Former Credit Suisse head of risk Lara Warner joins regulatory adviser Starling Trust

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Credit Suisse’s former head of risk and compliance Lara Warner, who left following 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 many how — and why — our current set of risk governance tools is failing the industry,” founder and chief executive Stephen Scott said in a statement. “Who better to help develop a new fit-for-purpose approach?”

Warner joins former Goldman Sachs chairman and Trump administration adviser Gary Cohn, BlackRock co-founder Barbara Novick, and 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 named group chief risk and compliance officer in 2019. She left two years later as the bank suffered billions of dollars in losses following the collapse of the greensill finance and implosion. by family office Archegos.

“I am excited to join Starling as it works to address widespread and unsolved risk challenges in a smart and novel way,” Warner said in a statement.

“The most significant losses that firms face today typically come from so-called ‘non-financial risks,'” she added. “But while we have solid values ​​to guide us in managing the full range of financial risks. . . when it comes to the risks arising from organizational culture and the behavior it enables or promotes, we still rely on ‘managerial intuition’ or blunt tools more suited to the pre-digital age.”

Warner joined Credit Suisse as an analyst from Lehman Brothers in 2002 and was a close associate of the Swiss bank’s former chief executive, Tidjane Thiam. The Financial Times previously reported that it had written off risk managers at the bank who raised concerns about Greensill and signed a $160 million mezzanine loan for the company, which is set to go bankrupt 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 their guiding mission.

“As the former head of risk and compliance at one of the world’s leading financial institutions, Lara has a long history of tackling exactly these challenges,” said Scott.