The Receipt Bank Blog

Receipt Bank is delighted to announce the promotion of Nelson Da Silva to UK Country Manager.

Most people already think he is the Country Manager- now it's official.

It was in early March 2013 that I interviewed Nelson. At the time I wasn’t sure whether I was interviewing him or he was interviewing me. Despite the obvious disadvantages of being a compact South African I knew within 30 seconds that I wanted to hire him as an Account Manager.

I asked him to go and see one of the non execs, Alan Marks. The response was an emphatic … Yes.

The Receipt Bank that Nelson joined as Banker no 5 was a genuine company, but the office could more accurately be described as a communal table. There were virtually no people, definitely no processes, and not many clients.

Since then Nelson has led a remarkable transformation. Yes we added partners, yes we added clients, and yes we increased the headcount. In terms of the velocity and scale of what has been achieved, all of these are directly attributable to Nelson - and the numbers are genuinely remarkable. It is possible to think that Nelson’s promotion to Country Manager is a thank you for what he has achieved in these areas.

That is not the case.

His promotion is appropriate, not for what he has already contributed, but because it will give him the time and space to accelerate initiatives that will allow the UK business to scale to the next level. Initiatives in recruitment, internal training and development, review and promotion, and, of course, marketing. The world of Twitter would not be as much fun without his contributions. His promotion also provides him with the opportunity to establish and develop a UK Management Team to take Receipt Bank to the next level.

With the New Year around the corner it is appropriate to look to the next chapter. The UK development is in safe hands with its new Country Manager - Nelson Da Silva.