Coutts & Co Board
The Board of Coutts & Co is the principal decision-making forum for the company. It has overall responsibility for leading and controlling the company, and is accountable for its financial and operational performance.
Chairman
Lord Remnant, CBE
Lord Remnant joined Coutts as a Non-Executive Director in 2022, becoming Chairman on 1st January 2023.
Lord Remnant brings substantial advisory, regulatory and listed company experience to the Board, having worked in senior roles across the financial services sector, including banking, insurance and asset management. He is the Senior Independent Director of Prudential plc and sits in the House of Lords.
In 2022, he stepped down from Severn Trent plc after nine years on the Board and retired from the Takeover Panel after 10 years as Deputy Chair. Previously, he was Chairman of the City of London Investment Trust plc and of M&G Group Limited.
After qualifying as a chartered accountant, Lord Remnant spent his working life in the City as an investment banker, first with Kleinwort Benson and latterly with Credit Suisse. He was vice-chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston Europe and head of the UK investment banking department. He was Director General of the Takeover Panel for two years between 2001 and 2003, and again in 2010.
At the time of the financial crisis in 2008 Lord Remnant was working within Government as Chairman of the Shareholder Executive. He then sat on the board of UKFI, which was responsible for the Government’s shareholdings in RBS and Lloyds, and was also appointed to the board of Northern Rock as one of two government appointed directors.
Lord Remnant is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Chief Executive Officer
Emma Crystal
Emma Crystal joined NatWest Group as CEO of Coutts and Wealth Businesses on 1 July 2024.
Before moving to NatWest Group, she was Lead, Sustainable Finance Group at UBS and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Credit Suisse where her responsibilities included setting the sustainability strategy and ambition for the bank and partnering with the divisions, regions and functions, to deliver their sustainability commitments. These included expanding the wealth management product shelf, investment banking financing offering and net zero deliverables.
Previously, Emma held a number of senior leadership positions at Credit Suisse including leading the Wealth Management business for Northern & Western Europe. Prior to that, she also covered Family Offices for the UK and Nordic markets.
Before joining Credit Suisse, Emma worked in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank for 10 years.
Emma graduated from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, with a master’s degree in Economics and Business.
Emma is a member of the Executive Committee of NatWest Holdings and also sits on the Coutts Board in her capacity as Coutts CEO.
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
SIOBHAN BOYLAN
Siobhan Boylan joined Coutts in September 2023 as CFO. She has over 30 years financial services experience including wealth management, asset management, retirement savings, pensions and insurance.
She joined from Brewin Dolphin plc where she held the role of Chief Financial Officer prior to its acquisition by Royal Bank of Canada. Before this she was CFO at Legal & General Investment Management and held various senior financial roles at Aviva PLC. She is a chartered accountant (ACA) having trained with PWC.
Non-Executive Director
Mark Lund
Mark joined Coutts as Non-Executive Director in 2015.
He has almost forty years experience in the financial services sector and has operated at Director/CEO level for the last thirty years in both plc and private businesses in the UK and internationally. He is a former CEO of St James’s Place plc and has also had a spell on secondment as the CEO of Virgin Direct. Prior to this he was a Director of Henderson Investors plc and a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Mark has worked as an independent non executive director for the last ten years. He is the Deputy Chairman/senior independent director at Skipton Building Society and non-executive director at the UK’s largest estate agency group, Connells Ltd. Previous appointments include Deputy Chair of GB Snowsports, Chair of MyCSP Ltd the civil service pension administrator and Chairman of Equiniti’s regulated financial services business.
Mark has a Masters degree in Transport Economics from the University of Leeds and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Non-Executive Director
SHARMILA NEBHRAJANI
Sharmila began her career in strategy consulting and has broad sectoral experience across health, media, utilities and financial services from both the private and public sectors. She serves as a Non-Executive Director at Halma Plc, ITV Plc and Severn Trent plc and is Chairman of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the organisation responsible for assessing the clinical and cost effectiveness of medical innovations in the NHS. She is appointed by HM Treasury to chair the Sovereign Grant Audit Committee and sits as Non-Executive Director for the Lord Chamberlain’s Committee of the Royal Household. She also serves as Trustee of the Governing Council of Oxford University where she chairs the Audit and Scrutiny Committee.
In her executive career, Sharmila spent 15 years at the BBC, latterly as Chief Operating Officer for BBC Future Media and Technology, the division that built the iPlayer, and was most recently Chief Executive at Wilton Park, an executive agency of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office convening international dialogues for senior policy makers from around the world with a special focus on global health.
Sharmila read Medicine at the University of Oxford and has been a World Fellow at the University of Yale since 2007. She is also a chartered accountant and was awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to medical research.
Non-Executive Director
Linda Urquhart OBE FRSE
Linda has over 30 years experience in the legal industry as a former partner, CEO and Chairman of Scottish law firm, Morton Fraser.
She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Edinburgh Airport. She was formerly Chairman of This is Remarkable, a non-executive Director of Adam & Co and is a former board member of the CBI and Scottish Enterprise. She was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2012. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
In the charitable sector, Linda is President of Girlguiding Scotland.
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