The Board of Nottingham Building Society has appointed Chris Sparks to the Board as a non-executive director with effect from 1 March 2025. Subject to regulatory approval, Chris will succeed Kerry Spooner as Chair of the Board Risk Committee. Kerry will continue in her role as Senior Independent Director.

Chris Sparks spent nine years as Chief Risk Officer at challenger bank Atom Bank.

A member of the Executive Committee, Chris led on ensuring risk management excellence, enabling the successful growth of the business.

He joined Atom in 2015 following a distinguished leadership career in the UK retail banking sector where he specialised in finance, data and risk management. He spent his early career at HSBC and GE Capital and then spent 9 years at Royal Bank of Scotland in a number of specialist data and analytics leadership roles. He was appointed Director of Financial Risk and Analytics at Virgin Money in 2012, and during his three years there helped restructure the risk team in support of business integration and growth.

Nottingham Building Society Chair Robin Ashton said: “I am delighted to welcome Chris to our Board as Chair of the Risk Committee. His accomplished executive career in UK retail banking will enable him to bring insight, rigour and deep expertise to our Board discussions and will benefit the Society as the team delivers transformation and continued growth on behalf of our members.”