DF Capital names new chief commercial officer

As part of DF Capital’s senior leadership team, Ciara will report into CEO Carl D’Ammassa. She takes over from Andy Stafferton who has recently been appointed into a newly-created strategic role focussed on developing new products, exploring new geographies, partnerships, and new sectors to support the bank’s growth ambitions.

Ciara joins from Secure Trust Bank where she held the position of commercial director for V12 Vehicle Finance. As a Chartered Banker Member with a masters degree in mathematics, Ciara has spent over 20 years working in financial services. 

During this time, she has held senior commercial roles at Close Brothers Motor Finance, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Aviva. In 2021 Ciara was named Business Leader of the Year at the Women in Credit Awards and won the same award at the Credit Strategy Leadership Awards in 2022.

Ciara Raison commented: “DF Capital is a growing influence in the inventory finance market with a clear sense of purpose and ambitious growth plans. I am delighted to join the bank at such an exciting time and I am looking forward to leading and developing the commercial function even further by continuing to delight our dealer and manufacturer customers.”

Carl D’Ammassa, CEO of DF Capital said: “I’m thrilled that Ciara has joined us on our journey. Her unique dynamism and strong yet supportive leadership style has seen her build a tremendous track record of success. I’m confident that under Ciara’s leadership, we will see continued momentum in our commercial lending activities as we focus on putting customer needs first, scaling the business and delivering growth.”

The bank has also expanded its commercial team by investing in additional client management and business development resource; providing more support for customers through greater depth of leadership and a diverse range of expertise.