Christmas joins Alphabet as new head of compliance

Alphabet GB has announced that Leanne Christmas has joined the business’ UK executive team as its new head of compliance.

Christmas joins Alphabet on a permanent basis, having previously acted as Interim head of compliance since July 2016.

Prior to joining Alphabet, Christmas was associate director, leading the Regulatory Compliance and Financial Services team at professional services specialists, RSM. Earlier in her career, Christmas spent eight years with Barclays in a number of global internal audit, risk and governance roles, ultimately finishing as a head of conduct risk in the retail banking operation.

A qualified ACA chartered accountant, Christmas began her career with Deloitte, specialising in financial services. She also holds the rank of Captain in the Army Reserves and served in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010.

Christmas said: “I’m very pleased to be part of the leadership team of a prestigious, respected and progressive brand such as Alphabet.

“I’m relishing the strategic and practical challenges to ensure that we apply the letter of the law as well as adhering to the spirit of the regulation in a dynamic, commercial environment. Treating customers fairly and ‘keeping customers at the heart of everything we do’ is our mantra at Alphabet.

“This is a growing organisation and the mobility sector is one which is increasing in terms of its scale, remit and complexity. Consumer credit is core to this and the leasing industry is still finding its feet under the new regulatory framework which was introduced only in the past few years.

“Forward-thinking, sustainable businesses realise that treating the customer fairly, doing it well and living up to your responsibilities is a win-win for the customer and the organisation.

“With my experience of the regulatory framework as well proven track record in internal audit, risk and governance, I’m confident that we can ensure the compliance function here at Alphabet is viewed as an enabler, not a blocker for the business and meets our customers’ needs.

“My personal focus is to ensure well-informed decisions are made both strategically and operationally in order to deliver the right results for both customers and the business.”