Archives: Ambassadors

Nigel is a HMRC former Retail Banking Specialist. His role was to investigate banking egregious tax avoidance schemes and other bank criminal activity. There is a great deal.

FCIB, Qualified ACIB, FCBI,  Chartered Banker, MBA Banking, , and Awarding Body Board Member of Retail Banking Academy International and Examiner.

Since Nigel retired he is working as an independent Retail Banking Specialist and with the Police. He also meets in the House of Commons and Lords to promote his solution to the failed corporate governance in most banks. He has been in banking since 1971 and has witnessed the good, bad and plain ugly in banking.

Nigel has worked alongside Andrew Bailey, PCBS in 2012 where he gave evidence, and HMT.  His papers delivered to MPs have gained traction.

Nigel has recommended that a Controller for Banking and Professional Complaints Regulator are set up, with him leading. He has a lot of knowledge and hands of practical expertise about banking, regulation, corporate governance and lending and risk management.

He has spoken to APPG Fair Banking Committee and SME Alliance meetings and acted as an Expert Witness in the High Court for victims of Lloyds Banking Group.

FCIB, Qualified ACIB, FCBI,  Chartered Banker, MBA Banking, , and Awarding Body Board Member of Retail Banking Academy International and Examiner.

Roy Zimmerhansl is Practice Lead at Pierpoint Financial Consulting, a boutique securities finance consultancy.  Roy is a recognised expert with many decades’ experience in securities finance and collateral management with a strong custody and clearing background.

​One of Pierpoint’s key goals is to provide insights that result in improved transparency for investors, trustees and other key stakeholders.  Roy has taught public and in-house training sessions in 15 cities around the world and brought his robust approach to the conferences he has chaired, moderated or been a panellist at, for over two decades.

​He has been vice-chair of the International Securities Lending Association, a director of the Pan Asia Securities Lending Association, a member of the Bank of England’s Securities Lending and Repo Committee and has acted as expert witness in securities finance legal cases in both the USA and UK.

Over 20 years experience in the asset management industry from: Investment Management and Risk Oversight; Financial Advice; Risk Management and Operational Policies and Procedures and Product Governance.  More latterly helping firms with their Governance Frameworks.

Matthew’s early career, after Gartmore, was spent as a wealth manager, at Barclays Wealth, UBS and HSBC Global Asset Management.  He started his oversight career, when he was asked at HSBC to set up and run a portfolio management team responsible for £2.4bn FUM.  This he did for five years before moving to head office to spend two years on a FCA Section 166 to give the business better oversight and controls over its investment management, financial advice and financial products.

From working through a number of regulatory issues with consultants and the FCA he realised that oversight and controls were becoming a key tenant that the FCA wanted to see firms spend a lot more time on and get right.  He understands how the FCA wants to see firms identify Conduct Risks from such sources as management information for senior boards to review.  Due to Matthew’s practitioner experience, he is adapt at giving senior management the necessary oversight, MI and controls that they need to prove the business is being controlled and all risks, especially customer risks, are being identified and monitored.

From that experience he become head of an Investment Management Oversight team at an Authorised Corporate Director, FundRock Partners, where he worked directly with asset managers, depositaries and the FCA.  His firm took on the regulatory risks of various asset managers running and selling various multi-asset class propositions.  It was therefore imperative that he could prove that his firm had the right level of oversight and that good customer outcomes were being achieved (he worked closely with the FCA).  Where these were not being achieved, as ACD his firm owned the product and so Matthew was tasked with working with the asset management firms to improve any area identified as a potential concern.

Matthew’s core areas of understanding and therefore ability to advise on: Investment processes for multi-asset class propositions, Volatility bands and Stochastic modelling.  Monitoring and Due Diligence Oversight in terms of Operational Controls and Procedures to incorporate Regulations, Risk Controls, Governance and Investment Management to deliver compliant and value for money investment services and products.

Matthew is a great believer in the finance industry producing good customer outcomes, which comes from offering appropriate oversight and protection for financial consumers, he set up his own company called Governance Connect.  His firm helps financial companies with their overall Governance Frameworks, Systems and Controls.  As a result he is passionate about the industry being transparent and so has become an ambassador for  the Transparency Task Force.

Jonathan Gain is the CEO of Stellar Asset Management, a tax efficient investment manager. He has been at the forefront of tax-efficient investment in the UK since the early 1990s, when he joined Close Brothers. Close became market leaders in the creation and promotion of tax planning products designed for investors seeking income and capital gains tax relief.

In 2007, he formed Stellar Asset Management where he has continued to develop innovative and robust services that are underpinned by long-standing government legislation, with particular emphasis on the mitigation of inheritance tax.

Jonathan lives in Kent with his wife and three children and supports Manchester United -obviously.

I want to support the work of the Transparency Task Force as I fundamentally believe that, as custodians of investors hard earned capital, we have an obligation to disclose exactly what we do, how we manage and how we charge for these services. The industry has been opaque for far too long on these matters and I was delighted to step forward when asked by Andy. Transparency is one of Stellar’s core principals and the financial services industry will become more trusted if it continues to improve its accountability. The work and energy of the members of the TTF will facilitate this and I look forward to working with them.

Tomás Carruthers initiated Project Heather as a platform to progress the social finance vision he developed whilst CEO of the Social Stock Exchange. Bringing over 25 years experience and a reputation as a pioneer in his field, Tomás draws on his previous entrepreneurial successes, including CEO of Interactive Investor.

As a recognised thought leader in the Social and Ethical finance sector, Tomás has been a prominent name on the global stage, speaking at over 80 events and was a participant and chaired one working group for the OECD Social Impact Investment Initiative. He recently won a Highly Commended award at the 3rd Scottish SME Business Awards 2019.

Tomás was educated at Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cambridge, where he also helped to start Electronic Share Information, the first website to publish share prices, in 1994. He is married and lives in Edinburgh​.