Dubbed “the leading [U.S.] national watchdog of state and local economic development subsidies,” and “an encyclopedia of information regarding subsidies,” Greg founded and directs Good Jobs First, a research and policy center promoting accountability in economic development. His two books include The Great American Jobs Scam, which Publishers Weekly called ““…a parade of damning case studies showing why communities should not woo corporations with subsidies.” GJF is home to Subsidy Tracker, Tax Break Tracker and Violation Tracker. Violation Tracker captures 20 years of federal and state regulatory penalties; it reveals the U.S. financial services sector to be by far the nation’s most heavily-penalized corporate sector. GJF led the campaign for Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 77 on Tax Abatement Disclosures, a landmark in U.S. municipal finance. It requires all states and most local governments (cities, counties and school districts) to finally disclose how much revenue they lose to corporate tax breaks. It remains the only form of tax expenditure ever codified by GASB.
David Piesse
Global Insurance Evangelist and advisory board of Guardtime a leading cybersecurity company and blockchain provider specializing in cryptography for data integrity. Their keyless signature infrastructure (KSI) is utilized across the defence industry and into the supply chain, insurance, healthcare and manufacturing verticals. They have an underlying application for data privacy laws such as GDPR. In May 2018 EY, Guardtime and Maersk with members of the insurance industry launched InsurWave the first global commercial insurance blockchain backed platform to enter production commencing with marine insurance.
Advisory board of Ultimate Risk Solutions and previous Asia Pacific Lead assisting URS introduce Risk Explorer into emerging market and inter operate with new innovations such as InsurWave.
Chairman of the International Insurance Society Ambassadors (IIS) he assists the management introduce new programs to extend membership and introduce localized content.
He has held numerous positions in a 40 year career including Global Insurance Lead for SUN Microsystems, Asia Pacific Chairman for Unirisx, United Nations Risk Management Consultant, Canadian government roles and staring career in Lloyds of London and associated market.
He is currently involved in numerous startups for exponential technologies for blockchain and AI across multiple vertical industries.
He is an Asia Pacific specialist having lived in Asia 30 years with educational background at the British Computer Society and the Chartered Insurance Institute. On July 2017 he received the Kenneth Black Jr Distinguished Service Award from the International Insurance Society.
David Laity
- 1st job laboratory technical in a photographic processing laboratory.
- 2nd job South Crofty Mine; mining laboratory analytical scientist
- Formal career; Medical Laboratory Scientific Officer, Penzance Hospital Pathology Laboratory.
- Over 4 years gained ONC and HND, Medical Laboratory Science.
November 1979 joined Devon and Cornwall Police; experience in many departments over the next 24 years;
- Nominated Probationer of year 1981
- Emergency response, community officer, Acting Sergeant 3 years
- Trained in General Police Duties, statement taking, self-defence, driving incident & interceptor vehicles; specialist 4×4 off road/adverse conditions.
- Advanced Driving Courses, Devises Police Driving School; awarded top police driver of year, highest final marks:
- Appointed Youngest to be made CID officer in Devon and Cornwall Police
- Served as CID detective Hayle, Camborne, Redruth, St Ives & Penzance, Newquay, Helston working major cases with Drug Squads, Regional Crime Squads, Special Branch & Surveillance Teams setting up covert video and audio operations.
- As an appointed Police Tutor, he trained numerous new recruits who spent 6 months under his supervision before he certified them as suitable officers.
- For 5 consecutive years David acted as an ambassador for the British Police spending a week at a time in France in Police uniform at national events to promote international tourism and cooperation.
- Currently in final semester of third year of BA Hons Degree in Television (Specialising as Director, producer, cinematographer, documentarist)
During his time in these various employments, David learnt to deal with new situations requiring quick decisions and responses, often under stressful conditions. He learned to cope with very heavy workloads with multiple simultaneous jobs all usually heavily reliant upon him finding an adequate solution within a short time frame and which satisfied various peoples’ needs.
David’s latest venture since 2015 was to develop 4 luxury properties which, due to criminal fraud by Lloyds bank employees attempting to defraud him of his assets for their financial gain, he now finds himself embroiled in numerous litigation suits and member of victim groups assisting similar victims.
Peter Hanlon
Peter holds a BSc (Econ) Honours from the London School of Economics, a Chartered Accountant designation from the Institute in England and Wales, Membership of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
He is the founder Chairman of the UK Asset and Liability Management Association, the pre-eminent practitioner body in the UK, with other roles including; Assistant Chief Accountant at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Assistant Director, Strategy and Risk at HSBC, Deputy Treasurer, Group Treasury Services at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Group Treasurer at Woolwich Plc, a FTSE 100 bank, through floatation, MD Balance Sheet Management at Barclays and GM Non-Traded Market Risk at National Australia Bank.
Roles as Risk Director in France and Italy, and on Pension Funds and Investment Committees, complemented by extensive engagement with Boards, facilitated an informed executive presence and credibility in promoting trust and confidence and best practice risk governance and aligned standards and behaviours.
Peter has served on Prudential Working parties at the Bank of England and the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, presented at conferences on governance, risk and performance and co-authored articles for the media.
He currently divides his time, between providing advisory services to Superfund’s, Banks, Mutual Banks and advocacy bodies on board strategy and direction, corporate governance and compliance, risk and performance management and an Honorary Treasurer and CFO role at a large not for profit organisation.
A recognition that confidence is the oxygen of the financial services industry, with ongoing breaches of trust and failures of culture severely impairing trust and putting the financial system in jeopardy, have focused attention on an innovative solution to evidence trustworthiness and the conduct of business activities aligned with professed corporate values and behaviours.
Richard Emery
Richard Emery’s background is in Retail and Payment Systems, having worked for John Lewis Partnership and ICL Retail Systems. He has run his own consultancy since 1990, working extensively in dispute resolution, primarily as an Expert Witness, for over 25 years. His current focus is assisting individuals who have been the victims of bank fraud, helping them to manage their dispute with their bank and take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and/or the courts.
He worked with FOS on the re-definition of Gross Negligence and he gave oral evidence to the Treasury Select Committee’s enquiry into Economic Crime: Consumer view. His passion is to see a substantial reduction in the losses suffered by individual victims, and he sees this coming about through greater investment in catching and convicting the criminals, through the development of new systems and process by the banks, and through a programme of effective consumer education.
Mark Ormston
Mark has worked in the pension income space for many years, it is an industry which he completely adores. His passion for helping consumers get the very best out of their pension savings whatever the pension income vehicle is being used is widely known, he frequently promotes best practice through his speaking, presentations and articles.
The company he works for Retirement Line, has helped facilitate £160million+ pension saving transfers into retirement income products every year and the firm has a 5 out 5 star rating on customer review site Trustpilot.
He worries that financial sector is in danger (at times) of losing sight of the end consumer and that financial services is for everyone, from the young to the old and everyone in between and as a result it must be honest, simple and transparent enough for everyone to use and understand.
Mark is extremely proud to be a TTF Ambassador and believes that the TTF has the consumer in mind with everything it does and as a group it has the power to change the financial world for the better.
Antonio Potenza
Antonio is a graduate from University of Oxford, Said Business School MBA with main Focus on Social Impact, Impact Investments and Social Finance. Executive Education from University of Cambridge, Institute for Sustainability leadership, with a degree in High Impact Leadership.
He is a specialist in social and financial inclusion, building multi-asset strategies, debt/equity/blended finance and Impact Bonds across Europe, Latin America and South East Asia. He advises governments in social projects that build on the UN SDG’s in clean energy, education, social and financial inclusion initiatives in Sub Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia.
Antonio is committed to helping organizations deploy capital and innovative finance products in emerging markets that drive social change and fight social injustice and poverty.
Specialties: Investment banking, strategy, leadership, project execution, social impact, impact investments, blockchain/digital economy , interim management
Open to NED Roles in Financial Sector or Renewable Energy Sector
James Wellwood
James currently runs the International Strategy & Development for the Sturdza Family Investment business. Prior to this he was Head of Institutional Distribution at Kairos Investment Management Ltd and part of the Global Distribution team at Cheyne Capital before that.
Prior to a career in finance James was a professional rugby player for London Wasps, representing the Premiership club in the First team and also gaining caps for England at U21 level.
James studied Political Science at Cambridge University where he gained two blues in rugby and also fought against Oxford University as the Cambridge University Heavyweight at the 2009 Varsity Match in Oxford.
Frances Gordon
For the past 20 years, Frances has championed the belief that transparency is key to building trust. During this time, she has worked with major financial services brands to make financial and legal information more understandable, usable and useful.
Frances is the co-founder of a consultancy and training company called Simplified. Simplified has helped large organisations around the world to implement the plain-language requirements of Treating Customers Fairly regulations and consumer rights laws. The Simplified training course has helped over 8,000 professionals, including many legal practitioners, to write in plain language. Aside from the UK, Frances enjoys engagements in emerging markets such as Croatia, South Africa and Nigeria.
Her career has included tenures as Head of Content Strategy at Siegel & Gale, Senior Content Strategist (VP) at Barclaycard, and Head of Brand and Content at fintech, Oradian. Frances sat on the board of international plain language organisation, PLAIN (Plain Language Association InterNational). She was part of the advisory committee of IC Clear, an EU-funded initiative that developed a post-graduate course in clear communication.
Zak Allom
Zak is Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder of BetaSmartz, a B2B digital investment platform that equips financial institutions with compliance driven digital and automation tools that enhance and promote efficiency and transparency in client and money management.
Zak, a former equities trader, was previously Managing Director of Hong Kong and Global Head of Asset & Wealth Management at Tardis Group, and prior to that, Managing Director of Asia and Global Head of Asset Management at Kinsey Allen International. He has also worked at Barclays Capital and RHB Securities and was a Founding Partner and Board Director of Boka Investment Group.
