Lara is an experienced financial services chief legal officer, general counsel and company secretary with international experience. Her expertise spans regulatory matters, payments, enterprise risk management, consumer protection, SME law, offshore operations, employee relations (both contentious and non-contentious), corporate transactions and commercial banking. Currently, Lara is an Independent Non-Executive Director at PensionBee Group plc, and a Board Trustee at Shaw Trust. She also serves as a Contributing Editor for the LexisNexis Encyclopaedia of Banking Law and is a Fellow of The RSA. Lara's accomplishments include being awarded 'Business Woman of the Year' & 'Corporate Leader' at the 2018 FL National Awards, and recognition in The Lawyer Hot 100 in 2021. Also in 2021 She was named BBBA Financial Services Senior Leader of the Year, and in 2022, she won the 'Woman in Legal' category at the Women4Africa Awards. Her previous roles include Chief Legal Officer and Group General Counsel at ZepZ, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer at Contis, a SolarisBank company, Legal Director at Klarna, Senior Legal Counsel at Barclays and BAE Systems, Divisional Counsel at RAC, Legal director at HBOS (Lloyds Banking Group) and Group Head of Legal at Lex (Lex Autolease). She formerly served as a co-opted member of the University of Cambridge Council Committee (CBELA) advising the Vice-Chancellor on benefactions. Lara is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and a barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Lara holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of Lagos and an LLM in Comparative Company Law.