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Whatever you call Zopa, please don’t call us a bank. Because we’re not one. We don’t hold or make money from the funds lenders transfer into Zopa. And we don’t make huge amounts of money from each of our members. Zopa is a marketplace, where people can come together and lend to and borrow from each other. In sweet harmony.
Board structure
Chairman
Phillip J. Riese
Phillip spent 18 years as President of American Express Consumer Cards Services Group, where he successfully relaunched the consumer lending business, as well as developing the co-branded card business. Before American Express, Phillip served as division executive of Chase Manhattan Bank's Visa and MasterCard businesses.
Non-executive Directors
Johann Brenner (from Benchmark Capital)
Before joining Benchmark, Johan was the Founder and Chairman of TIME Vision, a Nordic-based investment company where he built a number of successful companies, including Jobline, E*Trade Nordic, DebiTech and Tradera. At Benchmark, Johan sits on the board of the following firms: Board Seats, Cas Services, Dropshop, Gourmondo, Pageflakes, Rawflow, and Sulake. And Zopa, of course.
Bart Markus (from Wellington Partners)
Bart has been with Wellington since April 2000. His areas of expertise are System Level Software and Electronics, and he currently manages investments in Nexwave, Covast, Reportive, Cavendish Kinetics, Negevtech and us. Previous investments have included Meiosys (sold to IBM in 2005) and Nawotec (sold to Zeiss SMT in 2005). He likes to spend his weekends on his sailing boat or with his wife and kids.
Rob Stavis (from Bessemer Venture Partners)
Rob was an independent private equity investor before joining Bessemer in 2000. His areas of expertise are financial services and emerging software technologies, and he sits on the board of Gerson Lehrman Group, Soleil Securities, Portrait Software, Revver, Pure Networks and Quadriserv, as well as Zopa. Rob's a big food and wine connoisseur and has invested in five successful New York restaurants.
James Alexander
James was previously Strategy Director at Egg, and saw the company through its highly successful period of growth and move into profitability into the UK. He went on to co-found Zopa in 2005. James is a Trustee of Green Thing, a not-for-profit environmental website that mobilises people to act against climate change. He is also a big twitcher, and in 1990, during a trip to Africa, he helped re-discover 3 species of birds that had been thought to be extinct.
Executive Directors
Doug Dolton (CEO)
Previously CEO of 2 national internet-based consumer lending operations in the US. Nearly 30 years' experience in the consumer banking sector.
Giles Andrews (CFO and UK MD)
Spent 10 years in the motor industry, co-founding Godfrey Davis Motor Group. Then set up his own consultancy practice where clients included Tesco and Tesco Personal Finance.