Virgin has prepared an executive team to take over at Northern Rock, including a finance director, should it win the auction for the troubled bank.

News of the preparations were released to the market yesterday but Virgin held back from naming who prospective executives are.

Current rock FD Dave Jones only joined the board in February of last year and succeeded Bob Bennett, a veteran at the bank who has recently made public his critical views of the bank's management since his departure.

If the bank were nationalised it has been reported that Ann Godbehere, currently FD at Swiss Re, would become the bank's new FD.

The Virgin bid is being led by Virgin Money CEO Jayne-Anne Gadhia, a chartered accountant and former Ernst & Young trainee who has also worked at RBS.

A statement from Virgin yesterday said: 'An experienced executive management team has been assembled, including Sir Brian Pitman as Executive Chairman and Jayne-Anne Gadhia as CEO. New and experienced candidates for Finance Director, Treasury Director and Risk Director have also agreed to join the Company if the Consortium’s proposal proceeds.'