Anne Boden
Company: Starling Bank
Wealth estimate: £203 million
After a three-decade career in some of the most traditional names in finance, it was Anne Boden’s training as a computer scientist that helped her see the gap in the market that Starling flew into.
She saw how digital tech could allow account holders to manage their finances in real time, inspiration that led to Starling’s cutting-edge app which also made her the first woman to found a British bank. Backed by some of the biggest names in finance, including Goldman Sachs, Starling now has a loan book worth almost £5 billion.
Boden is famous for resisting fundraising rounds to establish what she calls “a silly valuation”, stressing instead Starling’s profitability. She has become a strong voice in the City, predicting the death of cash. As one of the RBS executives who had to explain its government bailout to staff at the height of the financial crisis, she said she was “ashamed to be a banker” at that time.
The Welshwoman is also a former AIB executive is now a member of the FinTech Delivery Panel for Tech Nation and lives in London. She was awarded an MBE for services to fintech, and is interested in machine learning and fashion design.
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