Meet the Team

Leigh is our independent Non-Executive Director and Consumer Duty Champion. A well-regarded veteran of the credit management sector, Leigh’s career has benefitted from deep engagement with the UK Government and regulators, particularly the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), creditors and trade bodies, the debt advice sector, consumer groups and other industry stakeholders. He is a former President and Director of the Credit Services Association (CSA) and Vice President of the Federation of European National Collection Associations (FENCA). He is a current Ambassador of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG).

Andrew has 25 years’ experience leading the origination, due diligence, pricing and closing of non-performing debt portfolios across the UK and continental Europe. Andrew’s previous roles include Chief Investment Officer of Arrow Global, and Director of CarVal Investors. He formed Azzurro in 2017, to bring excellence to the commercial debt solutions marketplace. Andrew served as Director of the consumer debt trade body, the CSA, from 2010-2014. Andrew graduated from Nottingham University with a BA (Hons) Economics & Econometrics. He qualified as an accountant (CIMA) in 1995. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. 

Karen has more than 25 years of experience in the recovery of SME and B2B assets acting for Commercial Lenders in her role as an Equity Partner at two national law firms. She has a proven track record in building, managing and leading high performing teams. Karen is experienced in setting strategy, leading recovery activities including complex legal matters and driving profitable business growth. Karen received her Legal Practice Course & LLM (Master of Laws) from Bournemouth University. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management.

Stefan has 20 years’ experience in Financial Services in both the UK and the US. Stefan was previously FD at Zopa Bank, where he supported the business through its PRA approval and successful equity fund raise. He has a proven track record in building strong teams and implementing necessary financial systems and processes demanded of a regulated industry. Stefan graduated from Nottingham University with a BA (Hons) Industrial Economics. He qualified as an accountant (CIMA) in 1996.

Claire is acknowledged as being a transformational leader who excels at engaging teams to maximise colleague engagement and customer outcomes to achieve strategic goals. Building a high performing team has been key to her career as Chief Operating Officer at a number of major consumer lenders, delivering significant cost efficiencies while improving the customer experience. She is a former COO at Lendable and BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, and Head of Debt Resolution at E.ON, with deep experience and understanding of working in a highly-regulated space. Claire graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) Economics.

Joe has deep experience of working within data and analytics roles within regulated financial service organisations. His experience ranges from designing customer-based promotional offers for one of the UK’s largest credit card companies, to running the operational modelling team at debt buyer, Arrow Global. Joe graduated from Keele University with a BSc (Hons) Mathematics & Chemistry and a PhD in Applied Mathematics.

Chris has been working in law firms for over 20 years, specialising in managing teams in amicable collections and legal debt recovery. With a particular specialism in SME commercial recoveries, Chris leads the group’s debt servicing operations and built our case management system and operational framework. He has particular experience in portfolio recoveries and uses segmented strategies to achieve fair and sustainable customer outcomes.

With 11 years of financial industry experience, Adam manages the Operational Analytics team at Azzurro and is responsible for recommending and implementing changes to the operation, to optimise the collections process. Prior to joining Azzurro, Adam worked at Arrow Global for six years, holding several management positions culminating in Portfolio Strategy Manager. Adam graduated from Keele University with a BSc (Hons) Mathematics and Physics.

Kevin joined Azzurro from Birmingham University having attained a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science, and an MSc in Mathematical Finance. Initially an Investment Analyst and now a manager within the pricing team, his skills and experience focus on using statistical methods and machine learning for Investment Analytics.