Mitchel Lenson, the former CIO of Deutsche Bank in London, is to chair the board of Business Control Solutions Group plc (BCS Group). He starts on 1 May 2006.
Lenson, 51, has held a number of jobs in the City of London over the last thirty years, including CIO of Deutsche Bank Group, Global Head of Operations at UBS, and Head of European Operations at CSFB.
Zahid Khan, who worked alongside Lenson as Head of Strategic Development at Deutsche Bank, has also been appointed as a strategic advisor to the Board.
“The appointment of Mitchel Lenson represents a fantastic opportunity for BCS Group,” says Nigel Walder, CEO of BCS Group. “He is tremendously well respected by the market, has a strong background in risk, technology and operations, and complements the skills of our board members. Mitchel is viewed by many as being a pioneer in off-shoring particularly given the progress made by Deutsche Bank in moving significant areas of processing to India during his tenure, an area that is strategically important for BCS Group to operate in over the coming years. Mitchel has also achieved huge savings at the investment banks where he has worked, whilst at the same time retaining operational control, an achievement that is extremely well aligned with BCS Group’s mission.”
Lenson says “one of the major challenges in the banking industry today is to significantly decrease costs at the same time as increasing the effectiveness of the risk and control environment. This is an area where I have operated in for a number of years, and it is an area where BCS Group’s technology and services play an important role, one which we believe will grow significantly.”
Sandy Anderson, one of the founding investors in BCS Group will remain on the board as Non-Executive Director.
“I am really enjoying being associated with BCS Group and will continue to play an active role on the board, however, with the business now in a state ready for expansion it is the right time to bring in additional skills and knowledge more akin to the market BCS Group operate in,” he says. “An expert in financial services technology, Mitchel will add significant value to business operations and I welcome him to the Board.” BCS swas founded in 2005 through the merger of Buttonwood Tree Group and B2B Systems, BCS Group now has offices in London, Peterborough, New York, and Romania and is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (BCS: London) in London.
Lenson was the Group Chief Information Officer at Deutsche Bank from 2003 to 2006 with responsibility for IT and Operations for all operating divisions of the Deutsche Bank Group. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2000 as CIO for the Corporate and Investment Bank. Lenson was a member of the Group Operating Committee and was on the Executive Committees of the Corporate & Investment Bank and the Private Clients & Asset Management Division. He started with JP Morgan in 1977 as a graduate trainee. Since that time, during periods with Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, Irving Trust, American Express, CS First Boston and UBS Warburg, Lenson has run a variety of business, operations and technology units. At CS First Boston he was Head of European Operations, and at UBS Warburg, Global Head of Operations. In his last six years at UBS Warburg, in addition to his line role, he was responsible for the integration of Warburg with Swiss Bank Corporation, SBC with Dillon Read, and SBC with UBS. Lenson also sat on the UBS Warburg Executive Committee.
Lenson has a business degree and a masters in business administration (MBA) from City University. He is also the Chairman of Transforum, is on the Editorial Board of the Capco Institute Journal and is a Fellow of the Securities Institute. He has been a director of DSL Software Limited, a joint venture between Deutsche Bank AG and HCL Technologies.