Santander UK has announced that Elaine Thomas will become chief human resources officer next month.
Thomas will be responsible for developing and leading the bank’s people strategy, delivering on Santander’s ambition to be one of the best companies to work for in the UK, with a diverse and inclusive workforce with the right skills for the future.
She has more than 25 years’ experience in HR and comes from Refinitiv, a financial data provider, where she was global head of people solutions and service delivery. Prior to this, she was a global head of HR for technology at Thomson Reuters. She started her HR career at Wallis Fashion Group and then spent 13 years in a variety of roles worldwide at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Thomas will join the bank on 1 February, reporting to Tony Prestedge, Santander UK deputy CEO, and Amaya Cesaro, head of HR for Europe and corporate and investment banking. She will join the UK executive committee and Santander’s HR leadership team for Europe.
Her remit will include capability and culture, diversity and inclusion, reward and performance, people transformation, HR digitalisation, operations and business partnering, talent and learning, recruitment, succession, and employee relations.
Thomas said: “I am excited to be joining an organisation with such diverse and talented people and a strong international presence. I am looking forward to working with Tony, Amaya and the team to deliver the bank’s bold change agenda and make Santander an outstanding place to work.”
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Prestedge said: “I am very pleased to welcome Elaine to the team. She brings a unique blend of experience across the retail, banking, technology, information, data and analytics industries, both in the UK and internationally. She will be a huge asset as we deliver our ambitious transformation programme and continue to build Santander’s position as a world-class employer, with an inclusive culture where all of our colleagues can feel empowered to succeed.”
