Paula Hay-Plumb qualified as a chartered accountant with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company (now KPMG) moving on in 1984 to join Marks & Spencer to look after the accounting for the group’s treasury activities and finance subsidiaries. Four years later, she set up a business appraisal department for Olympia & York Canary Wharf before becoming group treasurer and then group financial controller. In 1994, Paula joined the board of English Partnerships (the Government’s national regeneration agency) as finance director, becoming chief executive in 1999. She chaired the Coalfield’s Taskforce, set up by the Government in 1998, and is a trustee of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. In 2003, she re-joined Marks & Spencer as corporate finance and group reporting director, where her work included a financing strategy to support the expansion of the financial services business. Having successfully completed the corporate finance aspects of the bid defence strategy against Philip Green, Paula left the group in 2005 to pursue a portfolio career.
Commenting on her appointment, Ms Hay-Plumb said: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining the board of Skipton. It has an enviable reputation as a modern mutual with a comprehensive portfolio of subsidiary businesses and I look forward to playing my part in its future development.”
After graduating from Lancaster University in 1974, Alastair Findlay joined Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co (now KPMG) in London, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. In 1978, he joined the corporate finance department of Flemings, providing advice and capital raising services to companies and other organisations, in particular in the financial sector. During his time there, Alastair was seconded to the Ministry of Defence, where he worked on the incorporation and privatisation of the Royal Ordnance Factories and on the re-organisation of the central part of the Ministry. In 1996, Alastair joined The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company as group finance director, where he had responsibility for a number of acquisitions, investor relations and was involved in the Group’s property developments. He left the company at the end of 2005 following its acquisition by a privately owned group. Alastair is a non-executive director of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and an independent director of the trustee of the AMEC plc pension funds. Alastair is married with three teenage children and lives in Cheshire.
Commenting on his appointment, Mr Findlay said: “I am greatly looking forward to contributing to the continuing development of the Skipton Group over its range of businesses, and the continued delivery of the benefits of mutuality to its members.”
John Rawlings, chairman of Skipton, said: "Paula and Alastair to the Board. Their wealth of experience in such a broad spectrum of areas pertinent to Skipton will, I’m sure, prove very valuable and add further strength to the Society’s board.”
