Cristina will also be a member of the challenger bank’s board, replacing Nick Price, who had been interim CFO since June last year.
Cristina has joined the bank from GE Capital International, where she led a team of experienced senior finance managers and analysts and oversaw the creation of GE Capital’s Centre of Excellence dedicated to cost analysis and forecasting, which led to a cost base reduction of more than $2bn (approximately £1.6bn) over three years.
Prior to that, Cristina served as CFO for GE Bank’s $5bn European leveraged finance business.
At OakNorth, Cristina will be responsible for leading the bank’s financial organisation as it looks to lend a further £400m this year after trebling its loan book in the second half of last year.
Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, said Cristina was the perfect fit for this role given her past experience.
“The last 18 months have seen phenomenal growth for the company – we tripled our loan book in the six months following the Brexit vote last summer and this trend has continued in Q1 of this year, with our loan book now standing at £450m.
“We want to continue building on this success.”
Cristina will also be responsible for developing and maintaining a robust control environment across OakNorth’s finance and treasury functions.
She will also lead the bank’s annual and multi-year budget and financial reporting process, including providing support to Rishi in driving cost control and overall adherence to financial planning.
“I’m very excited to be joining OakNorth – the bank has already proven its proposition in the UK market and established itself as a credible contender to the larger high street banks,” said Cristina.
“It has built its own IP [Internal Practices] around origination and credit and created an efficient business model which enabled it to break even in just 11 months.
“I look forward to joining the team and helping to lead the bank in its ongoing success.”
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