Archives: Ambassadors

Piotr has a combination of academic and business experience.  He specializes in corporate finance, valuation and alternative investments – having taught and worked in England, USA, Scandinavia and Poland. He is passionate about economics and finance, has a Ph. D. in Financial Economics and an MBA from London Business School.

His research interests include alternative investments, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, game theory, behavioral & Islamic finance and social media (value drivers and valuation approaches). Piotr is a stakeholder of All-Party-Parliamentary-Group on Islamic Finance.

Piotr is a Senior Lecturer at Hertfordshire Business School. He worked in senior roles in several international firms: Lazard Freres, Deutsche Bank, Intercontinental Hotels and Metsa Tissue Oyj.

Greg is a specialist in applied behavioural finance, decision science, social impact investing, and financial wellbeing.

He started the banking world’s first behavioural finance team at Barclays in 2006, which he led for a decade.

In 2017 he joined Oxford Risk to lead the development of behavioural decision support software to help people make the best possible financial decisions.

Greg holds a PhD in Behavioural Decision Theory from Cambridge; has held academic affiliations at UCL, Imperial College, and Oxford; and is author of Behavioral Investment Management.

Greg is Chair of Sound and Music, the UK’s national charity for new music, and the creator of Open Outcry, a ‘reality opera’ premiered in London in 2012, creating live performance from a functioning trading floor.

A senior securities operations manager, consultant and advisor, with over 35 years of investment banking experience. In the last 13 years specifically, James has worked closely with operations management at many top-tier (and other) organisations, helping them review and improve operating procedures and client management processes. These detailed insights have given him a unique perspective and overview of operational best practice with a keen focus on costs, operating models, location strategy, operational risk and efficiency.

James was an Associate Partner at McLagan until March 2017, in the Performance & Infrastructure team, having previously lead the Z/Yen team. McLagan acquired Z/Yen in 2007 and is a leading provider of market intelligence to the financial services industry. Client support was based on extensive experience in post-execution trade processing, operational efficiency, costs management, client management, client on-boarding and performance.

James joined Z/Yen in March 2003, within the financial services practice. His background prior to this was 20 years in Investment Banking, notably at Morgan Stanley, where he was an Executive Director. James served much of his tenure at Morgan Stanley as Head of EMEA Network Management, establishing and maintaining relationships with the Firm’s Agent Bank Network for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.

James had worked within Operations at Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking (and earlier Global Custody) businesses, with particular focus on Equities and Fixed Income products and played a key role in working with Morgan Stanley’s Agent banks to ensure a successful transition through conversion to the Euro and Y2K.

Prior to Morgan Stanley, James had worked in Operations at James Capel and W. Greenwell stockbrokers (now both part of the HSBC world) and Nikko Securities — where he played a role in developing the back office following their ‘Big-Bang’ membership of the UK Stock Exchange.

Bella has 20 years’ experience in the research and analysis of the UK, European and Asian fund management industries. In 2010, she established Fundscape, a research house specialising in the end-to-end analysis of the UK fund industry. Fundscape is the publisher of the Platform Report, widely regarded as the platform industry’s official data source.

Bella is keen to promote transparency and information for all stakeholders, but especially end-consumers. She is the architect of the Gatekeepers database which assesses the quality of professional fund selection in the UK and also launched https://comparetheplatform.com/ to help consumers find the right investment platform for their needs.

Prior to setting up Fundscape in 2010, she worked for Lipper as Global Head of Research and Publications and was the author of numerous publications and reports including the popular European and Asian Data Digests, the Fund Market Profile report series and the UK Platform guide. Early in her career Bella worked in investment banking and then a London-based consulting firm where she specialised in market entry strategies for retail and institutional asset managers.

Bella has a master’s degree in International Business and is fluent in four languages. She is married with two grown-up children, fussy about grammar and punctuation, loves literature, the theatre, disco dancing and pub quizzes.

Ged has more than 25 years of diverse business experience with one common denominator: the intersection of finance, technology and law. This is the driving force behind Auden’s business model.

He has held senior positions in consumer finance, a tech-VC, private equity and the legal profession.

Brandon is a Trustee of the Responsible Finance Institute Foundation a Non-executive director of Lintel Financial Services Limited and of Obillex Limited and an advisor to Rosette Limited a Shariah merchant bank.

Brandon is an advisory council member of the Institute of International Monetary Research and is a member of the Financial Markets Group at the London School of Economics.

He currently lectures at Buckingham University on their Masters in Money, Banking and Central Banking degree course.

Brandon retired from Barclays Bank  in 2004 where he was Treasurer of retail and corporate banking and a member of the banks Executive Committee. Prior to this appointment he was Head of Structured Products at Barclays Capital

Julie Lord is a Chartered and Certified Financial Planner at Magenta – a specialist Financial Planning company that helps its clients pursue their passions and build plans for future security and happiness.

She was an Institute of Financial Planning Board member for 15 years and is a former President.  She has been a member of the FSA Training Advisory Panel; Chairman of the IFP Education Committee and member of the ISO working party and is keen to ensure that all professional advisers are well qualified to deliver the best possible advice to the public. She is currently a member of the PFS Planning Practioner Panel.

As well as being a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments, and a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, Julie has won numerous Financial Planning awards and is a regular writer and presenter of financial issues in the trade and public press.

She is very passionate about providing the best quality advice to clients and ensuring that Financial Planning businesses are embracing the best possible practices in order to deliver this effectively and profitably.

Sue Flood has worked in the Television Industry since 2001, starting out at Television Centre and progressing through a successful TV programme-making career that included various roles such as Researcher for Top of the Pops, Celebrity Guest Liaison, Location Sourcing, Production Budget, Sales and Promotions (including through BBC Worldwide with responsibility for selling all BBC Programmes to all 130 Global TV Stations Worldwide).

Her roles at the BBC meant she worked with a wide range of household name VIP celebrities including Muhammed Ali, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Terry Wogan, Chevy Chase, Joan Collins, David Bowie, Cher, Bob Monkhouse, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Tom Jones, Debbie Harry, Donna Summer, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Van Morrison, Seal, Bryan Adams, Bette Midler, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, Cliff Richard, Paul Weller, Bruce Springsteen, Jamiroquai, Robbie Williams, The Spice Girls, Rowan Atkinson, Kate Bush, Joanna Lumley, Queen, Elton John, UB40, The Who, Rod Stewart, various Presidents of the United States of America and many, many more.

Sue has also had senior roles at BUT Music Group, and her volunteer roles have included raising awareness for disabled models for inclusion in the Fashion, Industry and raising awareness for retired Polo Ponies with CEO Sarah Coleman.

More recently, Sue flood has become a key figure in helping to prevent people falling victim to pension fraudsters, having become a victim herself. Sue lost here entire pension fund; along with over 500 other victims of the Ark Pension Scandal. Her response was to set up a campaign group which she has tirelessly supported ever since. She is now also involved in supporting numerous other pension scam victims and pension scam support groups.

She has unique insight and experience in the pensions scam prevention and support space and her relentless campaigning has led to interaction with the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Financial Conduct Authority – watch this space.

Adrian graduated in electronic engineering in 1984 but soon moved to work for James Capel & Co in the City in its IT function. In 1987 Adrian joined James Capel’s (later HSBC’s) Quantitative Techniques business in Edinburgh, specialising in index fund advisory services, indices and market data.

During the 1990s, Adrian was responsible for creating and maintaining index investments worth over £10bn, including some major pension fund clients and collective funds such as those administered by HSBC Asset Management.

Adrian also developed indices for smaller companies and in what became the smart beta sector, such as fundamentally weighted indices and low volatility indices. When the business transferred to Euromoney Institutional Investor plc in 2013, Adrian led the R&D function and promoted the Indices business at conferences and meetings globally.

After Euromoney pulled out of the Indices business in 2018, Adrian, already a qualified counsellor, has been spending time in private practice. He also chairs the investment function at the Scottish Episcopal Church and takes a special interest in responsible investing, and where he is working on a consultancy proposition.

Adrian runs the moneyquestioner.co.uk blog.