The Alliance for Finance is managed by a Secretariat of seven personnel from our member organisations. The curret Secretariat is:
Frank Needham - Chair
Frank has over 30 years of experience of working for trade unions in the finance industry. For 13 years from 1984 to 1997 he was General Secretary of the in house union at National & Provincial Building Society (NAPSA). Frank was Chair of the Federation of Building Society Staff Assocations from 1984 to 1987 and subsequently Vice Chair of the Financial Services Staff Federation from 1993 to 1996. In 1987 he formed the Network Partnership with his colleague Mike Radcliffe - the Network Partnership provides consultancy and training services to 10 staff unions - 9 of which are in the building societies sector. Frank represents SURGE, the union for Skipton Building Society Group employees on the Alliance.
In addition to working for the Network Partnership, from 1987 to 2008 Frank also worked for the finance section of the union Unite and its predecessors, as National Secretary responsible for the union's building society members; members in Abbey plc and from 2006 for Northern Rock. Frank has also been Chair of the Mutual Interest Partnership (formerly Mutual Interest Campaign) from July 2000.
Franks principal areas of interest include training on employment law and practice, communication and negotiation skills, team building and management development. He also has experience in political lobbying and organising campaigns, trade union organisation and recruitment, and the development of reward systems.
Russell Greig - Secretary
Russell has been employed by Northern Rock for the past ten years, the last four of which he has been a full time workplace representative for Unite the Union. Prior to working for the bank, Russell spent some years working for a firm of North East solicitors as a fee earner and Police Station Representative representing clients in custody. Russell worked in areas such as land law and conveyancing, litigation, criminal law and evidence, which included preparing cases for Magistrates Court, Crown and County Court.
In addition to carrying out his role representing Unite members within the bank, Russell is also lead representative during negotiations with the company on a national basis, and played an extremely vital role for the union during the company's restructuring since the run on the bank in September 2007, and continues to play an important part for the union as the bank remains under public ownership.
In addition to being Chair of the Unite National Company Committee and Branch within Northern Rock, Russell also represents North East finance industry workers on Unite's Regional Council and National Industrial Sector Committee. Russell also represents Unite's Finance Sector with UNI-Europa in their consultations with the European Union's, Internal Markets Commission.
Russell has recently completed a Diploma in Trade Union Studies at the Northern College, Barnsley and is currently working towards a BA in International Labour and Trade Union Studies at Ruskin College, Oxford. In addition to his studies Russell is also a member of the trade union forum of History & Policy, which is based at the Institute of Historical Research.
Russell's areas of interest include trade union policy, strategy and organising, mentoring and development of workplace representatives, data analysis and development of negotiation strategies. Russell's other interests are employment law, and international labour issues.
Alan Gibson
Alan is currently Deputy Principal Officer with VIVO, formerly Standard Life Link, the employee representative body for employees of Standard Life. His career as an employee representative started at WH Smith, where he worked as a representative for 5 years, prior to Standard life where he has been a full time employee representative for the past 9 years.
During the transition from Standard Life Link to VIVO, Alan played a significant role in writing VIVO's constitution and formulting a new partnership agreement with the company.
Between 2000 and 2008, Alan was responsible for the development and training of employee representatives within Standard Life. In addition to providing support to employees of Standard Life and the representatives of VIVO, Alan's principal interest's are employment law in relation to grievance and disciplinary issues, counselling, and diversity and discrimination.
