Nottingham Building Society has announced the appointment of Chris Sparks to its Board as a non-executive director, effective from 1st March 2025. Subject to regulatory approval, Sparks will also take over from Kerry Spooner as chair of the Board Risk Committee, with Spooner continuing in her role as senior independent director.
Sparks brings extensive experience in risk management and retail banking, having spent nine years as chief risk officer at Atom Bank. As a member of Atom’s executive committee, he played a key role in ensuring risk management excellence while supporting the bank’s growth.
He joined Atom in 2015 after a career in finance, data, and risk management at several leading UK banks. He started at HSBC and GE Capital before spending nine years at Royal Bank of Scotland in specialist data and analytics leadership roles. In 2012, he became director of financial risk and analytics at Virgin Money, where he helped restructure the risk team to support business integration and expansion.
Robin Ashton, chair of Nottingham Building Society, 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.”
