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Lara Warner, the former Credit Suisse risk and compliance chief who departed in the wake of twin crises at Greensill Capital and Archegos Capital Management, has joined regulatory advisory group The Starling Trust.
Washington-based Starling announced on Wednesday that the Australian executive would join its industry and regulatory advisory board.
“Lara knows better than most how — and why — our current risk governance toolset is failing the industry,” founder and chief executive Stephen Scott said in a statement. “Who better to help craft a new approach that’s fit for purpose?”
Warner joins former Goldman Sachs president and Trump administration adviser Gary Cohn, BlackRock co-founder Barbara Novick, as well as former Wirecard chief executive James Freis, who was hired by the German fintech a week before it collapsed amid a fraud scandal.
She spent two decades at Credit Suisse and was appointed the group’s chief risk and compliance officer in 2019. She left two years later as the bank was reeling from billions of dollars’ worth of losses stemming from the collapse of specialist finance firm Greensill and the implosion of family office Archegos.
“I am excited to join Starling because they are working to address pervasive and unsolved risk challenges in a smart and novel way,” Warner said in a statement.
“The most significant losses firms face today typically stem from so-called ‘non-financial risks’,” she added. “But while we have robust metrics to guide us in managing the whole gamut of financial risks . . . when it comes to risks that flow from organisational culture, and the conduct that it permits or promotes, we’re still relying on ‘management intuition’ or blunt instruments better suited to the pre-digital era.”
Warner joined Credit Suisse as an analyst from Lehman Brothers in 2002 and was a close confidante of the Swiss bank’s former chief executive Tidjane Thiam. The Financial Times previously reported that she had overruled risk managers within the bank who raised concerns about Greensill and signed off on a $160mn bridging loan to the company, which went bust in 2021.
Starling was founded in 2014 and describes itself as a technology pioneer that helps clients identify and manage non-financial risks related to company culture. The group cites a quote attributed to Albert Einstein — “intellectuals solve problems — geniuses prevent them” — as its guiding mission.
“As the former head of risk and compliance at one of the world’s most significant financial institutions, Lara has a long history of dealing with precisely such challenges,” Scott said.