OakNorth names Lord Adair Turner as new chairman
OakNorth, a London-based challenger bank for businesses, has appointed Lord Adair Turner as its new chairman.
OakNorth appoints Lord Adair Turner as its new chairman
The firm says it plans to leverage Turner’s “extensive track record in financial services” to strengthen its board and boost its growth plans.
Lord Turner has previously provided independent counsel to the challenger bank having served on its advisory board for several years, including as senior independent director from 2015 to 2017.
He has replaced Cyrus Ardalan in the role, who left OakNorth at the end of 2023 after eight years as chairman.
Lord Turner has previously served as vice chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, as a board director of Standard Chartered, chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), member of the Court of the Bank of England, and as a founder member of the Financial Policy Committee.
“He came into his role at the FSA only days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and played a central role in financial regulation post crisis that laid the foundation for the creation of new banks,” OakNorth says.
He was also the first chair of the Committee on Climate Change, where he helped strengthen the UK’s 2050 targets. He is currently chair of the Energy Transitions Commission as well as Chubb Europe, and is a non-executive director of AESC, a battery company headquartered in Japan.
Commenting on Lord Turner’s appointment, Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, says: “His expertise will be invaluable as we continue our journey expanding into new products and services, and supporting our customers in their growth ambitions.
“As we broaden our offering to customers with a wider range of business banking products, Adair’s experience across financial regulation will be incredibly useful in ensuring we continue to scale robustly.”
