Archives: Ambassadors

I’m an investigative journalist with 10 years working in the media and – sometimes – in education; I write widely for locals, nationals and online publishers, and have stories in the Sunday Times, Times, Byline Times, Mirror, Computer Weekly and DeSmog. Subjects I’ve researched span governmental transparency, social justice, environmental sustainability, crime, climate risk, the impact of disinformation and organised crime. I adhere to the NUJ Code in all my work, including protecting the identity of confidential sources: https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/

In recent years observing complex cases in the High Court, I noted the kafkaesque impact of abuse of process by acknowledged ‘bad actors’ (lawyers who were later struck off, con-artists, and the like), against a backdrop of heavy justice sector cuts. The hardship this imposed on their – relatively powerless – victims was a stark reality that was drawn to my passing attention and kept repeating itself. I could not help but observe the extremely heavy toll on victims of white collar crime within that system. That interest drew me to Transparency Task Force’s engaging symposia, impressed by their anti-scam work. When Andy Agathangelou then asked me if I would like to do some investigations with TTF I said yes. I serve here as Head of Media Outreach and Investigative Journalism – voluntarily. It is a delight to collaborate with a group of public-spirited people advocating for consumers’ interests. If you have a tip or untold ‘story’ that TTF should research, on transparency, hidden truths, financial stability and improving financial services for consumers, please do feel free to reach out to me.

Andy has worked in financial services for 40 years, initially trading credit, over the last 20 years he has been innovative in the use of collaborative techniques to build high performing teams in the context of rapid change.  By building capability and capacity in the teams he has worked with, he has enabled enduring change.

Toby is an Organisational Change expert and Agile Coach who works with leadership to implement Organisational Change using Agile methods through his company StoryPositive. His work focuses on organisational redesign and helping companies remove bottlenecks to achieve Flow.

He is an accredited Executive Coach, holds a Postgraduate Diploma from Saïd Business School in Organisational Leadership, and is an Affiliate Member of the British Psychological Society.

Toby has worked with leadership in Investment Banks, Exchanges, Insurance, and Fintech firms. He is especially interested in helping firms achieve profit and lower costs through proven Agile tools and with high standards of leadership and decency.

Toby is also the host of the Wicked Problems podcast, a look at the world’s seemingly intractable problems and the work of those trying to solve them, which is available on all good podcast players as well as at www.wickedproblems.fm

Rebecca is the Founder and Managing Director of Seawolf Sustainability Consulting and a Senior Sustainable Finance Advisor. The consulting company supports management teams in small and medium size businesses, aiming to help them move toward a more sustainable business model.  Rebecca has been a sustainability consultant to the financial industry, accountants and the C-Suite for over two years.

Formerly Rebecca was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Sustainable Finance at HSBC Holdings plc. In this role Rebecca was responsible for the group-wide financials relating to Sustainable Finance products.  In addition, Rebecca was responsible for HSBC’s external ESG reporting and investor relations activity – including TCFD and corporate reporting on the SDGs.  Rebecca was the Chair of the European Banking Federation industry SDG working group and a member of other advisory groups to progress sustainability reporting. E.g. Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, World Economic Forum, etc.

Rebecca has approximately 20 years of financial industry experience, including leading HSBC’s response to the Enhanced Disclosure Task Force to aid greater transparency in banks’ disclosures immediately after the financial crisis.  Rebecca is a Chartered Global Management Accountant and obtained a BSc in Economics and Politics from the University of Southampton, where she now has the role of Deputy Chair and Trustee for the Student Union.  In 2020 she completed a Masters at the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership.

Simon Males is Head of Sales & Marketing at Emerging Markets Investment Management Limited, part of the Duet Group.  He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Carrick Roads Capital Limited, a consulting and investor relations business. Over the past 30 years, he has held leadership roles in senior institutional business management, distribution, client and marketing positions at: Muzinich, Legal & General Investment Management, PGIM, Pictet Asset Management and F&C Asset Management (now BMO).

He joined the North London Hospice, a charity which helps those with life-limiting illnesses with specialist needs, as a Trustee and Board Director in early 2020, and is a member of the board’s Finance Committee.  He is also an Advisory Council member of AIMSE Europe, a not-for-profit organisation representing the institutional asset management industry, since 2013.

He has also served as a Trustee of a £130m UK DB pension plan, with fiduciary responsibility for the long-term pension commitments to members and their dependents.

Simon received an MBA with Distinction from London Metropolitan University in 2005. He holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) from the CFA Society of the UK.

Alan has been involved in the retail financial services sector ever since the bribe of a white XR3i company car tempted him away from his chosen profession as a Cartographic Engineer. After two decades managing and building distribution across the UK, Europe and a small time in the US, he crossed over into the advice world in 2006.

Since then he has held numerous senior positions, including being the founder of a planning and investment management firm, with a constant focus on ensuring that the drive towards improved consumer outcomes is always forefront.

He believes that there is a symbiotic relationship between price, transparency, simplicity and efficiency and a better served consumer. And those firms that embrace and adopt these key tenets will also benefit from improved financial performance.

Shareholder success should come from doing things better, not at the expense of the customer.’