Syreeta Brown is the first black female Chief People Officer of a FTSE 250 UK tier-one bank. Appointed to the Virgin Money UK role in 2021, she is accountable for the People and Communications strategy for the bank, which is the UK’s sixth largest. Syreeta is also the Virgin Money lead for the Women in Finance initiative.

In 2023, Syreeta was appointed a board trustee of the social mobility charity the Aleto Foundation. She also became a mentor for the Solaris Program, an executive leadership development scheme for black professional women at middle and senior management levels. 

As the Managing Director at Citi, Syreeta led the HR function for the Global Functions and Operations and Technology business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region. She also led Citi’s Diversity Talent Acquisition team, which looked at the processes, practices, behaviours and culture around talent attraction and acquisition to address increasing representation in ethnic minority hiring (and other protected characteristics). Post-George Floyd, she built a business case for investment in this strategy and in January 2022, Citi achieved its representation targets for ethnicity.

Further positions include advisory board member for the Black Talent Charter, headed by Harry Matovu QC, which aims to accelerate black representation and progression in finance and the professions. Syreeta is also part of the Speakers for Schools organisation, allowing her to share her knowledge with students from a broad range of diverse backgrounds.

Syreeta is a proud working parent of a child with autism. She plans to start a foundation to ensure parents can have financial support in accessing legal advice to help with issues experienced around the educational rights of their children impacted by special needs.