First Abu Dhabi Bank appoints two banking veterans to leadership team
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank, has bolstered its C-suite with the appointment of global banking veterans, Simon Thorn and Neil Barrable.
FAB announces new additions to C-suite
Thorn has been named as the bank’s new group chief compliance officer (CCO), and is to join directly from Barclays, where he held the COO position for over two years. Before this, he also served as international COO at Merrill Lynch and headed EMEA compliance for Nomura.
In his new role, Thorn has been tasked with managing the bank’s anti-money laundering efforts, financial crime policies and compliance procedures.
Meanwhile, Barrable has been appointed as group chief credit officer (CCO), where he will lead FAB’s credit function.
He brings over 30 years of credit sector experience to the role, having previously served as a credit director for several major banks, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, and most recently, HSBC.
According to a statement made by FAB on the new additions, the pair will “each play a vital role” in realising the bank’s “strategic vision as the financial partner of choice in the UAE and wider MENA region, driving growth regionally and globally as the bank meets the evolving needs and expectations of its customers”.
The appointments arrive amid a busy agenda for FAB. In addition to its latest announcement, the bank also partnered with Microsoft in April to develop a suite of AI-powered banking capabilities, while reports in May indicated that FAB was in discussions to acquire Yapi Kredi from Turkey’s Koc Group.
