Delivery and Support Leaders
Steve Bedwell
Chief Operating Officer
Steve joined the Group as a graduate trainee Chartered Accountant with Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh in 1993. After completing his professional qualifications he took up a finance role with the Group’s Treasury function in London and before becoming the Head of Financial & Regulatory Reporting for HBOS Treasury Services following the Bank of Scotland merger with Halifax.
In 2003, he was appointed a lead on the project to establish an HBOS Treasury Branch in New York and took on the role of Head of Finance & Risk when the branch commenced operations.
Following the Lloyds Bank acquisition of HBOS in 2008, Steve took on responsibility for the combination of the two treasury functions with his primary focus on the oversight of the market and liquidity risk areas, eventually encompassing the asset and liabilities management for the combined North American business. In 2012 Steve was appointed to lead the North America Client Asset Management team.
Susan Crawford
Head of Risk and Compliance
Susan joined Lloyds Bank in November 2018 as Chief Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer. In February 2021, Susan became Head of Risk and Compliance assuming responsibility for non-financial risk including compliance, operational, conduct, and regulatory risk.
Susan has over 30 years of industry experience and joined from National Bank of Canada where she held the position of Chief Compliance Officer and BSA/AML Officer for four years. In addition, Susan held senior compliance roles at National Australia Bank and Bank of Ireland where she built and managed the banks’ US compliance operations.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from LeMoyne College and an MBA from Fordham University.
Ross Houghton
Chief Financial Officer
Ross is the Chief Financial Officer in North America overseeing all Finance and Taxation activities and serving as the Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer for Lloyds Securities Inc., the Groups registered broker-dealer. He was appointed Chief Financial Officer for the North America region in January 2019.
Prior to this, Ross was the Head of Finance for the Lloyds Bank New York Branch as well as serving as Chief Financial & Operations Officer for Lloyds Securities Inc.
Ross qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2000 before joining KPMG’s financial sector practice where he was a bank auditor. He joined the Group in 2002 and transferred to the US in 2005 in a senior finance capacity at the Groups auto finance subsidiary in Dallas, Texas. Ross led the finance activities in the successful M&A process to market and sell the unit in 2006 before transferring to New York where he has since held a number of senior finance, operations and control roles.
Ross has a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in Business Studies & Accounting from the University of Edinburgh and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
Nina Ilisije
Head of People
Nina joined the Human Resources team July 2009 as a Senior Business Partner and is currently Head of People for North America.
She is a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years of experience. Prior to joining Lloyds Bank, Nina held a number of generalist HR roles with BlackRock and Merrill Lynch where she provided expertise for various teams such as Equities, Sales & Marketing and Technology. She has also specialized in a number of Recruitment and Learning & Development roles.
Nina has a BS in Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is affiliated with SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management).
Adriana Maestas
Chief Legal Officer
Adriana is the Chief Legal Officer for Lloyds Bank in North America. Adriana advises the North America business and leads the North America legal department.
She joined the bank in 2017 as Senior Counsel and also served as Secretary for the North America Executive Committee prior to her promotion to Chief Legal Officer in 2021.
Prior to joining Lloyds, Adriana was Counsel at Linklaters LLP, where she advised banks and large corporates primarily on banking and capital markets matters. Before that, she worked at international law firms based in London, New York and Hong Kong. Adriana has practiced law for over fifteen years and is a member of the New York Bar and the Washington State Bar.
Adriana holds a B.A. from Stanford University and J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Janet Taffe
Head of Transformation, Technology & Branch Management
Janet joined the Bank of Scotland, New York branch in 1983 and is currently the Head of Transformation, Technology & Branch Management in North America. She leads a team responsible for implementing change through an appropriate governance framework while identifying, managing and mitigating risks to deliver on our commitments.
In addition, as the Inclusion & Diversity Officer, Janet advocates a culture of inclusive behavior and drives the creation of an environment where every individual feels included and empowered to be their best.
Janet has over 35 years of banking experience leading teams in Change Management, Information Technology, Operations, Finance, and Payments and has overseen the delivery of a number of major projects. Prior to joining Bank of Scotland, Janet worked for 3 years at the Halifax Building Society in London.
Janet has a Bachelor of Science (Summa Cum Laude) in Management and Communications from Adelphi University. She is also ITIL Certified and holds a certification from the ABA American Institute of Banking, NY (School of Banking) where she was Valedictorian.
Eddie Vexler
Head of Credit
Eddie joined Lloyds Bank, North America in 2015 as Head of Financial Institutions Credit and was appointed Head of Credit for North America in February 2021.
Before joining the North America team, Eddie spent 3 years at Lloyds Bank in London, where he helped to establish an Institutional investors funds credit team. Prior to joining Lloyds Bank, Eddie spent 15 years at Credit Suisse, where he held various Credit related roles, including Head of Mutual and Pension Fund Credit team.
With close to 25 years of credit experience as well as building and expanding various credit teams, Eddie has always focused on two key elements of the credit risk management – providing support for the sensible business growth and dynamic credit risk management.