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A highly motivated and extroverted leader; proven experience in strategic and…
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Kari-Anne Clayton posted thisI’m delighted to share that last week I accepted an offer to become the Security Assurance Lead for NatWest Group. We know the world is changing, sometimes by the minute. We know the global geo-political environment is dynamic and that technology innovation, how we show up for our customers, and the resilience of those capabilities is all inextricably linked. We also know that data, engineering, and automation and decisioning (either traditional or agentic) is needed to keep pace with new and evolving threats. The role of Security Assurance steps beyond compliance and looks to assure with data and evidence, in real time, in a transformative way and through engineering resilence by design. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity bringing together Security Assurance, Cyber Resilience and Recovery, and Frontier AI Response into a broader and holistic strategy as we continue to keep our customers safe and secure.
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisAcross the U.K. the next generation of talent has graduated and is already showing what they can bring to the table! Well done Raven Weston! What an adventure on location in Sweden and an excellent product / result. Live streaming, videography and production there’s no limit to your talent and can’t wait to see what comes next! 🌟🙌👏Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisYou can learn a lot about a car remotely. But you learn even more when you get behind the wheel. Recently, the Ignition team travelled to Sweden and Belgium to deliver dynamic training for the new Zeekr 7GT. Retailer staff and national market representatives had the chance to experience the 7GT first-hand – exploring its performance, comfort, technology and character out on the road and on track. And an added treat for the delegates in Sweden – a visit to Zeekr Technology Europe HQ in Gothenburg – giving them a closer look at the European soul of the brand and the thinking behind its development, innovation and dynamics. A brilliant few days of driving, learning and product immersion – made even better by the outstanding feedback received from delegates across the event. A big thank you to Zeekr Europe and Peter Fisscher for their continued trust and partnership. We always enjoy working together to bring learning experiences like this to life. Check out some of the highlights below. 👇 #Zeekr7GT #LearningAndDevelopment #DynamicTraining
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisWhat an amazing day - what an amazing set of speakers! My newly found friends shared their insights and wisdom as our panel tackled the tough topic of the sticky middle! Thank you to Dr Vanessa Vallely OBE for your vision and enthusiasm in bringing such an amazing event all together. Suthashini Karthick Obii Okafor Madeline Hutchinson Mukhil Achuthan you were all brilliant 🌟🙌🌟🙌 Well done all around ❤️!Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisThank you to WeAreTechWomen for having me on the panel on Navigating the sticky middle— such a rich conversation, and one that stays with you long after the room empties. One idea we kept circling back to: the “sticky middle.” That stretch of a career or life transition that isn’t the dramatic before-or-after — it’s the messy in-between. As we go through so many phases of our career, there is always a phase that is more challenging. For me, that looked like returning from maternity leave into a newly restructured team: new players, a new identity to navigate, and a life I had to reprioritise almost from scratch. What struck me most in the discussion is how often this phase gets mistaken for failure, when it’s actually consolidation. You’re absorbing a new structure, new stakeholders, a new version of yourself — the work hasn’t changed, but you have. The self-doubt is real (we’re often our harshest critics), but underneath it, you can feel yourself getting stronger if you stay honest with where you are. A simple test I shared: am I actually growing here, or just trying to fit in and quietly enduring it? If I can’t see a way forward, that’s the signal it’s no longer consolidation — it’s time to actively change something, not wait it out. Three takeaways that carried me forward: 1. Pause and reflect — really understand what’s happening around you before reacting to it. 2. Know your champions in the room, and actively seek feedback rather than waiting for it. 3. Change what’s within your power. Have a game plan. And the line I keep coming back to, for myself and for everyone I mentor: you have no one to prove anything to, but yourself. You can have it all — just not all at once. Know your why, plan around it, and remember it’s okay to pause. Just don’t quit! Grateful for the panel, the questions, and everyone who stayed to talk afterward. Kari-Anne Clayton you were an amazing host! Dr Vanessa Vallely OBE, this wouldn’t be possible without you! My fellow panellists Obii Okafor, Mukhil Achuthan Madeline Hutchinson , loved all the insights you all shared. #Leadership #WomenInLeadership #CareerGrowth #ReturnToWork
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Kari-Anne Clayton posted thisThe world is dynamic. The ability to continuously evolve, plan, adapt and remain resilent is critical. I’m pleased to share that today I start my role as Cyber Resilency Lead at NatWest, working with our incredible Security and Technology colleagues to continue to keep our 19 million customers safe and secure in an ever changing world. Am grateful to Chris U. and Wendy Redshaw for their continued support in this new endeavour. #cyberresilency #careerchange #cybersecurity #careeropportunity
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisPeter Drucker put it best when he said “…the best way to predict the future is to create it.” This is an incredibly exciting partnership and really looking forward to how we can best serve our customers with cutting edge innovation. #innovation #ai #futurethinking #partnershipKari-Anne Clayton shared thisWhat does our collaboration with OpenAI mean for customers? Watch below for more on how we’re harnessing AI with customers front and centre of our thinking.
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisSo incredibly proud of our team in India whose courage and authenticity shines through in all that they do! 👏 well done !! Dhiraj Anand Nidhi SethiKari-Anne Clayton shared thisInclusion at NatWest Group is about creating a culture, where true progress comes from vocal advocacy, amplification of voices and consistent & intentional inclusion. Extremely thrilled to announce that we have been honored as the GOLD Employer at the India Workplace Equality Index for the second consecutive year! Winning this award again is a powerful affirmation of our commitment to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone, regardless of who they are or who they love, feel valued and empowered. We have also been awarded the BEST PRIDE ERG of the Year 🏆….this truly reflects the commitment of our leaders Punit Sood Wendy Redshaw Dhiraj Anand Ruchika Panesar Maneesh Menda Ruma Gulabani and the incredible work of our LGBT+ Employee Resource Group, the dream team Aparna Saroagi Saurabh Bajpai, allies, and colleagues who have gone above and beyond to drive meaningful change. It’s a testament to the programs we’ve built, the partnerships we’ve strengthened, and the voices we’ve amplified. Kanwal Kaul - KK | Milan Dang | Navreet Anand | Arti Gangaiya | Utsah Kohli | Kalpita M. #LifeatNatWestGroup #inclusionmatters #lgbtinclusion #iwei2024
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisI had the pleasure of sitting down with Digital First and sharing some thoughts and insights on topics I’m passionate about. Incredibly grateful for this opportunity and and sharing more broadly across my network in case there are nuggets that may also resonate with others!Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisKari-Anne Clayton is the Head of Strategy, Transformation, Risk, Service and Finance for the Retail Bank’s Chief Digital Information Officer, covering the breadth of Retail and Digital Technology for NatWest. She is a dynamic and results oriented transformational leader with diverse background in business, technology, risk management, climate, data, digital and cultural embedding. A strategist and digital influencer, she is a published academic and author, and a passionate advocate for next generational leadership and an inclusion ally. Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Kari-Anne shared her professional trajectory, insights on diversity and inclusion, the best piece of advice she has ever received, her secret to striking a work-life balance, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. Discover her inspiring journey here. https://lnkd.in/g9DFaXCJ #DigitalFirstMagazine #exclusiveinterview #strategyandtransformation #business #technology #riskmanagement #climate #data #digital #culturalembedding #problemsolving #innovation #inspiring #nextgeneration #leadersInspiring the Next Generation of Leaders - Digital First MagazineInspiring the Next Generation of Leaders - Digital First Magazine
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisTraveling to India to spend time with our NatWest colleagues and some of our trusted partners is truly one of my highlights in H1. Am grateful for the opportunity to meet so many talented individuals and lean into those important conversations focusing on innovation, diversity and championing authenticity.Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisRecently, we hosted an insightful panel discussion on "Innovation Through Diversity: How Women are Pioneering New Tech Frontiers." It was inspiring to hear from Kari-Anne Clayton, Dhiraj Anand and Priya Ramanathan who are trailblazers in leading the change towards a more innovative and inclusive tech landscape. Following the panel, we had the privilege of facilitating a women mentoring session where Kari-Anne Clayton and Nidhi Sethi connected with emerging women leaders from Infosys. This session not only provided guidance but also strengthened our community of women in tech, empowering them to break barriers and forge new paths. A huge thank you to all our panelists and participants for their invaluable insights and enthusiasm. Let’s continue to support and uplift each other, as we all have a role to play in shaping a diverse and dynamic future. Wendy Redshaw, Kari-Anne Clayton, Dhiraj Anand, Shalini Arora, Nidhi Sethi, Stephen Couch, Punjit Malhotra, Andrew Swinson, Jay Nair Sujeet Singh, Amit Dhawan, Sundarvelu Baskaran, Lena Vijayam, Sastha Prasad Viswanathan, Shanmugam K J, Rashi Sharma, Infosys Europe, Infosys
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Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisAbsolutely delighted to share Our Voice is live - and coinciding with International Women’s Day! Wendy Redshaw and I speak about Generative AI, leadership, culture and so much more! Check out the link below ⬇️Kari-Anne Clayton shared thisOur Voice is Live! https://lnkd.in/e7x8CSHw Featuring Our Voice CEO Charlotte Clarke in conversation with Mayor of Camden Nazma Rahman and Ruji Akhtar Mahmud, Wendy Redshaw and Kari-Anne Clayton of NatWest discussing the ever-changing digital landscape, and TELUS's Catrine Botturi on the powerful purpose of connecting people in the telecommunications industry. Also in this debut issue, Yashmin Harun BEM discusses her passion for creating a space for Muslim women in the sports industry, Tia Cheang speaks on the importance of offering opportunities to young girls with a passion for technology, and Saloni Kataria tells us how she turned her differences into a superpower. Finally, we highlight recent accomplishments of women making waves across the globe, explore innovative technology and media, and take a look back at history’s somewhat forgotten female trailblazers. #womeninleadership #innovation #business #culture #leadership #technology With support from Heaton Vences
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Dilhani Palehepitiya thank you so much Dilhani 🌟🙏
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Shresti Bijou thank you so much - and really looking forward to working with you as well🙏🌟
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisFor the last three years I’ve taken a week off every September and completed a through- hike of one of Scotland’s Great Trails with one of my best mates. In ‘24 it was the West Highland Way, ‘25 was the Great Glen Way and this year we took on the Speyside Way, tracing the River Spey from its mouth at the Moray Firth, south to Newtonmore. Although it’s only the other side of the Cairngorms from where I grew up, Speyside is a part of the country I’d spent little time in before. The scenery, the towns and villages and the (many) distilleries made for such an enjoyable week. But a huge part of the value I get from these walks is the space. Walking 32,000 steps a day, on average, with long stretches of silence in very peaceful surroundings, gives a massive amount of space without the constant stimulation that choose to surround myself with normally. That lets the mind wander and shift and explore and it’s the best gift I give myself each year. If you’re someone who’s constantly surrounded by noise and motion and stimulation, I cannot recommend it enough!
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisWeek one of a new chapter, reporting to the new CTSO. This week marked the start of bringing together Technology (CTO) and Security (CISO) under a single Chief Technology & Security Officer (CTSO) function at NatWest Group From my industry scanning this is a relatively uncommon organisational construct, but not unheard of. Historically, Technology and Security have often operated as close partners, but with separate leadership structures. That model made sense in a world where innovation and control could be managed as adjacent conversations. I'm increasingly being convinced that Frontier AI changes that equation. When AI can design, build, test, operate and even make decisions alongside humans, it becomes harder to draw a meaningful line between "the technology" and "the security implications of the technology". They now feel very much like the same conversation. The challenge is no longer "How do we secure the thing we've built?" It's "How do we build security into the thing from the very first prompt, model, architecture and deployment decision?" Bringing Technology and Security together creates a stronger platform to deliver secure innovation at pace, balancing opportunity with responsibility, and ensuring safety-by-design is not a checkpoint but a capability. And let's be honest... if AI is going to write the majority of our code, I'd quite like the security team in the room before it decides to expose the customer database to the internet. 😉 I'm excited to see what this model can unlock for colleagues, customers and the wider organisation, and I am confident in the contribution my domain will make to the new construct. I'd be interested to hear from fellow Technology and transformation leaders: What organisational changes are you making, or considering making, in response to the rapid growth of frontier AI? Are we moving towards more convergence of technology, security, data and AI leadership, or is a different model emerging? #AI #CyberSecurity #TechnologyLeadership #CISO #CTO #FinancialServices #DigitalTransformation #ResponsibleAI #Innovation #Leadership
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisA reflection on AI alignment and safety now that the debate has escaped the tech bubble and become September’s main talking point. Lots of people are worked up, have strongly-held views, and are citing all sorts of precedents, supposed truths and millenarian beliefs, so here are my working assumptions: 1. Misaligned AI could be dangerous but we haven’t seen the sort of catastrophic loss-of-control scenarios at the heart of the frontier safety debate, or the kind of unconstrained recursive self-improvement that underpins many of the most extreme scenarios. Yet. 2. People still have agency as new frontier models are developed. Many of the most alarming emergent behaviours observed have depended on human-created conditions: poor prompting, leaky sandboxes and scaffolding that facilitates misaligned activity. I’d hope we’re learning lessons. 3. Irresponsible actors are a big risk, and the incentive to be irresponsible is the prisoner’s dilemma - a dynamic just as relevant between US labs as between the US and China. It is difficult to see an off-ramp. Unlike Cold War nuclear arms control, which was substantially a bilateral problem between superpowers, AI is far more multilateral with greater complexity. 4. Sovereign politics aside, ‘pacing the frontier’ is shorthand for an unprecedented, voluntary go-slow that runs counter to two powerful forces: technological determinism and financial markets that have baked in a huge supply-side expansion that won’t easily tolerate a slowdown. 5. The technology is commoditising fast and even commodity AI models could do harm in the hands of the wrong person, so the cat is out of the bag. If a mid-2026 Chinese open weight model running locally on consumer hardware is able to cause harm, then regulating *just* the frontier feels imperfect. Frontier regulation may be necessary, but it isn’t sufficient when capability diffuses. This is messy and confusing. There are genuine risks, limited empirical evidence for some of the most extreme scenarios, enormous problems rooted in basic human nature, powerful incentives to keep going and an increasingly capable technology that is diffusing fast. Anyone who professes certainty is probably selling you something.
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisAI is reshaping how we work, customer expectations continue to evolve, and the pace of change across our industry is faster than ever before. As we navigate this transformation, diverse perspectives, experiences and voices have never been more important. Recently, I had the privilege of hosting a ‘Women in Technology’ leadership conversation with Scott Marcar , Ruchika Panesar, alongside members of our ExCo Maja Pantic, Raymond Mulligan, Victoria Cleverley and Nadine McClement. A delightful conversation which inspired many of us to reflect on how Tech, Data and AI are reshaping the future of Banking and the role we all play in shaping the change. Some important messages we took away are - AI isn’t neutral. It reflects the data, perspectives and experiences that go into creating it. If diverse voices aren’t involved in designing, building and governing AI, we risk creating solutions that don’t fully reflect the customers we serve. - We need more women in AI and our opportunity is to ensure that women are not just participating but shaping, leading and influencing the future. - Technology leadership is evolving and the future leaders will be those who combine deep technical expertise with business acumen, customer understanding and influence strategic thinking. - Mentorship and sponsorship change careers and as leaders we have the responsibility to open doors and create pathways for growth. Srividya Gopalan Sheetal Bathija Utsah Kohli Ritu Tushir Smriti Gupta
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisToday I celebrated 5 years in business, having left RBS/Natwest and set up Matt Davies Leadership Ltd on September 9th 2021. It’s mad to me that it’s been five years already but the work has been fun and fulfilling and the adventures have been plentiful! Today was no different - having flown to London for two HSBC side quests, yesterday and today, working with two great teams and digging into their DNA and where they can find an edge or two. Yesterday afternoon I had some time to myself so took a stroll around London in the rain and a very interesting trip to the Cartoon Museum! Today, however was EVEN MORE interesting as the team I was working with let me join them on a trip to the Royal Academy to tour their lecture room and design facilities and meet some of the artists. It was a very cool place to visit and the artists were absolutely fascinating!! I left with such a buzz and I’m not someone with an art pedigree of any kind! Obviously EasyJet tried to take the sine off my birthday with a honking great delay on my flight home, but I’m not letting them kill my vibe! Huge thanks to Sarah Ellis and John McDonald and their colleagues for the last couple of days and much love to everyone I’ve worked with this last half decade. Here’s to the next five years! 🎉
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Kari-Anne Clayton liked thisKari-Anne Clayton liked thisAbsolutely thrilled to win 'Specialist Business Book of the year 2026' at the premier UK Business Book Awards ceremony last night! My thanks to my amazing co-authors Ray Eitel-Porter and Miriam Vogel and to Bloomsbury Business for their support. As AI incidents continue to dominate the news headlines, its clear that we have to seize control of AI to ensure its behaviour aligns to our aims. Our book, ‘Governing the Machine: how to navigate the risks of AI and unlock its true potential' is a blueprint for how to do this. AI Governance is not solely a technical challenge but also equally a People and Process one. If organisations want to scale AI, they need to control it, to ensure colleagues and customers benefit equally. Written for the lay person, we take the reader through a step by step guide showing how to implement an AI Governance Program. Thank you to my employer NatWest Group for supporting me and allowing me the time to write this book and to our PR company Ambition PR for all their support. #BBA2026
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Scout Leader
Girl Scouts of Gateway Council
- 3 years 1 month
Children
Providing thought leadership and a role model to a generation of young girls through life and leadership experiences via Girl Scouts USA. Teaching social, economic and environmental responsibility to girls and enabling them in turn be role models.
Honors & Awards
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Young Leader of the Year
Tech Leader Awards - Information Age
The UK’s leading celebration of the business, IT and digital leaders driving disruptive innovation and demonstrating value from technology.
The Tech Leaders Awards, organised by Information Age and sponsored by Frank Recruitment Group and BAE Systems, brings together hundreds of Britain’s top business and technology executives to honour the industry’s leading players across 14 categories. -
Women in Technology & Data 2018 - Rising Star
Water's Edge Technology
WatersTechnology Women in Technology and Data Awards recognises, promotes and celebrates the outstanding contribution that women make to technology and data roles across the capital markets.
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PryceWilliams
PryceWilliams supported a financial services client in designing and delivering a change management communication strategy to support a complex transformation programme. Our team established clear communication structures, stakeholder messaging, and governance touch-points to ensure alignment and informed decision-making throughout delivery. This approach reduced delivery risk, improved stakeholder confidence, and helped ensure change was implemented with clarity and control. Read the full case study below: https://lnkd.in/esXQjbYS #ChangeManagement #TransformationDelivery #StakeholderEngagement #Governance #CommunicationApproach
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