Royal Bank of Scotland names Helen Cook as HR chief

Helen Cook has been appointed as the new chief HR officer at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Helen Cook succeeds Elaine Arden as chief HR officer at RBS. Picture: Contributed

Cook is a founding member of The Two Percent Club in Scotland, which aims to get more women into senior business roles. She is due to start her new role on 3 April and will succeed Elaine Arden, who has held the post for seven years.

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RBS chief executive Ross McEwan said Cook had a “wealth of experience” built up at the Scottish lender and at other banks across Europe, which would “prove to be invaluable”.

He added: “Her role will be central to making this bank a great place to work and will help us build towards our goal of becoming number one for customer service, trust and advocacy.”

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Cook will take on the new HR role after serving as the bank’s HR director of organisation and performance. Prior to that, she held a number of other senior HR roles since joining RBS in 2001. Cook began her banking career at Deutsche Bank – then branded as Morgan Grenfell.

She was born in Birmingham, but grew up in Kenya and Pakistan, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.

Cook said: “I’m excited about the new role. I’m passionate about motivating and engaging our colleagues to serve customers well no matter what job they do for us and I look forward to leading the team and making RBS a great place to work.”

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