Victoria Cleland

Victoria Mary Florence Cleland (born 26 February 1970) is the Director for Banknotes and Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, a position she has held since March 2014. She is the second woman to hold the post of Chief Cashier. She replaced Chris Salmon when he was appointed as Executive Director for Markets at the Bank of England.

Cleland studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford and was sponsored by the Bank for an MBA at Imperial College, London.

Cleland has worked for the Bank for about 20 years having first tried accountancy as a career. Her first role at the Bank was in a department dealing with the financing of small businesses, followed by work in the wholesale market supervision division after which she moved to deal with graduate recruitment.

Cleland worked for three years on financial stability after which she set up the "special resolutions" section which dealt with banks at risk of failure following the recent financial crisis. She was closely involved with the Northern Rock nationalisation.

Cleland was Head of Notes from March 2010 and has been Director for Banknotes and Chief Cashier since March 2014. In her current role, Cleland is primarily responsible for ensuring that banks have the right amount and type of notes available at all times. She is also responsible for preventing forgery and the controversial matter of the design of new notes. In 2013, Cleland received on behalf of the Bank of England a petition organised by Caroline Criado-Perez to keep a woman on the reverse of Bank of England banknotes. To date, other than the portrait of H.M. The Queen on the obverse of all Bank of England notes only two historical women have appeared on the reverse, Elizabeth Fry on the last paper £5 note from 2002 until 2017 and Florence Nightingale on the £10 from 1975 until 1994. Currently there are no women on the reverse of Bank of England notes until September 2017 when the image of Jane Austen appears on the new issue £10.

As Chief Cashier, Cleland's signature appears on all Bank of England banknotes. The new polymer issue, a first for the Bank of England, was released on 13 September 2016 commencing with the £5 banknote. This series will be continued with the release of the polymer £10 on 14 September 2017 and in 2020 the £20. There are no plans at present to introduce a polymer £50 note.

...
Wikipedia