Executive team

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Our Executive team oversee the safe and secure running of the UK’s payment infrastructure, ensuring that the systems and services we operate continue to meet the needs of the millions of individuals and businesses which rely on them each and every day.

Our Executive Management team consists of:

David Pitt

Executive Director

(Chief Executive Officer)

David joined Pay.UK in July 2021. David has a strong and successful track record delivering high profile projects both in the UK and internationally, and leading organisations through periods of transformational change. Most recently he delivered a transformation strategy at the Government’s Test, Trace and Containment operation where he was Chief Operating Officer, responsible for overseeing the end-to-end process to improve overall delivery across the UK. David was COO at esure leading the business through major transformational change prior to its sale. He has also held senior roles at RSA Insurance, including CEO, Greater China.

Michael Ellis

Michael is an experienced commercial finance professional and has worked in payments for 15 years. A chartered accountant, he was most recently Chief Financial Officer at Vocalink during its acquisition by Mastercard and subsequent integration. Michael has broad experience within finance, including in the fields of: strategy, mergers and acquisitions, finance transformation, planning, financial reporting, tax, and treasury. Prior to working in payments Michael gained experience in professional practice, logistics and chemicals sectors.

David Crawford

David has over 30 years’ experience in financial services with expertise in product management, customer focused business transformation and large-scale programme delivery.

Most recently he led payments for the retail arm of NatWest, where he oversaw the digitisation of the customer experience, the delivery of many innovative products and payment features, and the re-platforming of the debit card and pay now platform. Prior to that, he led and re-imagined the current account and savings businesses, respectively.

David brings a broad variety of skills and has a particular passion for simplifying complexities, creating compelling customer strategies, and delivering results in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders.

Gerry Mansey

Gerry joined Pay.UK in August 2021. He has a strong background in governance, risk and control having been Head of Internal Audit for Network Rail – the multi-billion pound, UK infrastructure and transport business. He brings experience working with Critical National Infrastructure as well as large scale capital delivery programmes.

Gerry has worked both in the UK and internationally as Associate Director for EY, providing objective assurance and consulting support to organisations, making sure that an appropriate vision, strategy and framework is in place to minimise business risks. He has spent time assessing delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games construction, reviewing financial services firms’ approach to risk and worked with mining organisations in Australia and telecommunications businesses’ in South Africa and Europe.

Gerry is a Chartered Internal Auditor

David McPhee

David has worked in payments for more than 20 years. Since 2004 he has specialised in interbank payments regulation and policy, through roles at Bacs Payments Schemes Ltd, VocaLink and the Payment Systems Regulator. David has worked on a range of collaborative payments industry projects including: NewBacs; Faster Payments; the Current Account Switch Service; PayM and the Payments Strategy Forum.

Lone Le Roux

Lone joined Pay.UK in June 2023 as Director of Risk and Compliance, and was quickly appointed to the role of Chief Risk Officer, through Pay.UK succession planning. Lone has over 15 years’ experience of working at senior levels in risk, governance and compliance, having focused on enterprise and operational risk management, compliance, third-party risk management and operational resilience. She was previously Regional Head of Risk for UK and Ireland at Experian. With over 20 years’ experience of working in the financial services sector, she has operated in highly regulated environments and most recently, has been instrumental in the implementation of the Pay.UK Risk Management Framework.

David Morris

David has extensive experience in digital delivery and transformational change within the payments industry and the wider financial services sector. David garnered his expertise through a number of leadership roles, including Chief Technology Officer for Payments at Network International in Dubai, UK and mainland Europe CIO of Fleetcor, and Executive Director for Digital Services at Visa Europe. David joined in April 2022, and brings significant expertise driving the delivery of large, complex high volume, high value solutions and products to the role of Chief Operating Officer at Pay.UK.

Nicola Lipson

Nicola has worked in financial services for 30 years, and as an experienced leader, has a long track record in building high-performance cultures and driving strong business performance.

Prior to joining Pay.UK, she was Chief People Officer at Vanquis Banking Group and has held leadership, human resources and retail banking roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Halifax.