Benny Higgins

Chair
National Galleries of Scotland
UK

Benny Higgins began his career at Standard Life in 1983, where he became a member of the Standard Life Group Executive Committee. In 1997 he moved to RBS to become Chief Executive of Retail Banking. He was with RBS until 2005, during which time he led the successful integration of NatWest Retail Banking – one of the largest hostile takeovers ever undertaken in banking. He became Chief Executive, Retail, HBOS in 2006 before joining Tesco Bank as Chief Executive in 2008, a position he held until February 2018. In September 2017 Benny was asked by the Scottish Government to develop an implementation plan for the creation of a Scottish National Investment Bank. Subsequently he was appointed as Strategic Adviser to the First Minister on the building of the Scottish National Investment Bank and Chairman of Scottish Government’s Advisory Group on Economic Recovery post COVID19. Benny is Executive Chairman of the Buccleuch Group, Chairman of the National Galleries of Scotland, Chairman of Sistema Scotland, Chairman of Forster Chase Advisory Limited, Non-Executive Chairman, Markerstudy, The Fine Art Society (London & Edinburgh), Chairman, Edinburgh Fringe Society, Trustee of Burrell Renaissance, Non-Executive Director of Arabian Centres, Non-Executive Chairman, Lavanya Plus and Chairman of N4 Partners.