The Leasing Foundation Board
The Leasing Foundation is led by a board focused on equity, diversity and inclusion, giving, innovation, next generation talent and sustainability.
Ylva Oertengren (chair of The Leasing Foundation, Simply)
Ylva is chief operating officer at Simply. A lawyer by trade, she has 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector, building and managing operations across multiple business lines across Europe and Asia Pacific. After working in global and UK financial institutions, Ylva co-founded Simply in 2017. Passionate about innovation, Ylva has brought together talent with technology to deliver a whole new customer experience in business lending.
Alongside her work with the Leasing Foundation, Ylva is focused on promoting young talent and inclusion in financial services through engagement in various organisations, mentoring programmes and public speaking.
Listed as a Standout 45 senior leader of the Women in Fintech Powerlist 2023, she was also awarded Innovator of the Year at the 2018 Women in Credit Awards, Leading Woman of Auto and Equipment Finance at the 2019 IAFN Awards, and Deloitte Fast 50 Women in Leadership Award in 2022.
Helen Lumb (Shire Leasing, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion)
Helen is managing director and chief financial officer at Shire Leasing. A chartered accountant who trained with EY in Birmingham, she has over 30 years’ industry experience, with almost 20 years in asset finance. Helen ran her own consultancy business working in multiple sectors from social housing to retail to the tech sector and is also a qualified coach and NLP Practitioner.
Helen leads Shire’s activity on D&I, in particular focusing on mental health and wellbeing and now co-leads the Leasing Foundation’s EDI group, championing mental health and neurodiversity. In her spare time, Helen is a keen photographer and is currently teaching herself astrophotography.
Helena Thernstrom (Natwest Group, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion)
Helena heads up the legal team at Natwest Group, which supports the Bank’s asset and invoice finance activities. This includes Lombard and RBS Invoice Finance, as well providing leadership to the wider commercial bank with a particular focus on brokers and consumer duty. She has been with the bank since 2015, having joined from De Lage Landen. Prior experience includes working as a solicitor in the Probation Service and in an arts charity.
Helena is an active driver of numerous diversity and inclusion initiatives and employee-led networks and is a regular speaker on gender and the wider diversity and inclusion agenda. She is also a trustee for the Marine Conservation Society and a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
James Lovett (Funding Circle, Giving)
James works in the commercial and strategy team at Funding Circle and is responsible for leading Funding Circle’s Marketplace proposition. James has almost 20 years experience in the SME lending industry, starting his career with Arkle Finance before joining Close Asset Finance and moving on to Funding Circle around 12 years ago.
Joining Mel Chell as a board director responsible for ‘Giving’, James will work to raise the profile of our nominated charity across the industry, focusing on collaborating with Coach Core to leverage mutual strengths and opportunities. James is a long-time supporter of our Next Generation network, having personally taken part in an early iteration of the Industry Insights programme.
As a dedicated rugby fan and player, James now enjoys a more moderate pace regularly playing for his local touch rugby team as well as spending time sailing and, most importantly, spending time with his young family in Surrey.
Mel Chell (Solaris Law, Giving)
Mel is a the co-CEO of Solaris Law with another female CEO, Karen Bulgarelli. Mel is an experienced leader and a lawyer in motor and asset finance litigation and recoveries, having spent over 20 years at Shoosmiths LLP as a partner.
Mel is the Leasing Foundation board director responsible for ‘Giving’ and loves working closely with our nominated charity of the year to raise much-needed funds and share knowledge and insights. Mel is also a passionate and active supporter of D&I initiatives and keen to use her influence to drive much-needed change across the financial services industry. In her spare time Mel’s passion is open water swimming. Mel swims for fitness and wellbeing and her biggest challenge to date is swimming all 11 miles of Lake Windermere.
Cat Powell (Novuna Business Finance, Innovation Initiative)
Cat is the head of data insight and automation at Novuna Business Finance. After completing her PhD at Imperial College London, Cat joined Alfa Financial Services initially as a software developer before moving into project management working. After five years with Alfa, Cat moved to Novuna Business Finance as strategic change manager, leading the company’s largest digital transformation to date. Having joined the business finance senior leadership team in Feb 2024, Cat now leads a multi-disciplinary team with a focus on maximising the business unit’s data capabilities, developing business insights and achieving automation and auto-decisioning efficiencies.
Combining extensive consultancy experience with technical software development skills and a scientific research background, Cat provides a unique viewpoint to defining innovation and change. Passionate about giving back and promoting technological advancement, Cat has worked with the Leasing Foundation for the number of years supporting diversity and inclusion and, more recently, the promotion of innovation within the industry.
Sam Dring (Lloyds Banking Group, Innovation)
Sam is the head of asset finance product at Lloyds Banking Group, with accountability for the commercial performance, risk profile, and strategic direction of the asset finance product across the commercial bank. In addition to his asset finance responsibilities, Sam leads the development of the business and commercial bank’s sustainable lending proposition. Sam is also the sponsor for learning and development across the wider lending and working capital business at Lloyds, with a focus on driving a learning culture within the business. He has been in the industry for over 20 years, formerly with Lombard, and over that time has undertaken roles across relationship management, change, transformation, operations, risk & recoveries, and strategy.
Beyond work, Sam is married with two young sons and lives in Sussex. He is a keen sports fan and loves to travel.
Craig Leyland (Lombard, Sustainability)
Craig Leyland is the head of asset finance product and journeys at Lombard and has over three decades of experience in financial services (mainly in commercial banking and asset finance) across sales leadership, product design, strategy, risk and change management.
He thrives on creating teams which share his vision and passion for helping businesses succeed, innovate and become more environmentally responsible in an environment where colleagues feel they can be themselves, are respected, cared about and supported to fulfil their full potential.
When he’s not working you are most likely to find him enjoying time with his family in the great outdoors.
James Rudolf (Acquis, Sustainability)
James is chief commercial officer at Acquis, overseeing client development teams delivering services to the asset finance industries across 17 countries in Europe and North America. With over 20 years of experience in financial services, James joined Acquis in 2020, bringing expertise in business process outsourcing, technology solutions and private equity-backed scale ups.
In 2023, James played a key role in facilitating the UK leasing industry’s response to a significant fraud, driving the creation of a new collaborative solution.
Outside of work, James is a trustee for a local children’s cancer charity and enjoys running, golf and travel. He lives in Cardiff with his wife and four sons.
Alex McWilliams (Simply, NextGen)
Alex is currently communications manager at Simply. She has over 6 years’ of relationship building and customer experience expertise, having started her career in broker support. A NextGen Network member since 2018, Alex has hosted workshops and networking event, making a big impact on the future of the industry.
She was Leasing Life Young Professional of the Year in 2019 and has featured in the Leasing Foundation’s 30 Under 30 in 2022.
Lauren McQuilken (United Trust Bank, NextGen)
Lauren, business development manager at United Trust Bank, has over 10 years’ experience in the asset finance industry. She started her career at Metro Bank Asset Finance, working within the operations team in various roles before joining the sales team. She then moved to United Trust Bank in 2022.
She’s been a Leasing Foundation NextGen ambassador for the past six years, featuring in the Leasing Foundation 30 under 30 in 2021 and was part of its first ever Industry Insights programme cohort on 2020/1.
Andrew Denton (Alfa Financial Software, non-executive director)
Andrew Denton has been CEO of Alfa since September 2016, having held roles as sales and marketing director and chief operating officer since he joined the company in 1995.
Andrew is director and joint founder of the Leasing Foundation, supporting the leasing and auto and equipment finance industry through charitable activities, research and development. He is co-chair of The McKenzie-Delis Foundation, a charitable organisation committed to driving insight and research into how businesses are moving the dial on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace. He is also is an advisor to The Women’s Association, boosting gender equality in the corporate world, and he is a proud member of the board of trustees for Professors Without Borders, bringing top-level educators and global experts to the doorsteps of students worldwide.
Graeme Chisholm (CBC, non-executive director)
Graeme has more than 30 years’ experience in the asset finance sector, initially in sales with Forward Trust Group and for the last 30 years as director of CBC Resourcing Solutions, the UK’s leading asset finance recruitment firm.
Graeme joined the board of The Leasing Foundation in 2017 and he is committed to attracting and retaining young talent in the asset finance Industry.
Mike Randall (Simply, non-executive director)
Mike Randall is CEO at Simply. He has over 30 years’ experience in the asset finance sector and has held many senior positions in that time. In April 2017, he founded Simply in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the asset finance sector with the aim of providing customers with a better, faster, simpler, more efficient service.
A frequent speaker at industry events, Mike sits in on the board of the FLA and is also a director of the Leasing Foundation, with a focus on innovation and actively developing young talent.
Nathan Mollett (United Trust Bank, non-executive director)
Nathan is head of asset finance at United Trust Bank. He is currently responsible for leadership of the asset finance, specialist motor finance, and block and wholesale finance businesses, with oversight of distribution, operations, 1st line credit risk, and operational risk. Prior to joining UTB, he worked at Metro Bank for five years and before that he worked at Wesleyan Bank for 16 years with responsibility for sales and marketing.
Nathan is committed to making the business finance industry a destination of choice for the next generation of talented, career-minded young individuals across the UK. He is also an ironman, marathon runner and Crystal Palace football club fan.
