Anne Boden

Boden was born in Bon-y-maen a suburb of Swansea, the daughter of a steelworker and a department store worker.[1] She was a pupil at Cefn Hengoed Comprehensive and graduated from Swansea University in 1981[3] with a degree in Chemistry and Computer Sciences.[4] After the financial crisis, Boden sold the house in Swansea where she spent her weekends, in order to raise funds and hire staff at her company.![4]

After graduating, she had intended to go into IT but, as a backup plan, applied for a job as a graduate trainee with Lloyds Banking Group,[3] where her career was launched.[4] This was followed by spells at Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, and as Chief Information Officer at AON Corporation.[5] Boden later joined ABN AMRO and RBS, serving as Head of EMEA and as head of Global Transaction Banking.[5] At the group, she ran a payments business across 34 countries.[6]

Boden earned her MBA from Middlesex University in 1990 while working for Standard Chartered.[7] In 2011 she served on the Board of Governors of Middlesex University, which awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in July 2018.[8]

She joined Allied Irish Banks in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer[9] to help turn round the bank's fortunes after the financial crisis of 2008.[10]

In 2020 Boden became a member of the board of the trade association for the UK's banks and financial services companies, UK Finance, and also an advisor to the UK government’s Board of Trade.[11]

Boden founded her online banking business in June 2014, originally named Possible Financial Services,[12] with the tagline "Bank Possible". Her objective was to create a entirely on-line bank that gave easier feedback to customers.[11]

In February 2015, Tom Blomfield the founder of rival neo-bank Monzo was fired from Starling Bank.[13] The other four directors left with him.[11]

The company rebranded as Starling in January 2016,[12] and received its UK banking licence that year.[14] The Telegraph described the company as "the Amazon of banking" after it received multiple investments from Austrian-born billionaire Harald McPike.[15]

Boden lost her position as majority shareholder in Starling in July 2019 after a large investment from McPike during a series C funding round in February.[16] McPike has to date invested £75m (for a 60% stake) in the company, followed by a £50m share held by Merian Global Investors.[16] The company has raised £233m to date.[16] Boden now holds approximately 25% of the company.[16] The bank currently (Jan 2020) has a reported 275,000 customers in the UK.[5] Boden is a member of Tech Nation's FinTech Delivery Panel[5] and has spoken at industry events such as Money20/20 and Wealth 2.0.

Media related to Anne Boden at Wikimedia Commons