New finance chief appointed to Development Bank ofWales
Anew finance director has been appointed at the Development Bank of Wales. David Staziker has been promoted to the post after working at the bank’s predecessor organisation Finance Wales since 2002, and will take up his new role at the end of the financial year.
He will divide his time between the Wrexham headquarters and the existing Cardiff office.
Mr Staziker will replace Kevin O’Leary, who plans to step down next year after 12 years in the role, including a year as interim chief executive in 2015.
Announcing the appointment, Giles Thorley, chief executive of the Development Bank of Wales, said: “I’m delighted to welcome David to the board. His significant investment experience and enthusiasm for supporting Welsh businesses will be invaluable as we scale up to deliver even more for Wales.
“I would also like to thank Kevin for his many years of dedication and vital contribution towards building the organisation we have today.”
The appointment follows a nationally advertised recruitment process supported by Robert Half Finance & Accounting.
Mr Staziker has been with the company and its predecessor Finance Wales since 2002, initially as an investment executive within the mezzanine team.
Since then he has held a number of management posts, most recently as investment director where he oversaw delivery of the investment and portfolio strategies. He was responsible for the implementation of Help to Buy (Wales) and fundraising for the Wales Property Fund.
Outside the development bank he is a non-executive director of Pobl Group.
A graduate of Reading University and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, he previously held positions with PwC and Gambit Corporate Finance.
The Development Bank of Wales was set up by the Welsh Government following a review into small business finance led by Professor Dylan JonesEvans which identified a £500m funding gap for SMEs in Wales. A panel set up after the review, also chaired by Prof Jones-Evans, recommended the setting up of a publicly-owned bank with a remit of working closely with commercial banks to channel more funding into Welsh SMEs.
Although the review explicitly did not recommend that the scheme should be taken forward by Finance Wales, that is what happened.
The new organisation was launched in October with £440m in funds available to support growthfocused firms, including the £100m Wales Flexible Investment Fund, the £170m Wales Business Fund and the £18m Wales Micro-business Loan Fund. Like Finance Wales, it also manages the £454m Help to Buy (Wales) shared equity scheme.
Over the next five years it aims, through co-investment from other financial institutions and angel investors, to support 1,200 businesses. In turn these are expected to create and safeguard more than 20,000 jobs.
It has already made some key investments, including a £1.5m loan to support Dubai-based packaging firm Hotpack in expanding its operations in Wrexham, creating up to 250 jobs over the next three to five years.