An experienced Board Director and Chair of Risk & Audit Committees. Current Board Directorships include HSBC Continental Europe, New Ireland (Irish Insurance and Fund Management) and Dublin City University Trust. Former Group Chief Risk Officer of AIB Group plc and previously at NTMA (Irish State Body), GE Capital, Bank of Ireland and Rabobank.

A fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a Chartered Director (IOD) and a Certified Investment Fund Director.

Laurence joined HSBC in October 2021 as HSBC Continental Europe Chief Risk Officer.

Laurence has 30 years’ experience in Risk, Compliance and Audit in Banking and Financial institutions. Prior to joining HSBC, Laurence was the Group Chief Risk Officer at Lowell. She spent 3 years with Wells Fargo Bank in London as the Head of International Risk Oversight responsible to establish the independent second line of Defense in operational risk, compliance management and foundational business practices. She has been with GE Capital during 13 years where she held various Chief Credit & Risk Officer roles in EMEA with responsibilities in North America and Asia and in her final role she was the Chief Operating Officer for the EMEA Leverage Finance Business.

Laurence spent the first 8 years of her career with KPMG and Credit Agricole Leasing and Factoring in audit and portfolio management.

Laurence holds a Master Degree in Banking and Corporate Finance from Aix-Marseille University and a Master in Management Sciences, Finance and Tax from Paris Dauphine University. She is six-sigma certified.

Thabile is a Chief Risk Officer at Old Mutual Insure with extensive and practical experience in GRC, Internal Audit and Combined Assurance in private, public sectors and consulting.

She is one of the first 10 “Certified Risk Management Practitioners” (CRM Prac) in South Africa and also a CIA (Certified Internal Auditor).

Thabile is currently the Vice President of IRMSA (Institute of Risk Management South Africa).

She is the winner of “Risk Manager of the Year 2015 Runner Up” and her and her team are winners of “Industry Initiative Award for Insurance and Reinsurance” 2019.

She enjoys igniting passion from the organisations to derive value from Risk Management. Her greatest joy comes in spending time with her family and connecting youth with opportunities.

Christine Palmer is the Chief Risk for Santander in the UK and has extensive experience in the financial services sector following a career spanning over 30 years. Christine joined Santander in 2020 from Aldermore Group, a specialist lender operating in the UK, where she was an executive director and Group Chief Risk Officer for the holding company, banking and consumer car finance businesses. After graduating from the University of Wales, Christine started her career at ABN Bank where she undertook a variety of roles in credit risk. In 1991, Christine joined ING, where she spent eight years in a variety of risk management roles in both London and Amsterdam. Before joining RBS in 2002, Christine held a consultancy role at Ernst & Young, where she focused on credit risk management in the Financial Services Risk Management practice. At RBS, Christine held many senior roles within the bank including Global Head of Operational Risk & Divested Businesses as well as Chief Risk Officer roles for the Group’s Non-Core Division and its UK Corporate & Commercial Bank. During her career Christine has successfully navigated complex, scale and global businesses as well as faster growing new banks all of which have experienced significant transformation and challenging environments. She has accountability for the second line activities of the Risk & Compliance functions within Santander UK and is also a Board member of Cater Allen and Santander Consumer Finance UK as well as being the executive sponsor for the Bank’s REACH Network which supports colleagues from different race, ethnicity and cultural/religious backgrounds. She has been recognised externally for this in 2023 being included in top 50 InVolve Empower Advocates for executives creating a more diverse and inclusive environment and shortlisted for European Diversity Awards 2023 – Inspirational Role Model.