Get to know the board
The role of our board at Zopa is to increase the scale of our business, protect our customers and ensure good corporate governance. Find out a little bit more about the people on our board below.
The board
We're proud to have a group of people with vast and proven business and technology skills guiding our path.
Gordon McCallum
Chair and board member
As the architect of Virgin Group's strategy from the mid-1990s until 2012, Gordon brings over four decades' worth of professional, executive and non-executive experience to Zopa.
He was responsible, in particular, for the creation and development of Virgin's Mobile and Money businesses around the world. Prior to that, he held roles at McKinsey and Baring Brothers, and non-executive roles across many Virgin companies.
He is currently a Senior Advisor to private equity group, Searchlight Capital and a Non-Executive Director at a number of companies, including Argent Energy (a major European producer of biodiesel from wastes) and Global Risk Partners (the UK’s leading independent insurance intermediary).
Jaidev Janardana
Group CEO and board member
Devoted to creating simple and fair financial products and services, Jaidev joined Zopa in October 2014.
Since then Zopa has secured its banking license to offer its customers a wider range of financial products, increasing its lending volumes six fold and growing its revenue 20x (as of 2023).
Before Zopa, Jaidev spent 12 years at Capital One. Starting out in McLean, Virginia, he was initially focused on the US card business. He then moved to the UK in 2007 with a big task at hand – to manage credit risk through the financial crisis as Chief Credit Officer for the UK business.
Having helped Capital One UK successfully navigate through the crisis, he took on the broader role of Chief Marketing Officer and was instrumental in returning the UK business back to profitability and growth.
Giles Andrews
Co-founder and board member
Giles was one of five people who dreamed up Zopa in 2004. By 2007 he was CEO and became Chairman in 2015. Giles resigned as Chair in 2019 and became a non-executive director at Zopa.
Giles received an OBE for services to financial services in the 2016 New Year Honours list.
Other roles
Giles acts as non-executive Chair at MarketFinance, the FinTech platform where businesses have raised over £2.5bn in working capital, and Carwow, the marketplace with over 7% of the UK new car retail market. He is an independent non-executive director and member of the risk, remuneration and transformation committees of Bank of Ireland Group plc in Dublin and Chair of the Governing Council of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI), an independent think tank where financial services professionals and observers can share ideas about the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
Steve Hulme
Chief Financial Officer and board member
Steve leads Zopa's finance and legal teams. He was pivotal in Zopa achieving its banking licence, working tirelessly to successfully take the company from a P2P loan provider to a fully-fledged UK bank. In 2021 he led Zopa’s funding strategy that resulted in Softbank Vision Fund’s $300m equity investment.
He joined Zopa at the start of 2018 having spent nearly two decades in financial roles with a range of innovative financial services companies.
Prior to joining Zopa, Steve was CFO at Tandem Money, CFO for PayPal's global credit business and CFO for Capital One's UK and Canadian business.
Richard Goulding
Board member
As we look to scale our business, having guidance and oversight from experienced risk experts is critical. Richard provides us with this. He spent 10 years at Standard Chartered Bank as Group Risk Officer. Before Standard Chartered, Richard held executive positions at Old Mutual Financial Services, UBS Warburg/SBC Warburg, Astra Holding plc, Bankers Trust Company and Midland Bank Group. Richard is also on the board of Bank of Ireland Group.
Chris Jones
Board member
Chris is a director of the Zopa shareholder IAG Silverstripe, an investment arm of IAG Capital Partners. Chris leads the acquisition and oversight of IAG Capital Partner’s European portfolio companies. Previously Chris was with Sherman Financial Group and Credit Suisse. He served for 14 years on the Boards of Credit One Bank NA, a multi-billion dollar US bank specializing in credit cards and Consubanco SA, a Mexican bank focused on consumer lending.
Nick Aspinall
Board member
Nick is an investment director of the Zopa shareholder IAG Silverstripe, an investment arm of IAG Capital Partners. Nick is responsible for IAG Capital Partners’ legal and regulatory affairs, corporate structuring and governance of its European portfolio. Previously Nick was a partner with Cambridge Place Investment Management Group and at Aon and Norton Rose Fulbright. Nick is a European Board Member for Kroll Bond Rating Agency.
Michael Woodburn
Board member
Michael is the Chief Data Officer at ClearScore and is also working with the VC consultancy, Blenheim Chalcot. Previously, Michael was Chief Executive Officer at Oakbrook Finance, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer in a 14 year career at Capital One UK, and also a manager at Schroders.
Paul Cutter
Board member
A technology leader, Paul is the Chief Information Officer at Flutter Entertainment plc, where he sets the global strategic direction for over 5,000 technologists. His role is to share technology and expertise between the different brands in the Flutter group to deliver a better experience for customers. He’s also spent nearly 10 years in senior tech roles at BSkyB and AOL.
Gaenor Bagley
Board member
Gaenor has 30 years’ experience in the professional services industry. She’s held a variety of leadership and board positions, including five years on the PwC UK board as Head of People, followed by 18 months as Head of Corporate Purpose for PwC UK. Gaenor currently holds a range of other non-executive appointments, including with Octopus Titan VCT plc and the National Audit Office.
Neil Cunha-Gomes
Board member
Neil is the Head of EMEA Fintech at the SoftBank Vision Fund. He has led numerous investments into fintech, insurtech, and software scale-ups. Prior to SoftBank, Neil worked in private equity at Coller Capital and in structured finance at Deutsche Bank.
Pippa Lambert
Board member
Pippa was previously Global Head of Human Resources at Deutsche Bank where she was responsible for leading the development of a successful and progressive HR transformation programme, focused on improving the group’s culture, diversity and inclusion and digital agendas.
Prior to that, Pippa was Group Head of Reward at the Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (2011-2013) where she worked closely with the RBS Board on the redevelopment and restructure of the bank’s compensation and benefits programme.
Pippa is currently a Non-Executive Director and Remuneration Committee Chair at Aviva plc, a member of the Senior Salaries Review Board, and a trustee at Future Dreams Charity.