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Catherine Lewis La Torre has been appointed CEO, British Patient Capital and Chair, British Business Investments, taking up the roles from the autumn

Press release 21 July 2022

Catherine Lewis La Torre has been appointed CEO of British Patient Capital, one of the British Business Bank’s commercial subsidiaries, which launched the new Life Sciences Investment Programme and Future Fund: Breakthrough programme last year.

Catherine has also been appointed  Chair of British Business Investments, taking over from Francis Small who recently concluded his term in office. In addition, Catherine has taken on the role of Senior Responsible Officer for the Bank’s other equity schemes.

In September 2020, Catherine was appointed acting CEO of the British Business Bank to allow government to map out the next phase of the Bank’s development. Following the recent announcement that Louis Taylor has been appointed as the Bank’s new CEO, joining in October, Catherine will continue in post as acting CEO to ensure an orderly transition, taking up her new roles in the autumn.

Judith Hartley, who was appointed acting CEO of British Patient Capital and British Business Investments in September 2020, will take up the permanent role of CEO, British Business Investments when her secondment ends in the autumn.

I would like to congratulate Catherine and Judith on their new roles. The Board is confident that these appointments will continue to strengthen the leadership of the Bank and help us deliver on our mission to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. - Lord Smith of Kelvin Chair, British Business Bank
I am delighted to be leading British Patient Capital in the next chapter of its development. Our mission is to enable long-term investment in innovative companies across the UK led by ambitious entrepreneurs who want to build successful, world-class businesses. As we are the UK’s largest domestic investor in venture and growth capital today, I look forward to working with British Patient Capital’s talented investment team so that more UK companies can raise the capital they need to scale up and reach their full potential. - Catherine Lewis La Torre CEO, British Patient Capital
I am delighted to be confirmed as the permanent CEO of British Business Investments. The company has a highly experienced and dedicated team and I’m looking forward to working with the Board and the investment team, to further develop the company and its impact on the UK’s small business finance markets. British Business Investments’ mission will remain focussed upon increasing the supply and diversity of funding for small businesses across the whole of the UK - Judith Hartley CEO, British Business Investments

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Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £8.5 billion[1] of finance to almost 95,000 smaller businesses[2]. The British Business Bank is responsible for running the government’s Coronavirus business loan schemes and Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion of finance to 1.67 million businesses. The schemes are now closed to new applications.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses.

The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

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