Ron Sandler

Ron Sandler is a British banker whose most recent role, until 31 December 2011, was the government-appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Northern Rock.^[1]

Early life

Sandler was born in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1952 and has an undergraduate degree in engineering^[2] from Queens' College, Cambridge and an MBA from Stanford University.^[3]

Career in the financial sector

Sandler was Chief Executive at Lloyd's of London^[4] from 1995 until 1999. Sandler spent the period between October 1999 and March 2000 as a director and chief operating officer of NatWest bank, unsuccessfully attempting to defend it during its 1999 takeover, on a salary of £450,000.^[5] Sandler resigned following the takeover of NatWest bank by the Royal Bank of Scotland, joining the board of Computacenter as a non-executive director on May 26, 2000.^[6] In March 2001, Sandler succeeded Computacenter co-founder Philip Hulme as Chairman of the board.^[7] In June 2001 the then chancellor Gordon Brown asked Sandler to carry out a review of the savings industry, known as the Sandler Review.^[8] The report, published in 2002, called for a simplified range of savings products with a reduced level of commission, but its conclusions were rejected by the Treasury.^[9]

Appointment to Northern Rock

He was appointed by the Treasury on 12 January 2008 to be the Chairman of Northern Rock;^[4] a position which he assumed on 18 February 2008, resigning from his role as Non-executive Chairman and member of the board at Computacenter at the same time.^[10] His salary for Northern Rock was reported as £90,000 per month.^[3] Sandler is not domiciled for personal tax purposes in the United Kingdom, holding a German passport.^[11]

KiFin Limited

Ron Sandler is deputy chairman of Nathan Kirsh’s company KiFin Limited (part of Ki Corporation), which was recently the subject of media scrutiny following its failed bid for London-based property group Minerva (property firm)^[12] In an interview with The Independent, Sandler said that the term “deputy chairman” was one of endearment, and he was merely an informal “sounding board” and advisor to Nathan Kirsh.^[13]

Kyte Group

Mr Sandler is listed on the FSA (Financial Services Authority UK) website as having past associations with a company in the UK (Kyte Group) which was fined £250,000 by the FSA.

The FSA's fines notice says:

"The FSA have fined Kyte Group Ltd £250,000 for systems and controls breaches. Kyte failed properly to calculate, reconcile or transfer client money into segregated accounts in accordance with FSA rules. Kyte also failed to take reasonable care to make and retain adequate records of matters and dealings, including accounting records, which resulted in the misstatement of Kyte's balance sheet by approximately £7.2 million for the year ended 30 April 2003. The misconduct took place in the period from December 2001 to September 2003, and was found to be in breach of Principle 3, Principle 10, SYSC 3.1.1, SYSC 3.2.6, SYSC 3.2.20, COB 9.3.37, COB 9.3.100, COB 9.3.105, COB 9.3.121, COB 9.3.123, COB 9.3.126 and COB 9.3.131."

References

Persondata
Name	Sandler, Ron
Alternative names
Short description	British banker
Date of birth	1952
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death