Excellent Rating
Chairman & Non Executive Directors
The board aims to provide independent perspective to decision-making and act in the best interest of the company stakeholders. They also support the CEO and Senior Management team and have responsibility on the board sub-committees.
Howard Bell
Chair of Board
Howard Bell is chairman at Fair For You since 2015. Howard’s operational career involved scaling and accelerating commercial growth for a number of now market-leading digital brands as Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Product Officer. He was a co-founder of PayPal Europe he helped grow the company from pre-FSA/FCA licence to £200m revenues and to become an international brand across Europe.
Also beside, he served for several now market-leading digital brands UK cybersecurity venture Content Technologies (grew to a $1bn exit in 2001), Future50 JustGiving (revitalised resulting in a £95m exit), FutureLearn (grew from a start-up to 5m users). Howard previously led transformation strategies as general manager at larger blue-chip organisations: Barclaycard and Dow Jones.
Today Howard is also chair for three other UK scale-up organisations and also works as an Operating Partner with Octopus Ventures where he helps CEOs of the 80 portfolio organisations with their scale-up strategies. He has advised and mentored over 60 companies. Howard is also happily married to Stephanie and has two spirited daughters.
Tom Levitt
Non-Executive Director
Tom Levitt is a writer and consultant on responsible and sustainable business and the author of ‘The Company Citizen’ and ‘The Courage to Meddle’. A former Member of Parliament (1997-2010) and a serial charity chair, his clients have included major businesses, councils, social enterprises and others.
He’s a co-founder of the award-winning anti-poverty social enterprise, Fair for You, where he chairs the charity which owns the social enterprise. He is co-author of a Taskforce report on ‘Business Schools and the Public Good’ for the Chartered Association of Business Schools.
Tom is an advisor to the Centre for Responsible Business at Birmingham Business School and was recently a member of a BSI committee, creating BS8950 on social value.
Outside of working hours, Tom is a season ticket holder at Brentford FC so heads to the Community Stadium as often as possible.
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Jennifer Duncan
Non-Executive Director
Jennifer has spent most of her career in government affairs and communications. She is currently Vice-President for Government Innovation globally at Mastercard. In 2020, Jennifer was named as the industry’s Emerging Female Leader and recognised as a Policymaker & Regulatory Expert in the Women in global FinTech Powerlist.
She is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion including supporting the creation and work of ‘The Independent Financial Inclusion Commission’ (up until Jan 2018), a former member of the UK Government’s ‘Inclusive Economy Partnership’ and chaired ‘Project Inclusion’ on behalf of the ‘Emerging Payments Association’ (2019). Before joining Mastercard, Jennifer worked for Tesco, holding a variety of roles across Tesco Bank and the wider Retail Group.
Prior to this, Jennifer was a member of the public affairs team at DLA Piper. Jennifer is a ‘Girls4Tech’ champion and a Women’s Leadership Network Mentor. She has a First in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen.
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Tony Claytor
Non-Executive Director
Tony became involved with Fair For You during its formative period. Starting as a Trustee
of the Charity, he was involved in the setting up of the Community Interest Company (CIC) the Charity established to deliver a range of products and services to the group’s target communities. He became one of the CIC’s initial Non-Executive Directors.
Having worked within the personal financial services sector for most of his career he brings knowledge and experience gained across differing industry sectors, most business functions, and a wide range of customer groups, including consumers, businesses, and strategic partnerships.
An experienced board member, his roles including executive, non-executive, and chair level, he’s operated across a broad spectrum of organisations and business models ranging from market leaders to start-ups, including:
- Community focused – Fair For You, Consumer Credit Trade Association, School Governor
- Financial services –Consumer credit, banking, and insurance
- Outsourcing – Contact Centres, IT services
- Membership & Publishing enterprise
He has specialised in marketing and sales, regulatory matters, and innovation, particularly when entering new markets or introducing new products and services.
Today, his focus is upon helping people master changes in either their personal or working lives so that they can achieve their aims, realise their potential, and improve their wellbeing.
Neil Edwards
Non-Executive Director
Neil believes that the corporate world has a responsibility far beyond the needs of the traditional shareholder, and is proud to be involved in a venture such as Fair For You that can make a real difference to the everyday lives and well-being of many thousands of hard-working families.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, an MBA from Harvard Business School and originally graduated in Mathematics from Christ’s College, Cambridge.
He was most recently Finance Director for Saunderson House Limited, and helped steer the business from private equity ownership to its acquisition by Rathbone Brothers plc.
Before Saunderson House, Neil was CFO for Zoopla, and prior to that Simply Business, one of the UK’s biggest commercial insurance brokers and The Sunday Times Best Company to Work for, 2015 and 2016. He is a seasoned e-commerce and financial services professional, having spent time in senior roles with Amazon, eBay, PayPal and MoneyGram.
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Uma Cresswell
Non-Executive Director
Uma is a Non-Executive Director, serving on a number of boards both in the private sector and the third sector, whilst running her own international HR consulting business.
Prior to this, Uma spent over 25 years in senior HR roles across Europe, the Middle East, North America, Asia and Australasia. She has a wealth of directly relevant cross-cultural practitioner experience having worked with the global heads of multiple business lines at ANZ Banking Group Limited, AXA Rosenberg, Deutsche Bank, Cable & Wireless and NatWest. Uma has operated at C-Suite level dealing with all aspects of HR including regulatory reform and corporate governance, inclusion and belonging, HR transformation, talent acquisition/development, succession planning, culture and conduct.
Uma is only the second woman of colour to serve as Chair and President of City Women Network – one of the longest established independent organisations for professional and businesswomen in the UK, committed to furthering the professional and personal development of female talent in business. She is a natural connector and uses her wealth of experience, personal background, cultural heritage, and life experiences to transform people/things around her.
Uma is CIPD accredited, an NLP Practitioner and a Strengthscope coach who is passionate about developing and supporting individuals with their career aspirations.
Away from the world of work, Uma has a spirited teenage daughter and a gorgeous boy, Cavapoo. She is an ardent Leicester City season ticket holder and is fluent in Hindi and Gujarati.
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Senior Management Team
The Senior Management Team is responsible for the day to day running of the business and meets weekly to oversee business performance and address any matters that require senior management team’s attention.
James Wilkinson
Interim CEO and Head of Lending
James joined the Fair for You Senior Management Team early 2019 and his expertise in development and implementation of credit risk decision management tools has been invaluable to the lending operation. He has successfully grown the loan book through the use of credit risk data sources and systems within Fair for You and has forged relationships with 3rd parties to help create an effective lending strategy that is capable of the projected future growth. Along with this, James has built an effective lending operation, which is capable of managing the increase in volumes the business has seen.
James is a highly motivated, enthusiastic and dynamic professional with over 15 years’ experience working for major UK financial institutions. His experience spans both Retail and Commercial sectors of Banking where he has held varied roles, such as Project Management, Credit Risk Management as well as customer facing.
Since the departure of the previous CEO, James has fulfilled the role of Interim CEO.
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Emma Goodwin
CFO
Emma Goodwin is a Chartered Accountant with over 12 years’ experience working across a variety of sectors and industries. Initially starting her career as an Audit Manager with Deloitte she has subsequently held ‘Head of’ positions across multiple finance disciplines including Risk Management & Control, Financial Accounts and Financial Planning & Analysis. Emma has worked for Fair For You since 2018, initially as the General Manager and subsequently leading the Finance team.
Chris Bennett
Commercial Manager
Chris joined Fair for You in late 2015 to aid in registration with the FCA and the creation of relevant policies, procedures and other legal documentation including credit agreements. Since joining Chris has led the creation and development of lending products and business processes to support the work towards sustainability.
He has taken a leading role in partner management including new and existing Retailers available on the proposition and has supported all business functions on reporting obligations to ensure compliance with regulators including implementing a complaints handling process and making necessary changes following implementation of the GDPR.
Chris has been a registered Fellow of the RSA since 2019 and has a First Class Honours degree in Law from the University of Hertfordshire.
Steve Merry
Head of Technical Operations
Steve has First in Chemistry from Imperial College together with a PhD in Physical Chemistry.
Steve joined Fair For You in August 2020, he brings with him a wealth of experience in operational change and development together with strategic improvement with customer journeys.
Steve has previously worked in senior technology roles in the energy sector prior to joining Fair For You.
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