Pilots Board

Natalie is the Chair of the independent ‘Access to Cash Review’, which published a report in 2019 exploring the implications of the fall in cash use, making recommendations to UK policy makers, industry and regulators to ensure that no-one is left behind as society moves increasingly digital.

Natalie has a career spanning the public and private sectors, across a range of policy, leadership and regulatory roles. She has a passion for inclusion, and for using digital technology for good. Natalie is currently Chair of Innovate Finance, and a non-executive director of Anglian Water Services LTD, Ford Credit Europe and Sport England. Her career includes a strategy consultancy background at McKinsey & Company, membership of the executive team of HSBC UK leading on customer standards, and three CEO roles including The National Archives, the Financial Ombudsman Service and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

An economist and honorary Professor at King’s College London and an independent member of the LINK Consumer Council. Margaret has been a senior consultant for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer since retiring in 2003 from the Office of Fair Trading, where she was Director of Competition Enforcement. Margaret is also Vice Chair of the Professional Standards Council for Invoice Finance and Asset Based Lending and a member of the Access to Cash Review.

Martin is the Policy & Advocacy Chair for the Federation of Small Businesses. He has been a member of the FSB for over 20 years, promoting the interests of our local members through the Darlington Branch Committee, as Vice Chairman of the Regional Committee, and as Chairman of the Local Government Policy Unit. He currently owns and manages three businesses offering public policy, engineering and IT consultancy services. Martin leads the policy team to make sure small business issues are understood and represented in Westminster, Whitehall and Brussels.

James Daley has been a consumer campaigner and financial journalist for 20 years. Before launching Fairer Finance in 2014, he worked for the consumer group, Which?, where he campaigned for a better deal for customers of banks and insurers in the wake of the financial crisis.  

Since 2018, he has been a member of the independent Access for Cash Review, which has worked with government, banks and consumers to consider how access to cash can be maintained while usage declines. 

Before working at Which?, James spent 10 years as a business and finance newspaper journalist, latterly as the The Independent’s personal finance editor and cycling columnist.

He lives with his wife and two children in Tooting, where he is also a local councillor.

Tim Allen is Head of Cash and Self Service at Barclays where he is responsible for ensuring the bank’s retail and corporate customers have access to the right cash, at the right place, at the right time. He has over 12 years’ experience in Cash and ATMs, has previously served as a Director of the LINK ATM Scheme and is currently a member of the LINK Consumer Council.

Helen is a senior leader and problem solver, who is at the forefront of tackling some of the most complex, high profile and diverse issues in the Financial Services sector. Helen is passionate about the UK Access to Cash debate, as demonstrated through her position as Chair of the UK Finance Access to Cash committee.

She is currently Chief Operating Officer for NatWest Holdings Risk and has previously served as Chief of Staff to the RBS CEO. Helen has pursued a number of diverse roles since joining the bank in 2003 including; working with HMT in agreeing the terms for successfully bailing out RBS, and leading the divestment of a number of non-core exposures across multiple jurisdictions and sectors (aviation, rail, shipping). Helen began her career training as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in London, specialising in Corporate Tax.

Born and raised in the Lake District, Helen is married with two children and is a keen skier, cyclist and mountaineer. She serves as a Director and Chairman of Coutts International in Zurich.

Iain is Head of ATMs at Sainsbury’s Bank with over 35 years of banking experience.  Formally at Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking group,  Iain’s focus in Sainsbury’s Bank for the last 18 years has been building and maintaining a reliable and safe ATM network offering free access to cash. Iain is also member of the Link Consumer Council.

Kirsty is a senior Financial Services professional who has worked in the sector for over 20 years. Kirsty currently works at Santander as Director of Transformation & Support which includes leading the ATM & Infrastructure team, Access to Cash and Retail Post Office services as well as the Transformation Programmes across the Branch and Contact Centres. Kirsty has a diverse experience incorporating large scale transformation / integration programmes and delivery whilst operating within a regulatory framework with a focus on both the colleague and customer experience.

John is CEO of the LINK Scheme, the UK’s cash machine network and Link Scheme Holdings Ltd. He is a member of the Payment Systems Regulator’s Panel and the LINK Scheme’s Consumer Council.  Previous roles include member of the UK Executive Board of Capgemini Consulting, as lead for the Department for Work and Pensions advisory business, plus a number of major local government transformations.  His early career was with Gemini Consulting’s financial services strategy practice and Lloyds Bank. John has a first degree in Materials Science from Keble College, Oxford and an MBA with Distinction from London Business School.  He is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.