RBS appoints new HR boss

Royal Bank of Scotland has today announced the appointment of Helen Cook to the role of Chief HR Officer.

Reporting directly to chief executive Ross McEwan, Ms Cook will be responsible for all aspects of the bank’s human resources function.

She will take on the role after serving as the Edinburgh-based bank’s HR Director of Organisation & Performance – prior to this she held a number of other senior HR roles since joining in 2001.

Ms Cook began her banking career at Deutsche Bank (then Morgan Grenfell) where she spent six years before moving to Morgan Stanley prior to moving to Scotland where she joined RBS.

She is a founding member of The Two Percent Club in Scotland, which aims to get more women into senior business roles.

Born in Birmingham but raised in Kenya and Pakistan, she is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She is married with two young children.

Ms Cook will take up her new role next week, subject to regulatory approval, when she will succeed Elaine Arden who held this role for seven years.

RBS CEO Ross McEwan, said: “I’m delighted that Helen will be joining as our new Chief HR Officer – she has a wealth of experience that she has built up here and at other banks across Europe which will prove to be invaluable. Her role will be central to making this bank a great place to work and will help us build towards our goal of becoming number one for customer service, trust and advocacy.”

Ms Cook added: “I’m excited about the new role and I’ll seek to build on the great work that we’re doing to put the customer at the heart of everything we do. I’m passionate about motivating and engaging our colleagues to serve customers well no matter what job they do for us and I look forward to leading the team and making RBS a great place to work.”