal Bank of Scotland Group and deputy chief executive of NatWest Holdings.[8][20] In September 2019, it was announced that she would succeed Ross McEwan as CEO of RBS Group on 1 November 2019, making her the "first woman to lead major UK lender".[21] RBS Group was re-named NatWest Group in 2020.

Rose was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the financial sector[22][23] and later that month she was given an honorary degree by the new Chancellor of York University Dr Heather Melville.[24]

Farage accounts and resignation

In July 2023, Rose was accused of holding ultimate responsibility for a controversial decision to close Nigel Farage's bank accounts at Coutts.[25] Documents disclosed by the bank to Farage following his submission of a subject access request showed that the decision by the bank's Wealth Reputational Risk Committee to close his accounts, according to the 40-page dossier, was partly because his views were not compatible with the bank's "values or purpose". The dossier revealed that Farage had his politically exposed person (PEP) status downgraded in 2022 , but his status was upgraded again in 2023. The dossier also revealed that Farage's account met the bank's viability conditions in 2022, but no longer did so in 2023 after he paid off a loan and had his PEP status upgraded again.

In a front-page story on 20 July The Daily Telegraph reported that Rose had dined with Simon Jack, the Business Editor for BBC News, on the evening before he published an article saying that the decision had been "for commercial reasons". Peter Bone MP and David Jones MP were reported as calling for Rose to resign.[26][27] On 25 July, Rose admitted to a "serious error of judgement" in discussing Farage's Coutts accounts with Jack, though later the NatWest board said it retained full confidence in her.[28] On 25 July, by mutual agreement, Rose resigned as CEO of NatWest Group with immediate effect.[29] In October 2023, it was reported that the ICO had ruled that Rose violated the law,[30] as it upheld two parts of Farage’s complaint concerning the treatment of his personal data,[31] but the ICO later withdrew the comment about Rose, and apologised to her, saying that their ruling related only to NatWest.[32] Rose will not receive share awards and bonuses she would otherwise have been entitled to, and as a result will lose £7.6m. She will receive £2.4m as a fixed pay package.[33]

External appointments

She is a non-executive director of Great Portland Estates plc and chair of the McLaren/Deloitte advisory council.[34]

Personal life

Rose is married to UBS banker David Slade, and they have two children, a daughter and a son.[8][5][35] They live in Highgate, London.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Profile, listofceo.com. Accessed 20 June 2023.
  2. ↑ Companies House profile. Accessed 30 December 2022.
  3. ↑ "Alison Rose". RBS. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. ↑ "The Big Interview: Alison Rose, highest-ranking woman in RBS". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 "Secrets of my success: RBS private banking boss Alison Rose". Evening Standard. 25 August 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  6. ↑ Rose, Alison (25 August 2016). "Secrets of my success: RBS private banking boss Alison Rose". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  7. ↑ "The Big Interview: Alison Rose, highest-ranking woman in RBS | The Scotsman". 26 July 2023. Archived from the original on 26 July 2023. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "The most powerful woman in UK banking unveils her plans for the future". HeraldScotland. 9 March 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  9. ↑ "Durham University Alumni". Twitter. Retrieved 28 October 2021. We are incredibly excited to be welcoming alumna and NatWest Group CEO, Alison Rose (History, St Aidan's College, 1991) back on campus on Monday 1 November 2021.
  10. ↑ "Alison Rose | RBS". www.rbs.com. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  11. ↑ Treanor, Jill (3 October 2014). "RBS wants more women in senior roles". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  12. ↑ Wallace, Tim (9 August 2015). "RBS bosses ordered to go out and meet small firms". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  13. ↑ "Treasury launches review into barriers for women in business". GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  14. 1 2 "Alison Rose's move sparks RBS chief chatter". Evening Standard. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  15. ↑ "UPDATE 1-RBS high-flier Alison Rose takes on NatWest Holdings job..." Reuters. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  16. ↑ Alison Rose (8 March 2019). "The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship". GOV.UK. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  17. ↑ "I started a business accidentally". 8 March 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  18. ↑ "Women's work: interview with RBS's Alison Rose". Holyrood Website. 4 October 2019.
  19. ↑ Treanor, Jill (28 April 2019). "Rose's moment to bloom". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  20. ↑ Driscoll, Margarette (30 October 2018). "Alison Rose on the price of being a successful woman in finance". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 April 2019 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  21. ↑ Jones, Huw (20 September 2019). "Alison Rose gets top job at RBS, first woman to lead major UK lender". Reuters. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  22. ↑ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N9.
  23. ↑ Notice of damehood, theguardian.com. Accessed 30 December 2022.
  24. ↑ "University of York welcomes new Chancellor Dr Heather Melville". University of York. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  25. ↑ Johnston, Neil (18 July 2023). "Dame Alison Rose: the bank boss who steered Coutts' diversity drive". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  26. ↑ Gordon Rayner, Daniel Martin, Louisa Clarence-Smith, "NatWest boss under pressure over Farage bank scandal", The Daily Telegraph, page 1, 20 July 2023, on Twitter, accessed 20 July 2023
  27. ↑ Gordon Rayner, "Bank chief Dame Alison sat next to BBC journalist night before he tweeted claim about Nigel Farage", The Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2023, accessed 20 July 2023 (subscription required)
  28. ↑ "NatWest boss 'made serious error of judgement' in discussing Farage bank accounts with BBC reporter". Sky News. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  29. ↑ "NatWest boss steps down with immediate effect over Nigel Farage bank account leak". Sky News. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  30. ↑ Tom Witherow; Ben Martin (25 October 2023). "NatWest's Alison Rose broke data law in Nigel Farage fiasco". The Times. Retrieved 26 October 2023. The former chief of NatWest twice breached data protection laws
  31. ↑ Makortoff, Kalyeena (25 October 2023). "Ex-NatWest chief breached Nigel Farage's privacy, watchdog rules". theguardian.com. Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  32. ↑ Makortoff, Kalyeena (6 November 2023). "ICO apologises to ex-NatWest chief over claim she broke privacy law on Farage". theguardian.com. Guardian. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  33. ↑ Race, Michael (10 November 2023). "Ex-NatWest boss Alison Rose loses out on £7.6m after Nigel Farage row". bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  34. ↑ "Alison Rose | RBS". www.rbs.com.
  35. ↑ Jenkins, Patrick (13 October 2017). "Pain-free succession at HSBC not as fun as last time". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
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