RBS makes history with f irst female set to take the top job
Breakthrough in traditional masculine banking culture
‘I see myself as a positive role model’
ROYAL Bank of Scotland is poised to name Alison Rose as its first female chief executive.
Miss Rose, 49, would become the first woman to run a major High Street lender if her appointment is confirmed in the coming weeks.
She has long been seen as a potential successor to current boss Ross McEwan at state-owned RBS, where she has risen through the ranks over a 27-year career.
The mother-of-two is reportedly being vetted by City regulators, with the Government also thought to have had a say in the selection process.
Yesterday a spokesman for RBS would say only that Mr McEwan’s replacement would be revealed ‘in due course’.
If confirmed, Miss Rose’s appointment would mark a significant moment in British banking – an industry still accused of being too masculine.
A report by MPs last year blamed the problem on a culture that encouraged working long hours, ‘unfair’ attitudes towards women who take maternity leave, and bonus schemes that require staff to argue for bigger payouts if they want them.
Miss Rose, who was the only woman in the room when she attended her first meeting as a senior RBS executive, has been a vocal supporter of efforts to get more women into senior business roles.
In March she produced the Rose Review for the Treasury, looking at the barriers stopping women from starting their own companies.
It called for more funding schemes to support female entrepreneurs and for better support for those who juggled work with parenting.
The Durham University graduate has also said she hopes she is a role model to whom young women can look up.
‘We have made great strides but there is a still a long way to go,’ she told The Herald in March.
‘I do see myself as a positive role model and I hope that young women will aspire to reach the top.’
Miss Rose, who is married with a son and a daughter, was born to a military family and spent much of her childhood abroad, living in Hong Kong and Singapore.
After finishing university with a history degree in 1992, she took a graduate job at National Westminster Bank – now known as NatWest and part of RBS – and worked her way up.
Her jobs have included running RBS’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business and she is currently chief executive of its commercial and private operations.
Ms Rose is already considered the one of the most powerful woman in banking. The most senior is currently Baroness Vadera, who chairs Santander UK.
Rival contenders for the RBS job are thought to have included Mark Bailie, the chief operating officer, and Ian Stuart, HSBC’s UK boss.
Mr McEwan is leaving after six years in charge to take a new job as head of National Australia Bank. He is credited with repairing the RBS balance sheet after the bank’s £45billion bailout by the Government in 2008.