Anne Elizabeth Boden (born January 1960) is a British tech entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of

Starling Bank Starling Bank () is a British digital challenger bank which provides current and business accounts. Starling Bank is a licensed and regulated bank, founded by former Allied Irish Banks COO, Anne Boden, in January 2014. Since its founding, it h ...

, a UK mobile-only bank. In 2018, she received an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

for services to financial technology.

Early life

Boden was born in

Bon-y-maen Bon-y-maen, sometimes spelt ''Bonymaen'', ( cy, Bôn-y-maen) is a community in Swansea, Wales located about north east of Swansea city centre. It falls within the coterminous Bonymaen ward for elections to Swansea Council. Bôn-y-maen is We ...

a suburb of

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, the daughter of a steelworker and a department store worker. She was a pupil at

Cefn Hengoed Cefn Hengoed is a small village in the centre of Caerphilly borough, within the historic boundaries of Glamorganshire. Bordering the larger village of Hengoed, Cefn Hengoed contains the local Derwendeg primary school A primary school ( ...

Comprehensive and graduated from

Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...

in 1981 with a degree in Chemistry and Computer Sciences. 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.

Career

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 Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Bank w ...

, where her career was launched. This was followed by spells at

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered plc is a multinational bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in the UK, and around ...

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

, and as Chief Information Officer at

AON Corporation Aon PLC () is a British-American multinational financial services firm that sells a range of risk-mitigation products, including Commercial Risk, Investment, Wealth and Reinsurance solutions, as well as boutique strategy consulting through Aon ...

. Boden later joined

ABN AMRO ABN or abn may refer to: Companies * ABN AMRO Group, a Dutch bank group * ABN AMRO, sometimes referred to as "ABN" in shorthand, is a Dutch state-owned bank * Algemene Bank Nederland, a now-defunct Dutch bank Radio, news and television organizat ...

and

RBS RBS may refer to: Organisations Banking * The Royal Bank of Scotland, a retail banking subsidiary of NatWest Group ** RBS International, the offshore banking arm of NatWest Group Education * Regent's Business School * Rotterdam Business School ...

, serving as Head of

EMEA EMEA is a shorthand designation meaning Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acronym is used by institutions and governments, as well as in marketing and business when referring to this region: it is a shorthand way of referencing the two ...

and as head of Global Transaction Banking. At the group, she ran a payments business across 34 countries. Boden earned her MBA from

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...

in 1990 while working for Standard Chartered. In 2011 she served on the Board of Governors of Middlesex University, which awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in July 2018. She joined

Allied Irish Banks Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. is one of the so-called Big Four commercial banks in Ireland. AIB offers a full range of personal, business and corporate banking services. The bank also offers a range of general insurance products such as home, trav ...

in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer to help turn round the bank's fortunes after the financial crisis of 2008. In 2020 Boden became a member of the board of the trade association for the UK's banks and financial services companies,

UK Finance The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and also an advisor to the UK government's

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

. Anne is a member of the World Economic Forum.

Starling Bank

Boden founded her online banking business in June 2014, originally named Possible Financial Services, with the tagline "Bank Possible". Her objective was to create an entirely on-line bank that gave easier feedback to customers. In February 2015, co-founder

Tom Blomfield Thomas Benjamin Blomfield (born 11 August 1985) is a British entrepreneur. Early life Blomfield grew up in Buckinghamshire and attended the selective Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham. His first business was building a website for a lo ...

departed Starling Bank to found

Monzo Monzo Bank Ltd () is an online bank based in the United Kingdom. Monzo was one of the earliest of a number of new app-based challenger banks in the UK. Originally operating through a mobile app and a prepaid debit card, in April 2017 its UK b ...

. The other four directors left with him. The company rebranded as Starling in January 2016, and received its UK banking licence that year. ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' described the company as "the Amazon of banking" after it received multiple investments from Austrian-born billionaire

Harald McPike Harald McPike (born 1958) is a Bahamas-based Austrian billionaire, and a 36% owner of Starling Bank. He was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1958. He grew up in Austria, and in the 1980s, studied economics at the University of Vienna. McPike is ...

. 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. McPike has to date invested £75m (for a 60% stake) in the company, followed by a £50m share held by Merian Global Investors. The company has raised £233m to date. Boden now holds approximately 25% of the company. The bank currently (Jan 2020) has a reported 275,000 customers in the UK. Boden is a member of Tech Nation's FinTech Delivery Panel and has spoken at industry events such as Money20/20 and Wealth 2.0.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boden, Anne 1960 births Living people Alumni of Swansea University Alumni of Middlesex University British women chief executives British technology company founders Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Swansea Welsh bankers NatWest Group people