Career Biography

Kate is the Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary of Lloyds Banking Group plc (LBG). She joined the Group in 2005 from Linklaters, where she was a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions. During her time at LBG, Kate has held a number of senior positions including Deputy Group General Counsel and General Counsel for Group Legal, before taking on the role of Group General Counsel (now Chief Legal Officer) in May 2015 and Company Secretary in July 2019.

Kate leads LBG’s Legal & Secretariat (L&S) function, advising the Board and senior leadership on complex legal, regulatory and governance matters across consumer, commercial and investment banking, insurance and pensions. Under her leadership, L&S partners closely with customer-facing teams and support functions, delivering highly commercial, expert legal advice tailored to the rapidly changing environment in which we operate and proactively managing risk across diverse products, transactions and markets.

Kate is instrumental in guiding corporate compliance and governance across LBG, supporting legal entity boards, and overseeing one of the UK’s largest shareholder registers.

In her tenure at LBG, Kate has established a track record spanning market‑defining transactions, systemic regulatory change and crisis leadership. Kate has been instrumental in shaping LBG’s approach to AI and data governance, enabling the safe deployment of generative AI, and in delivering complex, high‑value commercial initiatives and flagship customer propositions. Her career highlights include leading the TSB demerger following the financial crisis, overseeing the rapid legal implementation of COVID‑19 lending schemes distributing over £13bn to UK businesses, and directing the retail bank ring‑fencing programme. Kate has built a progressive, technology‑enabled, future‑ready in‑house legal function equipped to meet both current and future challenges.

Beyond her executive role, Kate has significant non-executive experience, having served as a Non-Executive Director of Scottish Widows Ltd between 2018 and 2021, one of the UK’s largest pension providers. In April 2025, she was appointed Forestry Commissioner and Director of Forestry England, highlighting her commitment to public service, sustainability and stewardship.

Kate is passionate about inclusion and diversity and is an Executive Ally of the Group’s social mobility programme and previously co-chaired Breakthrough, LBG’s women’s network. As a Trustee of the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales for seven years, Kate also helped drive their partnership with small and local charities, people and communities working towards a more just and compassionate society.