Distinguished alumni

After leaving Loughborough University, Helen competed at the Olympic Games in Athens (2004) as part of the GB Archery team. Whilst training and competing, Helen was working for Alliance and Leicester. She continued to develop her career in banking following her retirement from sport and has held a range of positions in marketing and management roles to Head of Business Products at Santander. Whilst working at Alliance and Leicester, Helen steered the launch of the first ever digital mortgage application.

She was also involved in the launch of the first high interest credit current account and the first cashback current account for medium-sized enterprises.

Helen is passionate about helping women to progress their careers in financial services. She chaired Santander’s internal women’s network, leading a team that supported more than 3,200 women. Following her roles at Santander, Helen joined Starling in 2019 with a belief in its mission to deliver an innovative banking experience to customers. Starling is a bank built for mobile and offers budgeting tools through their app. Her first post with the bank was as Head of Retail Bank and she is now Chief Banking Officer, sitting on the management team. Helen was voted one of the top 50 customer experience professionals by Marketing Week in the CX50 list in 2019.

As well as her impressive career in banking, Helen was also the Chairperson for the Rugby branch of the National Childbirth Trust for two years, supporting fundraising and event coordination for the area. She continues to show her sporting spirit in and out of the boardroom, leading high performing teams and supporting women in her workplace.