Executive management team

Paul was appointed Chief Executive Officer in July 2023. Prior to becoming Group Chief Executive, he was Chief Executive of the bank’s Commercial & Institutional (C&I) business, bringing together the teams that support NatWest’s business customers, ranging from entrepreneurs and start-ups through to multi-nationals and financial institutions.

Paul brings strong UK and International expertise in strategic and cultural transformation, scale leadership, balance sheet management and risk, and a sharp focus on customer experience.

Throughout his executive and non-executive career, Paul has taken an active role in promoting talent, and building and leading inclusive teams across multiple regions, geographies and disciplines, to deliver performance for customers and wider stakeholders.

Paul has over 30 years’ experience in financial services having held senior roles within Wholesale, Corporate, International, Risk and Retail Banking, across the UK, Europe and US. 

Member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Manchester.

Keiran joined the Group in April 2023 as Chief Risk Officer for NatWest Group and NatWest Holdings. He has significant experience across the enterprise-wide risk spectrum, as well as business leadership and transformation expertise both in the UK and globally.

Prior to joining NatWest, Keiran was Group Chief Risk Officer at Santander in Madrid where he led the Global Risk and Compliance function. 

Over a 37-year career in the financial sector, Keiran spent over 25 years at Barclays in the UK and overseas, and Northern Rock prior to 11 years at both Santander UK and Santander Group in Madrid.  

Emma Crystal joined NatWest Group as CEO of Coutts and Wealth Businesses on 1 July 2024.  

Before moving to NatWest Group, she was Lead, Sustainable Finance Group at UBS and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Credit Suisse where her responsibilities included setting the sustainability strategy and ambition for the bank and partnering with the divisions, regions and functions, to deliver their sustainability commitments. These included expanding the wealth management product shelf, investment banking financing offering and net zero deliverables.

Previously, Emma held a number of senior leadership positions at Credit Suisse including leading the Wealth Management business for Northern & Western Europe. Prior to that, she also covered Family Offices for the UK and Nordic markets.

Before joining Credit Suisse, Emma worked in Global Markets at Deutsche Bank for 10 years.

Emma graduated from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, with a master’s degree in Economics and Business.

Emma is a member of the Executive Committee of NatWest Holdings and also sits on the Coutts Board in her capacity as Coutts CEO.

Group Chief Information Officer, Scott, joined NatWest in September 2022. Scott is an established Technology leader with over 30 years of experience in Financial Services. He leads NatWest Digital X, which has over 30,000 colleagues across the UK, India, Poland and Switzerland. Digital X Engineers, Protects and Operates the bank with teams delivering Technology solutions for customers and colleagues, Innovation, Security, Data and Operations, the team also supports customers with Financial Crime and Fraud.

Prior to joining the Group Scott spent eight years at Deutsche Bank where he held a number of roles including CIO for the Corporate and Investment Bank, Head of Technology for Financial Crime, CIO for the UK and Group CTO. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Scott was CIO for RBS Markets, driving the technology strategy and innovation agenda. He started his career as a graduate at JP Morgan where he held a number of leadership roles in both London and New York.

Scott graduated from Warwick University, having received a First Class Honours in Chemistry and is a keen sportsman, he enjoys cricket and golf and has completed a number of ironman triathlons. Scott is married with two children.

Maria  joined NatWest Group as Chief People Officer in March 2025. 

She leads the Group’s global people strategy, ensuring the bank attracts, develops, and retains the skills and capabilities required to deliver sustainable performance for customers, shareholders, and wider stakeholders. As Chief People Officer, Maria is responsible for shaping the organisation’s culture and leading all aspects of the colleague experience – from acquiring and developing talent, to engaging, recognising, and enabling colleagues to perform at their best. She plays a pivotal role in embedding a culture of customer centricity and high performance, strengthening leadership capability, and building readiness for digital transformation. By ensuring the right structures, policies, and practices are in place, she supports the bank’s transformation agenda and long-term ability to deliver for customers and communities.

Maria brings a wealth of international experience across financial services, engineering and technology, consumer products, and consulting having previously worked at Rolls-Royce, Citigroup, UBS, Coca-Cola and Deloitte. Having lived and worked in different countries, she brings a global perspective to leadership. 

She is a Non-Executive Director on the board of the Financial Services Skills Commission and an Independent member for King’s College London. Maria has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and an MSc in Industrial Relations & Human Resources Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Margaret joined NatWest Group in September 2020 as Group Chief Marketing Officer.

She has significant commercial expertise in marketing and customer experience.  Prior to joining NatWest, Margaret was Chief Marketing Officer at Centrica where she led the function for the Group.

Over a 35 year career she has held global, regional and UK roles spanning multinational corporates such as Unilever, Centrica and Cadbury, to private equity owned business such as Birds Eye Igloo.

Margaret has been recognised in Marketing Week’s Top 100 Most Effective Marketers for the last decade and in 2022, was appointed President of the ISBA and recognised as Marketer of the Year by Marketing Week.

Margaret was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the IPA Council in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the IPA and the agency business generally, as a committed member of the IPA Effectiveness Leadership group and in October 2024 she was appointed as a specialist marketing adviser to The British Heart Foundation’s Marketing Advisory Group.

Nick joined the Group as Chief Audit Executive in March 2021. He started his career with Deloitte in London, qualifying as ACA in 1994, and working principally in Financial Services Audit. He and also spent two years in the Forensic Accounting Group where he specialised in anti money laundering and fraud investigations in the Finance sector, and a further 18 months on secondment to the FSA’s Bank Investigations Group within the Enforcement Division.

Since 2001 Nick has held a variety of audit and compliance roles at Barclays and at Lloyds Banking group, covering the full range of retail, corporate and investment banking activities as well as supporting infrastructure and risk management activities. His most recent roles were Chief Auditor for Barclays Execution Services, spanning all of Technology, Operations, Risk, Finance, Treasury and Corporate Functions, and interim Group Chief Internal Auditor for the Barclays Group in 2019.

Nick has also worked regularly with the Institute of Internal Auditors in the UK on developing guidance on leading audit practice.