The Starling Group has appointed Richard Messingham as head of government affairs and public policy, to cover the role of Ariane Vickman who has gone on maternity leave.
Messingham started his new role last week and reports to Will McSheehy, group head of corporate affairs.
His initial priorities will include managing the group’s engagement programme with key government and political stakeholders, and public policy work such as advocating the adoption of digital financial tools by SMEs to help drive growth and productivity.
He has also been tasked with supporting the chief information officer, Harriet Rees, in her role as HM Treasury’s AI champion for financial services. In addition, he is organising an events programme for UK FinTech Week next month, which will include Starling's sponsorship of the Innovate Finance Global Summit on 21 April.
Messingham has worked in public affairs for more than 20 years and has joined the group from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, where he was special adviser, policy and communications. Prior to that he led the public affairs function at UK Finance.
Other previous roles range from head of public affairs at St James’s Place and head of corporate affairs at the City of London Corporation, to group head of comms and public affairs at Network Rail and director of public affairs at The Law Society.
Earlier in his career Messingham worked in public affairs roles at Which?, London Councils, and the RSPB.
Commenting on his latest role, Messingham told In.Comms: “I'm delighted to be joining Starling. Will and the team have made me really welcome, and I'm very lucky to be continuing the good work of Ariane Vickman who’s now on a year of maternity leave.”
He added: “Recently I've worked in senior public policy roles in key parts of the financial services eco-system – UK Finance, St James’s Place and the City of London Corporation – and now I’m in the exciting and innovative world of FinTech where I hope to continue to make a positive difference for our customers and stakeholders.”