Ron van Kemenade is not a man given to platitudes. Sitting down with The Stack in his exclusive first interview since joining Lloyds Banking Group in June 2023 as Group Chief Operating Officer, his prelude to several questions is “to be brutally honest with you” – and he proceeds to be just that. It’s a welcome trait in an industry not always known for such candour when it comes to talking about technology transformation efforts.
Van Kemenade’s role in many senses is also akin to a Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) one. The buck stops with him for technology across the banking group – which includes logos like Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Scottish Widows and many others. The group’s CIOs are among his approximately 13 direct reports and, as a former CIO and CTO (at Dutch bank ING) he’s also an avid technologist himself.
Sitting down to chat with The Stack in Lloyds HQ, he admits that he could hire a Group CIO to sit between him and these technology leaders, but “they would,” he says wryly, “be a poor person, because I have too much of a vision and a view about technology to leave him or her alone.”
