‘Where you come from shouldn’t dictate where you finish’: How Standard Chartered is taking on the banking industry’s class problem
Source: Fortune ·
Finance chief Darren Ellis is pushing socio-economic mobility up the agenda at Standard Chartered and, in doing so, is making the bank a more supportive and inclusive place to work.
From the source
Darren Ellis and his older brother were the first in their family to go to university. It didn’t take him long to notice that many of his classmates came from very different backgrounds. “If it wasn’t for the fact I played sport at a high level, I’m not sure I would have had the confidence to interact with the people on my course,” says Ellis, now Standard Chartered’s chief financial officer for Europe, Americas, Africa and Middle East. “Other people won’t have that.” His mum worked in a school kitchen, his dad in a factory. He understood the value of money from an early age. “If I broke something, it did not get replaced,” he says. It left him with a firm belief in effort. “Hard work is the bedrock of everything that we do. People who work hard should be given the opportunity,” he adds. Standard Chartered ranks 84th on Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for — Europe 2026 list. Since taking over as U.K. chair of its socio-economic mobility working group in January 2026, Ellis has…