Anne Boden

Anne Elizabeth Boden (born January 1960) is a Welsh tech entrepreneur. She is the founder and former CEO of Starling Bank, a UK mobile-only bank, Boden is the first woman to found a British bank. In 2018, she received an MBE for services to financial technology.

Early life
Boden was born in Bon-y-maen a suburb of Swansea, the daughter of a steelworker and a department store worker. She attended Cefn Hengoed Comprehensive and graduated from Swansea University in 1981 with a degree in Chemistry and Computer Sciences. Boden reportedly spent much of her childhood reading. After the financial crisis, Boden sold her house in Swansea where she spent her weekends, in order to raise funds and hire staff at her company.

Career
After graduating, Boden had intended puruse a career in information technology, but accepted a job as a graduate trainee with Lloyds Banking Group. She went on to work at Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, and as Chief Information Officer at AON Corporation. Boden later joined ABN AMRO and RBS, serving as Head of EMEA and as head of Global Transaction Banking. At the group, she ran a payments business across 34 countries.

Boden earned her MBA from Middlesex University in 1990 while working for Standard Chartered. In 2011 she served on the Board of Governors of Middlesex University, which awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in July 2018.

She joined Allied Irish Banks in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer to help the bank recover from the financial crisis of 2008.

In 2020 Boden became a member of the board of the trade association for the UK's banks and financial services companies, UK Finance, and also an advisor to the UK government's Board of Trade. She is also a member of the World Economic Forum.

In 2020 Boden published the book Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry.

Starling Bank
Boden founded her online banking business in June 2014, originally named Possible Financial Services, with the tagline "Bank Possible". Her objective was to create an entirely on-line bank that gave easier feedback to customers.

In February 2015, co-founder Tom Blomfield departed Starling Bank to found the bank Monzo. The other four directors left with him.

The company rebranded as Starling in January 2016, and received its UK banking licence that year. The Telegraph described the company as "the Amazon of banking" after it received multiple investments from Austrian-born billionaire Harald McPike.

Boden lost her position as majority shareholder in Starling in July 2019 after a large investment from McPike during a series C funding round in February. McPike has to date invested £75m (for a 60% stake) in the company, followed by a £50m share held by Merian Global Investors. The company has raised £233m to date. Boden now holds approximately 25% of the company. The bank currently (Jan 2020) has a reported 275,000 customers in the UK. Boden is a member of Tech Nation's FinTech Delivery Panel and has spoken at industry events such as Money20/20 and Wealth 2.0.

In June 2023 Boden stepped down as Starling CEO after investor clash, and retained her 4.9% ownership of Starling.

In July 2024 Boden stepped down from Starling's board to focus on developing a new artificial intelligence business.

Awards
Boden was awarded an MBE in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to fintech.

Starling's Anne Boden named CEO of the year at the Digital Masters Awards in 2020.

In July 2023, Boden was awarded an honorary doctorate by Swansea University, from which she had earned her bachelor's degree.