News

British Business Bank plc appoints three new Board members

plc logo small

 

 

 

*** Appointment of 3 new independent Non-executive Directors confirmed ***
*** BIS Secretary of State attends meeting of full Board and meets staff at Sheffield office***

 

British Business Bank plc, which will take over the running of the British Business Bank programme once European Commission State aid clearance is granted, has confirmed the appointment of 3 new independent Non-executive Directors – Colin Glass, Teresa Graham and Caroline Green.

 

Collectively the appointments will bring strong representation of the business voice to the Board:

  • Colin Glass has a wealth of experience in advising small businesses and as a NED at AIM quoted and unquoted businesses. He has his own chartered accountancy practice, based in Leeds
  • Teresa Graham combines significant experience within Government and business organisations, having been part of Lord Young’s Enterprise and Deregulation Unit, SBS and the Small Business Council. She has also authored a number of business reviews and has practical hands-on experience as Chair/NED in a number of businesses
  • Caroline Green brings Venture Capital (including 3i) and business experience from across a range of companies, and is currently Finance Director of the VC-backed engineering group Arc Specialist Engineering Limited. Caroline also served on the Business Bank Advisory Group.

The three appointments are with immediate effect, and will last for an initial period of 3 years. The appointments followed extensive search processes involving executive search firm Odgers Berndtson and were led by the company’s Nomination Committee, chaired by Ron Emerson.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, met with the full plc Board and British Business Bank staff at their offices in Sheffield today.

 

Commenting on the appointments, the Chairman of British Business Bank plc, Ron Emerson said:

“The three new appointments being announced today show the significant progress that is being made in building the British Business Bank for the long term. Colin, Teresa and Caroline will help ensure that our ultimate end customers, the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses, are strongly represented going forward, and I warmly welcome them to the Board.”

Media Enquiries to Jason Raj on 020 7215 5978 or via email at jason.raj@bis.gsi.gov.uk

 

 

Notes to Editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank’s strategic intent is to ensure that finance markets for small and medium-sized businesses work effectively, allowing them to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. It is a key element of the Government’s Industrial Strategy, and its programme is already contributing to making the UK the best place in Europe to start, grow and finance a business.

British Business Bank plc will operate as a Government-owned financial institution once HM Government has received European Commission State aid clearance, expected later in 2014. Until that point, the British Business Bank programme is being run by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.  The programme is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Recent performance highlights and developments include:

  • £782m of total lending and investment supported in FY 2013-14, over double the level of government support in FY 2012; approximately 55% of this was through non-traditional finance providers
  • Over 31,000 businesses were benefiting from £1.56bn of lending and investment supported by British Business Bank programmes at the end of FY 2013-14.

Biography for Colin Glass
Colin is a Chartered Accountant with his own Practice, Winburn Glass Norfolk (‘WGN’) which he founded, with two partners, in 1975. He is also a non-executive director of several companies, including Surgical Innovations Group plc, Straight plc and GETECH Group plc all of which are quoted on AIM and which came out of the WGN portfolio. He has always been passionately interested in assisting small businesses develop to their full potential. Applying a ‘hands-on’ and ’24-7′ approach he has been involved in a significant number of diverse businesses, mainly start-ups and SMEs. In many cases he has been appointed as a non-executive director to the boards of the companies he assists and also takes a small equity stake, where he believes he can add value.

He was a non-executive director of Partnership Investment Finance (“PIF”), a 5 year £37m fund set up, with funding from Europe and Barclays Bank, to support SMEs and social achievement in the Objective 2 areas of Yorkshire and The Humber.  The fund is now fully invested.  He is also a non-executive director of a number of private companies which WGN are grooming and developing with a view to a future trade sale or flotation and acts as a mentor to early stage SMEs with high growth potential.

Through his deep interest and experience in SMEs, he was awarded the Star in Practice Award in 2006 from the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants and also was awarded Business Advisor of the Year in 2007 and Non-Executive Director of the year in 2008 both by the Institute of Directors Yorkshire and Humber.  In January 2011 he was awarded Non-Executive Director of the Year in the Grant Thornton sponsored Quoted Company Awards for his work with AIM-quoted SMEs.
A photograph of Colin is available upon request from the BIS Press Office.

Biography for Teresa Graham
Teresa Graham CBE graduated from Newcastle University in 1977 (She was awarded a Fellowship in 2012). She joined the Newcastle upon Tyne office of a Big 4 firm as a student accountant and transferred to the firm’s Department of Privatisation Services in London in 1989.  From December 1986 to August 1987, she was seconded to the UK Government’s Enterprise and Deregulation Unit reporting directly to Lord Young, the Secretary of State for Employment and then Trade and Industry.  In March 1988 she was appointed to the Government’s Deregulation Advisory Panel for a two year term and served through two decades of administrations.  She was first female winner of the “Young Accountant of the Year Award” for 1988 in recognition of her contribution to the small firms sector, her profession and work with Government. She was also the first female laureate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Teresa joined Baker Tilly in 1989 and during her time there she headed up their Business Services Department.

She now works independently focusing on her three passions – strategic advice to ambitious, growing businesses, liberating these businesses from the fetters of red tape and “Head of Parties and Fun” at The Lexi Cinema (www.thelexicinema.co.uk), a social enterprise, digital, boutique cinema in North London covenanting 100% of its profits to a charity in South Africa called The Sustainability Institute Trust (www.sustainabilityinstitute.net). She holds a number of appointments, including non-executive, mentoring and advisory roles in growth businesses.

A photograph of Teresa is available upon request from the BIS Press Office.

Biography for Caroline Green
Caroline is Finance Director of the VC-backed engineering group Arc Specialist Engineering Limited and previously spent 8 years in private equity, initially at 3i plc. She started her career at Xerox Corp where she spent 9 years in a variety of roles including supply chain, manufacturing and finance.
Caroline is also a non-executive director and chair of audit committee for Protection Group International Limited, a fast growth risk mitigation and security company which is number 5 in the 2013 Sunday Times FastTrack 100.

Previously Caroline spent 5 years as a trustee of the MS Society and currently sits on the board of unseen (UK), the charity dedicated to eradication of human trafficking and slavery. In her spare time, Caroline enjoys taking part in triathlons up to Olympic distance.

A photograph of Caroline is available upon request from the BIS Press Office.

Each independent NED will receive a fee of £25k per annum, paid in equal monthly instalments.  As independent NEDs they will not receive any bonus or benefits.