FoundationGre

Board of Trustees

Professor John Mellor (Founder and Chairman)

John has wide-ranging banking experience as a vice-president of Citibank, heading a team of global corporate bankers; and, as an executive director of the Scandinavian Unibank plc, as head of corporate finance. He has over 25 years’ experience of governance working at board level, including as head of the NED and governance practice of a boutique firm of management consultants, focussing on selection and advice to boards. He has worked with notable pioneers of effective governance practice, such as the late Sir Adrian Cadbury, has been an adviser to a number of DTI agencies, was a major contributor to the Higgs Review on NEDs, an NED of the Insolvency Service, and a co-founder and policy adviser to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance.

John pioneered professional development and education for NEDs as NatWest Senior Fellow in Corporate Leadership at the University of Exeter, and, whilst there, founded the Non-Executive Director’s Forum. He has held Visiting Professorships in Governance at Bristol Business School and the University of Leicester, and subsequently held the chair in Governance in Banking and Finance at the University’s Business School before stepping down in 2017 to focus on FGRE.

He is the author of various articles on governance and the role of the non-executive director. His book “Practical Corporate Governance” was released by Jordans in a second edition in 2013.

John holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Bristol, and an MBA from Cranfield Business School specialising in corporate finance. Before embarking on his banking career he served a 3 year short service commission as a Lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy.

Chris Leslie

Chris Leslie spent the first 18 years of his career in banking with Citibank in London, Dublin, and New York. His last position at the Bank was heading up its corporate and specialised financing businesses in the UK. For the last 25 years Chris has been in executive search, working initially on senior executive appointments in banking and financial services where he was part of a small team that built Whitehead Mann into the leading executive search firm in the UK. Prior to retiring, both at Whitehead Mann and then The Zygos Partnership, he focused almost exclusively on chairman and non-executive director appointments in financial services.

Chris holds an MA in French and Economics from St Andrews University and has attended the Programme for Management Development at Harvard Business School.

Ian Donald Cormack

Ian Cormack spent 30 years with Citibank where he held a number of senior positions, including UK Country Head, Head of European Training, and Co-Head of the Global Financial Institutions Business. He has extensive boardroom experience, and is currently a non-executive director of Just Group plc and Hasting Holdings plc, and Chairman of Maven Income and Growth VCT4 plc. He has previously been the senior independent director of Phoenix Group Holdings plc, Xchanging Ltd and Partnership Assurance Group Ltd (both formerly plc’s), and Bloomsbury Publishing plc. In May 2018 he was appointed a non-executive director on the board of NatWest Holdings Ltd, the RBS ‘ring-fenced’ bank, which includes NatWest Bank plc and other entities.

Ian has a PPE degree from Oxford where he chairs the alumni advisory panel of Pembroke College.

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board, established under the delegated authority of the FGRE Board in accordance with the Constitution, comprises experienced practitioners and others with relevant background and knowledge.

Membership

Professor John Mellor - FGRE Chair
Ian Cormack – FGRE Trustee
Stephen Jones, Former CEO of UK Finance from 2017 to 2020 and CFO of Santander UK from 2012 to 2015. He is Head of Investment Banking at Panmure Gordon.
Chris Leslie – FGRE Trustee
Tracey McDermott – Member of the Group Management Team at Standard Chartered Bank with responsibility for conduct, financial crime and compliance. Previously 15 years at the FSA/FCA including as interim CEO.
Laura Sanderson – Leads Russell Reynolds Associates in the UK and oversees the firm's Board and CEO Advisory Partners team throughout Europe.

Sir Win Bischoff - Sir Win was a key member of the Advisory Board and, with his passing, his support and counsel will be much missed.

January 2024