Corporate Governance
Ulster Bank Ireland DAC
Ulster Bank Ireland DAC is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance, business integrity and professionalism in all its activities.
The Board is the principal decision-making forum for the company. It has overall responsibility for leading and controlling the company. Our Board approves the strategy and monitors performance. It has adopted a formal schedule of matters reserved for Board discussion that details key aspects of the company's affairs and this schedule is reviewed annually.
Capital Requirements Directive (CRDIV)
The fourth Capital Requirements Directive (CRD IV) requires an institution such as Ulster Bank Ireland DAC to include a compliance statement on its website in relation to certain articles contained in the Directive. Find out how Ulster Bank Ireland DAC complies with the requirements relating to governance, remuneration and reporting.
Jane Howard – Chief Executive Officer
Jane Howard has worked in the financial services industry for more than 37 years. She has operated at Executive level for the last 14 years in risk management, and leading large scale operations and customer facing businesses. Jane’s previous role, to August 2018, was that of Managing Director, Personal Banking for RBS, one of the largest UK Banks.
Under Jane’s four year leadership, Personal Banking implemented a Financial Health check for customers, reshaped the network so that customers have more physical and digital ways to bank than ever before and launched a professional development programme to enable customer-facing colleagues achieve an externally recognised Professional Banking Certificate.
Paul Stanley – Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Finance Officer
Paul joined Ulster Bank from AIB in August 2013. He was previously the Acting CFO for AIB and a member of its Leadership Team, from 2011. Paul was Interim Chief Executive Officer from August 2015 to May 2016.
Des O’Shea - Chairman, Chair of Nominations & Governance Committee
Des was appointed to the Board of Ulster Bank Ireland DAC in November 2012 and was elected Chairman 2017. He is also a Non Executive Director of Byblos Bank S.A.L and Pepper Group Limited. In November 2011 he retired from GE Capital after 14 years during which he held a variety of senior roles including Chief Risk Officer, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for GE Money Europe which was GE Capital's largest, most successful and profitable business in Europe. In the period 2008-2011 he was responsible for GE's investments and partnerships in banks in high growth emerging markets such as Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Central America and Colombia and served on the Boards of these Banks. He also led a major divestment programme for GE Capital Global Banking.
In 1981-1991 Des worked for Ulster Investment Bank Limited in Corporate Banking and headed up its IFSC activities. He also worked with Woodchester Investments plc, Cambridge Group and Arthur Andersen. Des has a B.Comm Degree from UCC and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Rosemary Quinlan - Non Executive Director and Chair of Board Risk Committee
Rosemary is an Independent Non Executive Director, with a career in Financial Services spanning 24 years. She is a Board Director since 2006. She is currently an INED with Ulster Bank Ireland DAC and is a member of the Risk and Audit Committees and chair of the UBID Remuneration Committee. She is also an INED with Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Ireland Limited and is a member of the Risk, Audit and Remuneration Committees, and chairs the Nominations Committee for this Board. During 2016, Rosemary joined the Boards of Prudential International Assurance plc and Dodge & Cox Worldwide Funds plc, as an INED. She was previously the Deputy CEO for HSBC Bank plc in Ireland and the CEO of HSBC Securities Services Ireland Limited. Prior to this, Rosemary held senior executive roles with ABN AMRO, Citigroup and NatWest Bank plc in the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Rosemary holds a BComm from University College Cork, has completed the Chartered Director Programme in Ireland and is a Certified Bank Director.
Martin Murphy - Non Executive Director, Chair of Performance & Remuneration Committee, Chair of Related Party Lending Committee
Martin Murphy was appointed as a Non Executive Director to the UBID Board in July 2016. In November 2016, he was appointed as Chairman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland, having previously been CEO.
In 2014, Martin was appointed as a board member to the National Treasury Management Agency and in 2013, was appointed to the chair of the Labour Market Council. He also serves as a board member of the UCD Smurfit Business School and is a former President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
Gervaise Slowey - Non Executive Director and Chair of Sustainable Banking Committee
Gervaise Slowey was Chief Executive and Board Director of Communicorp Group Ltd. for four years to the end of 2016, which was one of the largest independent media groups in Ireland, UK and Eastern Europe. Communicorp is the company behind the Newstalk, TodayFM, 98FM, Spin and Appliances Delivered brands in Ireland.
Prior to that she was Global Client Director for Ogilvy Worldwide, a leading communication services agency with over 21,000 employees where she most recently managed Ogilvy’s international Mondelez business across Europe, Asia, and Africa.
During her 15 year tenure with Ogilvy Worldwide (1997 – 2012) she worked extensively in both emerging and established markets on some of the world’s leading brands such as Milka, Toblerone, Coca Cola, Cadbury, and Kimberly Clark.
A Dublin City University Business graduate, Gervaise began her career in 1990 with CPC/Unilever in marketing. Gervaise has been a non-executive director of Eason PLC and its RemCo since 2012. Gervaise also regularly acts as chairperson on senior level appointment and state board director appointment panels for the Public Appointments Service in Ireland.
Richard Holmes - Non Executive Director
Richard Holmes retired in October 2016 from his role as CEO Europe, Standard Chartered Bank, a position he has held since 2008. He led the business in Europe through a period of significant change focusing on Wholesale and Private Banking.
Prior to this, Richard was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Bank Ltd., American Express Company’s international banking subsidiary, based in New York. He was elected President and Chief Executive Officer in June 2000 and Chairman in May 2005. Richard joined American Express in 1996 as Managing Director and Head of Worldwide Private Banking, leading the unit through a period of significant expansion.
Richard has more than 35 years experience across a wide range of functions in international banking, having served in finance, operations and financial market positions at Wells Fargo Bank from 1980 to 1987 and at Bank of America from 1987 to 1996 in executive positions in the World Banking Group and Latin America Divisions. From 1993 to 1996 he was an Executive Vice President and Head of Bank of America’s Private Bank.
Richard began his professional career with the accountancy firm Peat, Marwick & Mitchell in 1974. He holds an M.A. and B.A. in Economics from St John’s College, Cambridge University and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
He was the Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry’s Financial Services’ Council; sat on the Board of the British Bankers Association; and chaired their Audit and Oversight Committee; sat on the Board of Trustees for Asia House;, was a member of the Board of Directors of British American Business; and The Business Growth Fund; and more recently had joined TheCityUk’s Board.
Dermot Browne - Non Executive Director, Chair of Audit Committee
Between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Browne held a number of senior executive roles in Aviva Ireland, including the position of CEO. Prior to this, he was a senior executive with Eagle Star Life Assurance Company of Ireland (now Zurich Life) over a sixteen year period, and between 2012 and 2016 he re-joined Zurich Group in a global strategy role based in Switzerland.
Mr. Browne holds a number of other Independent Non Executive Director positions, including FBD plc and Athora Ireland plc. Mr. Browne is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Galway.
Senior Executive Committee Members
Jane Howard – Chief Executive Officer
Jane Howard has worked in the financial services industry for more than 37 years. She has operated at Executive level for the last 14 years in risk management, and leading large scale operations and customer facing businesses. Jane’s previous role, to August 2018, was that of Managing Director, Personal Banking for RBS, one of the largest UK Banks.
Under Jane’s four year leadership, Personal Banking implemented a Financial Health check for customers, reshaped the network so that customers have more physical and digital ways to bank than ever before and launched a professional development programme to enable customer-facing colleagues achieve an externally recognised Professional Banking Certificate.
Paul Stanley – Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Finance Officer
Paul joined Ulster Bank from AIB in August 2013. He was previously the Acting CFO for AIB and a member of its Leadership Team, from 2011. Paul was Interim Chief Executive Officer from August 2015 to May 2016.
Eddie Cullen - Managing Director, Commercial Banking
Eddie was appointed to the role of Managing Director, Commercial Banking in May 2015. Before taking on his current role Eddie was Managing Director, Corporate & Institutional Banking for Ulster Bank. Eddie joined Ulster Bank in 1993 and served in a variety of roles. Prior to joining Ulster Bank, Eddie worked for KPMG specialising in Corporate Tax.
Ciarán Coyle – Managing Director, Personal Banking
Ciarán has extensive banking experience, joining Ulster Bank from AIB in 2005, he worked in the Retail Bank before moving to the Services division where he held a number of leadership roles including Head of Ulster Bank Change for three years. Here he worked on centralising all change activity and delivering all of the Bank's regulatory and transformation programmes. Most recently he held the role of Head of Banking Operations where he led a large team responsible for the day to day operations of the bank.
Derval McDonagh, Director of Human Resources
Derval commenced in role as Director of HR, UBIDAC on the 28th November 2018. Derval is responsible for developing our People strategy, a core part of which is to make Ulster Bank a great place to work.
Derval is a highly experienced HR professional, with 20 years experience in financial services, most recently as Head of HR at the Central Bank of Ireland. Prior to joining the Central Bank, Derval was Head of HR at Danske Bank and she has worked across retail, business, corporate and institutional banking in both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Derval achieved a Bachelor degree in Commerce from NUI Galway and went on to complete her Masters of Business Studies (MBS), Human Resources Development from the Smurfit School in UCD.
Andrew Blair – Head of Customer Debt Solutions
Andrew joined Ulster Bank in December 1986 and spent 20 years of his career in customer facing Corporate & Commercial Banking roles. Andrew was appointed COO of Corporate Markets in 2008 and subsequently spent 7 years in Chief Credit Officer roles. Andrew was appointed Head of Problem Debt Management in early 2016.
Damien Daly – Director of Strategy, Innovation and Customer Experience
Damien was appointed as Ulster Bank Head of Customer Experience & Products (CE&P) in April 2018. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry across retail banking, capital markets and treasury management.
Damien joins us from Bank of Ireland where he held a number of senior roles over 13 years, including most recently Managing Director of Bank of Ireland UK’s AA Financial Service Business and a member of the BOI UK Executive Management Team.
John Hennessy – Director of Risk
John Hennessy joined UBI DAC in September 2018. John was appointed Director of Risk in December 2018. He previously worked in a variety of senior risk roles in the Santander Group in Madrid, New York, Boston and London over the last 30 years.
John also worked in front office roles as a corporate banker and in asset backed securities. He started his career as a graduate trainee with Lloyds Bank in 1985.
Fiona McMahon – Director of Compliance
Fiona served as Head of Supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland, and over the last five years, she has led a variety of Supervisory teams across Life Assurance, International Banking, Consumer Protection and Investigations, having worked at the Central Bank for sixteen years.
Fiona brings extensive regulatory and compliance knowledge and experience across the SSM framework and is a member of the SSM Centralised On-site Inspections Network, the EBA Standing Committee on Oversight and Practices, in addition to the Financial Stability Committee of the Central Bank. Previously, Fiona qualified as a Chartered Accountant whilst at PwC.
Sheamus Causer - Chief Technology and Information Officer
With over 25 year’s experience, Sheamus has held a number of senior Information Technology, Data Management and Operations roles in the global financial services industry. Sheamus' prior experience, including leading Deutsche Bank’s global analytics function and the provision of technology consulting support to a range of leading local and international banks, has given him hands on insight into technology, payments and data best practice. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Sheamus was Director of Risk Analytics in Deloitte Ireland.
Australian born, Sheamus holds MSc and MBA qualifications, and was recently awarded the accolade of Certified Director by the Institute of Directors in Ireland.