Bibby Financial Services announces new senior team to drive growth strategy
International SME financier, Bibby Financial Services (BFS), has announced three new senior hires to drive forward its global growth strategy in 2021 and beyond.
Azel Scholz, former chief executive officer (Asia Pacific) for Siemens Financial Services Commercial Finance and tech start-up founder, joins BFS as chief revenue officer. Axel will be responsible for leading the company’s pan-global revenue, profitability and growth strategy.
Richard Olver joins BFS as chief operations & information technology officer, having held a variety of senior executive roles at Transamerica Commercial Finance, GE Commercial Distribution Finance and Siemens Commercial Finance. Richard will head-up the business’s operations and IT functions to enhance the customer experience across all stages of the lifecycle, in addition to delivering operational improvements.
Lucile Knight has been appointed as chief strategic development officer, joining BFS from global management and business consultancy, Clarasys. Lucile has delivered business and regulatory change and transformation across banking, capital markets, insurance and wealth management. Lucile will oversee BFS’s strategy & development, communications, and business and digital transformation teams.
Jonathan Andrew, global chief executive of Bibby Financial Services, said: “I am delighted to welcome Richard, Lucile and Axel to BFS to help drive the business forward to its next stage of growth across our international markets.
“BFS has fantastic people, innovative products and a solid client base. With our new senior leadership team in place, we want to embrace the fourth industrial revolution and digital collaboration to improve the entire customer journey for new and existing clients, while accelerating the business’s growth trajectory.”
Lucile, Richard and Axel join BFS on 4 January 2021. All three will join the BFS Global Executive Committee and report to Jonathan Andrew.
Jonathan added: “Notwithstanding the serious challenges facing global SMEs in 2020, there is also great opportunity as we move into the new year with renewed optimism.
“This is an exciting time for BFS and attracting leading and innovative professionals such as Richard, Lucile and Axel demonstrates our ambition to evolve and grow. Each share the business’s passion for developing high performing teams and providing a leading customer journey and I look forward to seeing the results of their input throughout 2021 and beyond.”