Indian-origin ex-minister Shriti Vadera to chair British Bank

Indian-origin British ex-minister Shriti Vadera has been appointed as chairman of Santander UK, thus becoming the first woman to head a major British bank. She will join the board of Santander UK as joint deputy chairman in January 2015 and succeed as chairman in March 2015.
After taking charges as chairman Santander UK,  she will also join a very exclusive club of just three Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 firms, listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalisation, with women as their chair.

About Shriti Vadera

She was born in Uganda in 1962 into a family of Indian origin.
Education: She was educated at Northwood College before taking a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Somerville College, Oxford.
Private sector career: For over 14 years Vadera was employed at investment bank UBS Warburg. She also had played a role in the partial privatisation of South African Telecom
Political career: She is former Labour minister in the Cabinet Office, Business Department and International Development Department from 2007 to 2009 in the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government. She also had served in the House of Lords. For 8 years she was an adviser in the UK Treasury.
In 2009, she left the UK government and took up a job with the G20 group, an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2014