Thriving GB Bank welcomes new man to the top team
FINANCE
Newcomer – Experienced banking figure Mark Sismey- Durrant has been appointed chair of GB Bank .
Thriving GB Bank welcomes new man to the top team
GB BANK APPOINTS NEW CHAIR
Award-winning specialist bank GB Bank has appointed an experienced and hugely respected senior banking figure as its new chair .
Mark Sismey-Durrant joins the Middlesbrough-based bank after spending more than 40 years in the UK banking sector , with much of that time spent in senior roles .
He replaces former GB Bank chair Mike Kirsopp , who has stepped away from the business to return to an executive career .
For 23 years , Mark operated as CEO at three fast-growing UK banks , the last of these being Hampshire Trust Bank , where he led a private equity-backed management buyout and restructured and scaled the business profitably , enabling it to raise growth capital of £ 100m .
Before that , Mark served as CEO at Sun Bank and then Heritable Bank , where he executed diversification strategies in the specialist lending arena , secured Tier 1 and 2 capital , grew balance sheets to £ 1.3bn and generated pre-tax profits of £ 17m and £ 21m respectively .
Mark is an experienced board director and has served on the boards of many banking and financial services companies , including his current chair position at digital specialist , CashPlus Bank . He is also senior independent director at PCF Bank .
Joining at an exciting time Speaking about his appointment , Mark said : “ I ’ m delighted to be joining GB Bank at such an exciting time for the business and I ’ m really looking forward to using my experience in specialist banking to help take GB Bank forward .
“ The bank was founded with a commitment to serving communities , which really makes it stand out , and I ’ m looking forward to working with the GB Bank team as we take the business through the next stage of its development .
“ There are lots of exciting opportunities in the market , which we are looking to tap into as GB Bank matures and develops beyond its highly successful launch phase into an ambitious growth stage .”
The bank was founded with a commitment to serving communities , which really makes it stand out .”
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