Get to know the board
There are three boards at Zopa. Their role is to increase the scale of our business, protect our customers and ensure good corporate governance. Find out a little bit more about each of the boards and the people on them below.
The group board
We’re proud to have a group of people with vast and proven business and technology skills guiding our path.
Giles Andrews
Co-founder & chairman
Giles was one of three people who dreamed up Zopa in 2004. By 2007 he was CEO and became chairman in 2015.
Zopa wasn’t Giles’ first venture. He co-founded Caverdale which he took from a start-up to a £250m-revenue motor retailer, before selling it in 1997.
After Caverdale he set up his own strategic consultancy. It had large clients in the General Retail and Financial Services sectors and provided start-up advice and early stage funding for new businesses.
Giles received an OBE for services to financial services in the 2016 New Year’s Honours list.
Other roles
Giles acts as non-executive chairman of Bethnal Green Ventures, the accelerator for start-ups using technology to make social or environmental impact. He is also chairman at MarketInvoice, and chairman at Kreditech, a lending business providing better access to credit for under-served consumers across multiple markets including Poland, Russia and India.
Jaidev Janardana
CEO & executive director
Devoted to creating simple and fair financial products and services, Jaidev joined Zopa in 2014. Since then Zopa’s grown its loan volumes and revenues at over 65% compound annual growth rate, achieved profitability, and announced plans to launch a bank.
Before Zopa, Jaidev spent 12 years at Capital One. Starting out in McLean, Virginia, he was initially focused on the US card business. He then moved to the UK in 2007 with a big task at hand – to lead the Credit Risk Management team through the financial crisis as Chief Credit Officer. Something he describes as a ‘fantastic learning opportunity’.
Having successfully led the team through the crisis, he took on the broader role of Chief Marketing Officer and was instrumental in returning the UK business back to profitability and growth.
Charles Birnbaum
Independent non-executive director
Charles is Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). He has an eye for promising disruptive companies in finance, software, and consumer web services. Some of his recent investments include Betterment, United Capital, Abacus and Main Street Hub. Before BVP, Charles worked in Corporate Finance at Deutsche Bank and was an early employee, and later Director of Business Development, at Foursquare.
Christine Farnish
Independent non-executive director
Christine’s knowledge of the peer-to-peer industry is hard to beat. She was the chair of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association for six years and she’s as passionate about customers being put first as we are. She’s been the Consumer Affairs Director at the Financial Services Authority (the forerunner to the FCA) and Managing Director of Public Policy at Barclays.
Richard Goulding
Independent non-executive director
Any successful business will have a risk expert at the helm. Richard’s ours. He spent 10 years at Standard Chartered Bank as Group Risk Officer and is also on the boards of Bank of Ireland and CitiGroup Global Markets Ltd. Before Standard Chartered, Richard held executive positions at Old Mutual Financial Services, UBS Warburg/SBC Warburg, Astra Holding plc, Bankers Trust Company and Midland Bank Group.
Peter Herbert
Independent non-executive director
Peter has 40 years’ experience in the financial services industry. As former CEO at Tandem he knows a thing or two about creating a new bank. He’s also held many leadership roles at Barclays including Group Head of Strategy and MD of Barclaycard. Plus, he was CEO of the global mortgage, consumer lending and credit cards business at GE Capital.
Tim Levene
Independent non-executive director
A seasoned entrepreneur, Tim’s co-founded many companies. These include Crussh, which has 30 stores throughout London, and Augmentum – the venture capital fund. Augmentum is backed by RIT Capital Partners PLC – an investment trust that Jacob Rothschild and his family are substantial investors in. He was also made a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012.
Nigel Morris
Independent non-executive director
Nigel cofounded Capital One Financial Services, and helped it grow it from an emerging startup to an established public company now worth over $30bn. Today, he’s the managing partner of QED Investors and brings wide and varied experience to the Zopa board table. He serves on the board of various organisations ranging from Red Ventures to National Geographic and ideas42.
Kapil Wadhawan
Independent non-executive director
Kapil's the founder of WGC, parent company for some of the top brands in India – DHFL, Aadhar Housing Finance and Avanse Financial Services among lots of others. Under his leadership, WGC has transformed people’s lives across the length and breadth of India with education loans, life insurance, asset management and insurance.
The financial services board
We're proud to have a group of people with vast and proven business and technology skills guiding our path.
Peter Herbert
Chair
Peter has 40 years’ experience in the financial services industry. As former CEO at Tandem he knows a thing or two about creating a new bank. He’s also held many leadership roles at Barclays including Group Head of Strategy and MD of Barclaycard. Plus, he was CEO of the global mortgage, consumer lending and credit cards business at GE Capital.
Richard Goulding
Independent non-executive director
Any successful business will have a risk expert at the helm. Richard’s ours. He spent 10 years at Standard Chartered Bank as Group Risk Officer and is also on the boards of Bank of Ireland and CitiGroup Global Markets Ltd. Before Standard Chartered, Richard held executive positions at Old Mutual Financial Services, UBS Warburg/SBC Warburg, Astra Holding plc, Bankers Trust Company and Midland Bank Group.
Paul Cutter
Independent non-executive director
A technology leader, Paul is the Chief Technology Officer at Paddy Power Betfair and leads 1,100 staff. To deliver a better experience for customers, he has transformed the technology platform, created better engagement and built a more innovative product pipeline. He’s also spent nearly 10 years in senior tech roles at BSkyB and AOL.
The peer-to-peer board
Charged with overseeing the success of our peer-to-peer business, the Peer-to-Peer Board will be chaired by Christine. We’re currently looking for equally knowledgeable people to join her.
Christine Farnish
Chair
Her knowledge of the peer-to-peer industry is hard to beat. She’s been the chair of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association for the last six years and she’s as passionate about customers being put first as we are. She’s been the Consumer Affairs Director at the Financial Services Authority and Managing Director of Public Policy at Barclays.
Zitah McMillan
Independent non-executive director
Zitah McMillan was most recently the regional CEO of DFC Global in Continental Europe, a credit supply business for consumers and small businesses in various countries across Europe. Previously, Zitah was Director of Communications and International at the Financial Conduct Authority, held senior roles at the Department for Work and Pensions and worked in consumer advertising at Publicis Groupe with clients as varied as L’Oreal, The Army and Proctor & Gamble.
Backers
Augmentum is a London based VC fund targeting dynamic businesses that disrupt traditional sectors. The fund is backed by RIT Capital Partners, an LSE listed investment trust with more than £2 billion AUM in which Lord Rothschild and his family are significant investors. Augmentum was founded in 2009 by Tim Levene and Richard Matthews. Augmentum's investments include Borro.com, the online asset-backed lender, and BullionVault.com, the World's leading online bullion market.
Bessemer Venture Partners backs teams who are building market-transforming companies. They have been amongst the earliest investors in the likes of Skype, Pinterest, Shopify, LinkedIn, and Yelp. Bessemer Venture Partners has over 100 years of investing experience with more than $6 billion under management around the world.
Northzone is a European venture capital fund with offices in London, Stockholm, Oslo and New York. Founded in 1996, the firm partners with leading entrepreneurs to build global companies. To date, Northzone has raised 8 funds with a total of €1 billion under management, and has invested in over 120 companies. Northzone was an early investor in companies like Spotify, Lastminute.com, iZettle, Avito and Trustpilot.
Runa Capital is $135 million technology-focused venture capital firm whose founders and partners have created or incubated companies with more than US$10 billion in assets. They seek rapid growth opportunities in the the tech sector, focusing on cloud computing and other hosted services, virtualization and mobile apps. Runa Capital invests in promising teams to drive and support them on a global scale, turning them into international champions.
TruFin is an operating company focused on growing Fintech and banking businesses to provide niche lending, technological and service solutions to the working capital and early payment markets. The company owns a significant minority stake in Zopa. With offices in London and Birmingham the company was originally part of Arrowgrass, an alternative asset manager.
Wadhawan Global Capital Pvt Ltd (WGC) is a leading financial services group with assets under management of c. £20 billion through its lending, investment and insurance platforms and which include some of the top brands in India, such as Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), Aadhar Housing Finance Company, Avanse Financial Services Ltd, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd and DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers Private Ltd to name a few.
Its flagship company, DHFL, is a market leader with three decades of experience in financing affordable housing. WGC has partnered with leading financial institutions such as International Finance Corporation (IFC), Washington, Prudential Financial Inc., United States, Asian Development Bank and Korean Development Bank, in transforming the lives of millions of lower and middle income customers across India.
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