The Board
Our Board
The board sets the policies and priorities for Acorn Community Bank. Directors are volunteers. They offer their individual skills, insights and perspectives to complement the day-to-day work done by management and staff. The board guides the way Acorn develops to provide continually improving services that meet members’ needs.
Clive Henly, our CEO, has long experience of applying IT to financial services. He manages our day-to-day operations and strives to improve service & services.
Nick Gallop, the Chair, builds the board team and, guided by members’ needs and their experience with Acorn, shapes the way it works.
Chris Pollard is an employed barrister providing IP and general commercial advice.
Philip Turnbull was a Board member of Swan Community Bank, joining the Acorn board when we merged in 2023. Until retirement in 2014, Philip was an international consultant in official statistics.
Sue Gurney has been involved with the Credit Union movement for over 20 years. She was a long-standing director of Clivey CU, joining our board when we merged in 2023.
The Supervisory Committee works alongside the board to ensure the organisations is managed properly, in members’ interests and follows credit union rules and regulations.
Neil Cosburn is a partner in a consultancy that advises banking & legal clients on the management of financial risk.
With a background in law, Felicity Macdonald has worked in a range of banking roles in legal, business and treasury teams.
Gael Decoudu is a global leader in Analytics and Data Science with over 20 years’ experience in Financial Services especially credit cards and personal loans and e-commerce.
Are you interested in joining the Board?
We regularly have vacancies for board members. If you are interested in becoming a Director of Acorn Community Bank, please email office@acorncb.co.uk and a member of the team will put you in contact with a board member for an initial discussion.
Application process to become a Board member
- First you will have a meeting, usually with the Chair or vice Chair to hear about what being a Director involves, how we work and the role you might play on the Board. As part of learning about each other, you may have a second meeting with a different board member
- If you want to proceed and it’s clear you have something to offer, we will ask you to complete two short application forms. The first asks you about your experience and the reasons why you want to become a Director; the second asks you to confirm your suitability, sign a confidentiality agreement and provide two references.
- The next step is a ‘free trial’ when you attend two board meetings. After these meetings, if you want to continue, the board will vote to ‘co-opt’ you as a director. Members will be asked to vote on your appointment at the next Annual General Meeting.
- An important part of the induction process is to complete the Directors education pathway: an on-line course about the way credit unions work, how we are regulated and the role of directors generally.