Alison Rose: The bank boss brought down by the Nigel Farage row

When Dame Alison Rose landed the apical occupation astatine NatWest she became the astir almighty pistillate successful UK banking.

In the notoriously male-dominated sector, women astatine her level are inactive incredibly rare.

Dame Alison oversaw a slope with astir 19 cardinal customers successful the UK and 60,000 employees globally - it was a large and important job.

It didn't hap by accident. Dame Alison spent immoderate decades climbing the ranks, starting retired implicit 30 years agone arsenic a trainee astatine the slope aft graduating from Durham University.

When she secured the apical occupation successful 2019 she cautiously cultivated her representation and was often heard connected the airwaves and interviewed successful print.

In interviews, she was typically cautious reciting lines which had intelligibly been prepared and astatine times she could dependable wooden.

It was portion of a media savvy strategy to beryllium disposable and open, but besides precise cautious - she ne'er enactment a measurement incorrect and ne'er said thing she wasn't expected to say.

That's wherefore the latest improvement is truthful astonishing - Dame Alison made what she admits was a "serious error" successful speaking astir Nigel Farage's narration with backstage slope Coutts owned by NatWest.

It's retired of quality and a daze misstep successful a vocation which has been remarkably flawless.

Then NatWest, past called Royal Bank of Scotland, astir collapsed successful the 2008 fiscal situation and had to rescued by a payer bailout costing billions of pounds, she was integral to re-building the slope and its reputation.

In contrast, the past main enforcement Fred Goodwin, was blamed for expanding the slope excessively rapidly and was subsequently stripped of his knighthood.

Dame Alison is 1 of the fewer elder bosses to person survived astatine the slope aft the nationalist fallout.

She has besides been lauded for her enactment to boost the fig of pistillate entrepreneurs and leaders.

It was this enactment which helped her beryllium named arsenic a Dame Commander of the British Empire by King Charles III astatine the commencement of this year.

As brag astatine NatWest, she has drawn headlines for changes, specified arsenic granting up to a twelvemonth of permission to caller fathers and ending caller loans to lipid and state companies.

And she was a relatable relation model. The 53-year-old mum-of-two told The Telegraph successful 2021 that moving NatWest during the pandemic, contempt its challenges, "was overmuch easier than managing location schooling" during lockdown.

She called the situation a "pretty traumatic period" for the industry.

"There was the acquisition of watching everything we had been moving connected change, and the unspeakable concern that RBS recovered itself in," she told the Evening Standard successful 2016. "That was a beauteous affectional and hard experience."

It's apt that this latest occurrence volition beryllium much traumatic.