Ziglu announced on Tuesday that it has onboarded James Sullivan as its Chief Legal Officer.
In a recent press release, Ziglu, a crypto-friendly challenger bank, announced that it has assigned James Sullivan as its Chief Legal Officer to enlarge the team, support and protect the business as it continues on its course of product growth and international expansion.
Sullivan brings more than two decades of experience in multinational companies, with ten of those years in GC/Head of Legal & Compliance positions as well as fulfilling senior business roles in fund management and administration.
Concurrently, Sullivan has been executing the requirements of three other posts. Since May he has served as an Advisory Board Member at The Law Boutique. Additionally, at Disruptive GC Network, he has held the role of an Executive Committee Member. He has also been fulfilling the post of Non-Executive Director at NCM Fund Services Ltd for over five years and located in London, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to the appointment at Ziglu, Sullivan was promoted to the Head of Legal & Company Secretary VP at Monzo Bank. In this post, he built and maintained a strong and sustainable business, protected Monzo from the risk of reputational or financial harm and ensured it had a robust governance framework in place. Before this, he was Monzo’s Head of Legal VP for just over a year where he oversaw all group legal disciplines and some non-legal functions.
Earlier on, Funderbeam recruited Sullivan to Head its Legal & Compliance. Although the position was short-lived, he managed to establish the legal & compliance function, systems, controls, policies and procedures to be UK-ready as well as many other demands of the role.
From April 2016, Sullivan served as Head of European Operations at Cromwell Property Group. For two years he oversaw all operational aspects of the European platform and led HR, Technology, Marketing, Sustainability & Corporate Services teams.
Additionally, Sullivan was recruited as a European General Counsel at Valad Europe in mid-2011 and stayed for five and a half years. Part of his role consisted of forming, structuring, documenting and promoting fund structures, joint ventures, club deals, separate accounts and bank work-out mandates, as well as negotiating with LP & PE investors and their external advisers.
Moreover, at PILinvests he completed the role of Managing Director for just over three and a half years. His role included administering over 60 funds with £2bn assets under management, £2m turnover and 20 people.
Sullivan’s earlier positions included Senior Corporate Legal Counsel and other previous legal roles in Telia Company, Orange, Dechert LLP and Davenport Lyons over the period from September 1996 to November 2007.
James Sullivan Exits Monzo
The timing of Sullivan’s appointment to Ziglu is in the midst of a Crowdfunding round, which is 300% funded, at just over £3 million from over 1,100 investors. These funds will enable Ziglu to expand both its technology and product teams and become a global challenger.
Commenting on his appointment, James Sullivan said, "It was always going to take an exceptionally exciting opportunity to move on from Monzo. In the last few months, Ziglu has launched its exchange and Payments app, been licensed by the FCA and is knocking it out of the park with its first crowdfunding on Seeders."
Mark Hipperson, Chief Executive Officer at Ziglu said, “I am delighted to welcome James Sullivan to the Ziglu leadership team. He brings a wealth of experience in transformational fintech and will be integral to our international growth.”
