My current role is Assistant Banking Manager at Handelsbanken, having joined on 26th February 2024. Let me tell you how I got here…I was proud to have worked for Barclays for over 37 years, with 17 years supporting SMEs and 10 years as an SME Relationship Director in Scotland. My favourite part of the job was getting to know my customers and supporting their goals and ambitions. In a change to my role during my last year at Barclays I worked with colleagues across the UK to help them understand and articulate the challenges and opportunities SME businesses could face on their journeys towards being Net Zero. This for me is now one of the most important responsibilities of a bank; the direct and indirect effects of climate change are already being experienced by UK businesses and consumers but many don’t know how to access support and funding.The Net zero role was a secondment and when it came to an end it gave me an opportunity to decide whether to return to the Barclays Relationship Director role or make a change. It was daunting this late in my career, when I already had a good job and pension. Whilst fairly recent changes to the Barclays Business Banking model suit many people (and it is proving successful for the business), I had a preference for a more “old school”dedicated relationship model. I am not naive, I know that banks make money from customers and throughout my career I’ve learned the importance of retaining good customers by being honest, having integrity, understanding customer needs and creating lasting partnerships and advocacy. And now we need to encourage our business customers to consider their Sustainability to ensure that we can continue working with them for years to come. That’s why, without overthinking it, I applied to join Handelsbanken. The bank leads the way with customer service and are committed to Sustainability - two very important factors for me. I joined as an Assistant Banking Manager which is a role I last did 14 years ago, but with a decentralised model and flat hierarchy I can see that the branch team all work together towards doing the very best for their customers.I worked for and with some fantastic people at Barclays and they are still a great organisation but I’m delighted with my move. My journey with Handelsbanken has just begun but I’m excited to see where it takes me. Watch this space… Specialties:Customer focusInterpersonal and communicationUnderstanding business needsExecuting at speedProblem solvingOrganisation and LeadershipRisk Control