11 September 2020Operations

Butterfield strengthens risk management with a series of executive appointments

The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son has made a number of senior management appointments.

Sabeth Siddique has been appointed group chief risk officer. He was formerly deputy chief risk officer at M&T Bank from 2013 to 2019, before which he spent three years as director of governance, risk and regulatory strategies at Deloitte. From 2001 to 2010 he was assistant director of banking supervision and regulation and head of credit risk at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC.

Andrew Graham, the current group chief risk officer, based in Guernsey, has been appointed chief risk officer for Butterfield’s growing Channel Islands business.

Bri Hidalgo has been appointed group head of compliance and operational risk. Hidalgo joins from Wells Fargo where she was chief risk officer for wealth and investment management. She spent 14 years with Wells Fargo, before which she worked in risk management and compliance for six years at Wachovia Securities and First State Investments, in both the US and the UK.

Hidalgo takes over the group compliance portfolio from Siân Dalrymple, who is retiring.

Kevin Dallas has been appointed group head of marketing and communications. From 2017 to 2020, Dallas was chief executive officer of the Bermuda Tourism Authority, responsible for the strategic direction, operations, and financial management of an independent public authority charged with delivering economic growth through tourism. Before that he was chief product and marketing officer at Worldpay Group.

Siddique, Hidalgo and Dallas all join Butterfield’s executive committee. Jane Pearce, who was appointed group head of trust in February 2020, has also joined the executive committee.

Andrew Burns, group head of internal audit, becomes group head of human resources (HR) with a mandate to drive our efforts in talent management, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, and succession planning.

Lilian Ling, who joined Butterfield’s internal audit team from Citibank London in 2018, will replace him as group head of internal audit, subject to Department of Immigration approval. Elizabeth Bauman, group head of HR, is set to retire.

Butterfield said the hires will improve its risk management, enhance its brand, increase the profitability of the trust business and develop its people.

Michael Collins, Butterfield’s chairman and chief executive officer said: “Our conservative credit strategy and focus on compliance and operational risk controls have positioned us well for the challenges of the global pandemic. As we prepare for an extended period of economic contraction and the resulting heightened risks to our loan portfolio, we have recruited these seasoned risk specialists to help manage our credit exposures, maintain stringent AML protocols, and control operational risk.”