John Barker CEO

Our leadership

Our purpose is to transform customer experiences. Customer and colleague centricity sits at the core of our beliefs. We have the appetite and the ambition, coupled with strong delivery of digital and technology transformation.

John Barker
CEO
Target Group
Board

Vivek is the Global Head for Enterprise Verticals Solutions and Portfolio Companies at Tech Mahindra and Non-Executive Director at Target.

He is responsible for creating a robust and differentiated portfolio of offerings for clients in each vertical, and organic and in-organic investments for building capability. He has been with Tech Mahindra since 2004.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As the Chief Executive Officer at Target, I'm passionate about delighting colleagues, customers and clients, which leads to a high-performing business. In my role as part of the Board and in leading the Executive Committee (ExCo), I drive the shaping of the company strategy. I help inspire the whole team at Target to work towards our purpose; to transform customer experiences.

As a purpose-driven leader, I ensure our Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy is leading the way in the market. I've always cared a huge amount about an organisation's social conscience. I'm proud of the work that Target has done in the Diversity and Inclusion space and even more proud of the work we continue to do. Our leadership team is diverse, passionate, and experienced; they embody our values.

We're making significant progress in achieving our purpose-led culture. It will enable the delivery of market-leading colleague, customer, and client outcomes. I'm privileged to lead Target on this next stage of our evolution.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Jack Parsons, CEO of Youth Group. He's a true purpose-led and inspirational leader who demonstrates an authentic and unrivalled passion for creating better opportunities and futures for young people. His legacy will be such a meaningful one.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

Enjoying quality family time. Going on holidays, dining out, watching sports (Formula 1, Football), playing golf with my son and watching my daughter at stage school and gymnastics.

As an established Board Executive, Aileen has expertise in digital business transformation across retail and commercial banking.

She has more than 10 years’ experience in executive and non-executive roles, helping to leverage growth opportunities for several leading financial services organisations including Co-operative Bank, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group (CYBG), and global technology service provider Cognizant.

Most recently, Aileen held the role of Chair of The Co-Operative Bank ESG Outsourcing Committee, providing strategic guidance to its £17bn lending business. She was also a Board Director at Yorkshire Bank Home Loans with specific responsibility to oversee and govern the £21bn lending division.

Andrew had an executive career with EY, where he was a partner for 28 years and was a board member and trustee of the firm’s pension schemes, before retiring in 2016.  He is now a non-executive director of Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets plc, C. Hoare & Co., and Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc. He's previously served on the boards of Southern Housing Group, National Bank of Greece and the Centre for Economic Policy Research. 

At EY Andrew served as the auditor of many of the firm’s largest audit clients, during which time he spent six years in Switzerland leading the audit of the UBS banking group. 

Executive Leaders

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As the Chief Executive Officer at Target, I'm passionate about delighting colleagues, customers and clients, which leads to a high-performing business. In my role as part of the Board and in leading the Executive Committee (ExCo), I drive the shaping of the company strategy. I help inspire the whole team at Target to work towards our purpose; to transform customer experiences.

As a purpose-driven leader, I ensure our Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy is leading the way in the market. I've always cared a huge amount about an organisation's social conscience. I'm proud of the work that Target has done in the Diversity and Inclusion space and even more proud of the work we continue to do. Our leadership team is diverse, passionate, and experienced; they embody our values.

We're making significant progress in achieving our purpose-led culture. It will enable the delivery of market-leading colleague, customer, and client outcomes. I'm privileged to lead Target on this next stage of our evolution.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Jack Parsons, CEO of Youth Group. He's a true purpose-led and inspirational leader who demonstrates an authentic and unrivalled passion for creating better opportunities and futures for young people. His legacy will be such a meaningful one.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

Enjoying quality family time. Going on holidays, dining out, watching sports (Formula 1, Football), playing golf with my son and watching my daughter at stage school and gymnastics.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As Chief Financial Officer, I provide financial guidance on the organisation's strategic direction, specifically regarding the Group's business strategy and corporate plans to support delivery.

I'm also responsible for advising on the financial implications of pricing strategies through modelling the profitability of new business opportunities and re-pricing of existing contracts. This insight informs and supports decision-making by the Executive team and Board.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He's one of the most successful investors in the world and the world's sixth wealthiest person. I admire him because of the principles he lives by, which have contributed to his success. He embodies ambition, discipline and drive. He started investing at the age of 11!

He also demonstrates how loyalty, patience and a long-term investment approach can bring success, evidenced in the following quote; "Successful Investing takes time, discipline and patience. No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."

He's also humble and gives back to causes that matter to him. He's promised to donate over 99% of his wealth, and despite his success, he still lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $31,500.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

Being the best mother to my daughter and showing her what strong female leadership looks like, if that's the path she chooses.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As Chief People Officer, my responsibility is to wake up thinking about our colleagues and what we can do to drive a workforce that feels supported, empowered and engaged. A happy workforce in turn, results in happy customers. We're shaping a workforce that is obsessed with our purpose of positively transforming customer experiences. 

Some of my strategic priorities are Talent Acquisition, Engagement, Reducing our Carbon Footprint, Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership, Development, Marketing and Communications.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Brené Brown – a researcher in vulnerability, shame and more. Brené is an amazing leader because she collects a huge amount of data, aggregates it and shares it with people across the world to develop better, purpose-driven leaders. 

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

In my spare time, I like to run; I’ve completed a few different running challenges over the past few years to raise money for charity. I practice yoga and love to take long walks with my husband and our two little sausage dogs.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As Chief Growth Officer, I'm responsible for our business development function, solutions team, and Bids. I also focus on the alignment of go-to-market activity between Target and our parent Tech Mahindra. My focus is to bring together the broad areas of ITO/BPO and CX expertise across our group portfolio. This unique offering allows our clients to create transformational solutions for their customers that solve complex business issues.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Actually an individual who is both a business and sports leader –  Arsène Wenger OBE. Why? He successfully managed to build something brand new and market-leading at the time (The Emirates Stadium), run highly successful teams (Champions League participants) and maintain sustainable income for the business/club – all at the same time.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

My family; watching and supporting their successes, is my main passion. I'm happily married and have five wonderful children who keep me young. Oh….and Arsenal Football Club, if you hadn’t guessed!

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

My role as Chief Operating Officer is to ensure the business runs smoothly on a day to day basis. I must maintain a clear focus on looking after our colleagues, delivering excellent client and customer outcomes whilst keeping us safe and compliant.

It's important to me that our colleagues and clients are at the heart of each decision we make. I achieve this by regularly talking to colleagues, reviewing performance stats, looking at other companies in the industry and challenging myself on “are we doing the right things for our colleagues and people?"

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

I admire Seb Vettel (Formula 1 driver) not because he has won four World Championships but because, whilst he hasn't won for a very long time, he still has the passion and drive to keep going and working hard. He's recently been an inspiration in terms of focusing on the green agenda, not just saying the right things; he took action, such as collecting litter personally at the British Grand Prix. It made me reflect and acknowledge you can't win at everything, but it's how you keep moving forward and learning.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

My passions outside work are my family. I'm married with two young children. I enjoy all sports including running but in particular motor sport. I race go-karts and cars across Britain and Europe.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

As Chief Risk Officer, I help the business support and delight our clients and customers by providing fair and compliant experiences and outcomes, allowing us to grow quickly and safely.

Some of my priorities are: embedding proportionate risk and compliance frameworks, open and collaborative regulatory engagement; building a diverse and engaged function; and team coaching and development.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why?

Lyndsey Edgar - Vice President of Operations at Monzo. 

Lyndsey is the type of leader I want to be. She thinks strategically but understands the detail. She pays attention to data, focusing on business needs. She maintains a keen eye on colleague development, team engagement and delivering customer outcomes.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

I absolutely love fitness. It's a real passion - I compete in CrossFit competitions and have run a few marathons over the years.

I also love spending time with my husband, dog, cats (too many animals!) and my friends at home in Halifax and scattered all over the UK!

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

My primary role is to ensure that we have contracts that enable us to deliver for our clients and other stakeholders. 

I transform customer experiences by ensuring we engage our clients with innovative commercial solutions that foster a partnership approach. This allows Target to deliver the best business outcomes for clients and their customers whilst enabling our own continued growth.

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why? 

Steven Bartlett, the founder of Social Chain. He's also the youngest dragon ever to appear on Dragon’s Den. 

For me, representation matters. Steven's story shows that hard work and dedication beat talent if talent doesn't work hard.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

Spending time with the kids especially taking my son to football on Saturdays.

Music is also a passion of mine.

Tell us about your role at Target and how you focus on our purpose of transforming customer experiences

I'm responsible for an amazing and experienced team of Personal Assistants and a Project Management Officer (PMO). Our goal is to ensure the business runs efficiently and smoothly. We support the leadership team in staying organised, progressing their strategies, and carrying out work that aligns to our company purpose. 

As a business leader, could you tell us about someone you admire in business and why? 

Can I pick a sportsperson? If so, it would have to be Rafa Nadal. I admire many sportspeople, and I'm in awe of their drive to succeed and be the best in their field. Rafa embodies all the qualities of a true champion. Even when he's down in a match, he never believes he'll lose and will keep fighting and believing he can win.

This quality is hugely important to me in business: to keep believing in yourself and strive to be the best you can be. To have that focus and determination is something I admire and remember whenever I seek inspiration to keep driving forward and believing in myself.

Finally, can you share your passions outside of work?

I enjoy relaxing and having fun with my family and friends. I'm a huge movie buff and could wax lyrical for hours on end about anything film related. I also have a keen interest in history. I've recently joined the National Trust, so I'm enjoying spending weekends visiting the many beautiful locations the UK offers.