There are plenty of changes in Sheffield and London with British Patient Capital, Monex Europe and OCI revealing their new appointments.
Catherine Lewis La Torre has been appointed CEO of British Patient Capital (BPC), returning to the role she held from 2018 until 2020 before she was named as acting CEO of the British Business Bank (BBB) in September of that year.
Commercial foreign exchange company Monex Europe has made three appointments to its leadership team.
Commercial process outsourcing firm OCI has appointed Geoff Parry as Commercial Director.
Patient is a Virtue
BPC is a wholly owned commercial subsidiary of BBB. BPC is based in Sheffield and is focused on long-term investment in innovative companies across the UK.
According to BPC, La Torre has also been appointed as Chair of British Business Investments (BBI), taking over from Francis Small who recently concluded his term in office. In addition, she has taken on the role of Senior Responsible Officer for the bank’s other equity schemes.
Following the recent announcement that Louis Taylor will be joining as the bank’s new CEO in October, La Torre will continue as acting CEO, taking up her new roles in the autumn.
Judith Hartley, who was appointed acting CEO of BPC and BBI in September 2020, will take up the permanent role of CEO, BBI when her secondment ends in the autumn.
BPC’s website says it has 670+ companies in its underlying portfolio and £1.3 billion+ in total commitments to date (both as at 31 March 2021). It was one of the backers of Oxford Quantum Circuits, a quantum computing company that recently raised £38 million in the first close of an ongoing Series A.
Three-dom at Monex Europe
London-based Monex Europe has appointed David Whitcroft as Group Director of Risk & Treasury, John Gallagher as Group CTO and Executive Director, and Jacques de Villiers as Director of Digital Strategy, subject to regulatory approval. They will report into Nick Edgeley, CEO at Monex Europe.
These appointments follow those of Tom Farrow, Group Director of Trading, and William Crossley, Group Sales Director, to the firm’s Board of Directors, in May this year.
Whitcroft brings over 27 years of experience. He joins the firm from fintech company WorldRemit, where he developed its treasury and risk functions as Group Treasurer. Prior to this, he worked at Doha Bank, Qatar and Al Hilal Bank, UAE. Previous roles include National Australia Bank, Barclays Bank and CIBC.
Gallagher has over 25 years’ experience. He joins from Mastercard, where he was responsible for the management and governance of its global consumer applications products and platforms. Prior to this, he was CTO at VeriFone Systems, responsible for its global payment processing services, and a Chief Information Officer and IT Director at Barclays Bank.
De Villiers has over 15 years of experience within the foreign exchange industry. He was most recently Business Development Director at Global Reach Group.
Hi OCI
According to London-based OCI, Parry brings 30 years of international banking experience – 20+ years in trade and supply chain, half based in Asia and half in Europe.
He says: “Global supply chains face many new challenges today – solving each link requires a deep understanding of the different local and regional nuances. We have all seen and felt the impact of disruption in one way or another. Helping to make supply chains move more effectively, certainly feels like the right thing to be doing right now.”
OCI partners with large corporates and governments globally. The firm says it links directly into their supply chain, to provide solutions across sourcing, logistics and finance.
The company was founded in 2008 and works in various industries – technology, media, pharmaceuticals, consumables, industrial, inventory and renewables.
