In this role Hemming will lead a team of eleven relationship directors who support clients with a turnover in excess of £6.5million.

Hemming has 25 years’ experience in corporate banking and prior to this role was a relationship director supporting a portfolio of businesses in the Barclays team in Oxford, working across the Thames Valley area.

She said “This is a varied and diverse economic geography and I’m excited by this new challenge. The EU referendum has created opportunities and challenges for companies and over the next twelve months I believe it is more important than ever that we stay close to our customers, understand their strategies and help them prepare for any changes to the business environment. I’ll be doing everything I can to ensure that my team has the skills and tools they need to support our clients.”

Hemming is passionate about seeing women progress in their careers; she has been heavily involved in a series of initiatives and awards that aim to celebrate, encourage and inspire women and organisations to achieve greater success.

She continued: “There is an amazing breadth of talent in the businesswomen in the region and as a business community we have a responsibility to do what we can to help them achieve greater success.”