Our people

Chief Executive Officer

Gary was appointed CEO in August 2017, having previously served as both Managing Director and Retail Director. During his 30+ year career, Gary has held a number of senior management roles in the UK payments industry. He headed up the cards business at Egg plc during its key period of growth and innovation. Past employers also include the Lombard Group, People’s Bank and Bank of Ireland.

Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director of BOIFCS & Corporate Clients

Andrew joined First Rate in 2007. He is also the Managing Director of Bank of Ireland First Currency Services, the wholesale division of the company. Andrew has significant cross-sector experience, including retail, financial services, FMCG and business services. Prior to joining First Rate, he worked for Citibank for a number of years, holding senior management positions in both Retail and International Banking.

Chief Information Officer

Sharon joined us in December 2016 to lead the IT function as we continue to develop and expand our digital offering. Since October 2017, she has also been responsible for our back office and supply operations. Prior to joining First Rate, Sharon was CIO for Santander Consumer Finance UK as well as holding a number of senior roles in IT within a variety of organisations, mainly in the Financial Services sector.

Chief Customer Officer

Matt leads the Customer Function for First Rate, after originally being appointed as Commercial and Marketing Director in 2019. Matt leads the Commercial, Product, Customer Experience, Digital and Marketing function for First Rate. Prior to joining us, Matt held several senior leadership positions for EE, Diageo and Virgin Atlantic.

Director, Human Resources & Facilities Management

Matthew joined First Rate in 2012, having spent the majority of his career as an HR professional in the financial services industry. For the previous five years, Matthew worked for the Post Office in a variety of HR roles, both specialist and generalist, including HR Director for the Post Office. Prior to that, Matthew worked for Prudential. The majority of this time was spent as a Director of Human Resources in life and pensions, general insurance and investment. At Prudential, Matthew was also Learning and Development Director, with the company’s offshore operation in Mumbai, India included in this remit.

Director of Risk & Compliance

Alex joined First Rate in June 2022 overseeing operational risk, regulatory compliance and financial crime prevention. With more than 20 years’ international experience within the 1st and 2nd lines of defence across retail, commercial, investment and digital banking sector, payments and fintech start ups, in senior leadership positions with the likes of HSBC and ING Bank, Alex specialises in successfully analysing organizations critical business requirements, re-engineering inefficient processes, conducting due diligence on acquisitions and developing teams to create a high performance environment.