Archives: Ambassadors

Robert studied Economics and Business Administration in Stockholm and London respectively, followed by Finance and Investments Management at LBS and Clinical Psychology at ICP. More recently, Robert completed his PHD on Integral Development with Trans4M, Geneva which thesis led to the synthesis of his recent book entitled Integral Impact Investments, published in 2020.

With deep experience and expertise in finance and investments, he has been MD of Structured Products, UBS, Head of Market Sales and Credit Officer, Europe at Citigroup and Head of High Yield Sales & Research, Europe at BNPParibas. Subsequently he was made Global Head of the Client Solutions Group at Fortis Bank (now BNPParibasFortis) and member of EXCO where he also worked extensively on Organisational culture and business development and later with external bodies such as the FSA on culture impact within the finance industry.

Following this he worked as a Psychotherapist within the NHS and in private practice. He more recently was the Chief Credit Officer for the FinTech firm Assetz Capital and Head of Impact and Strategy at Lintel Capital where he helped to design a full spectrum Impact Investment strategy. He has always looked to engage with people and organisations of high integrity and who have the intention to develop and grow their firms and themselves in the process through a transformational journey.

Among others, he is a member of the International Bankers Association, (WCIB), the Society for Organisational Learning, (SoL), Institute of Business Ethics,(Ibe), the Chartered Institute of Credit Managers, (CICM), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, (RSA).

Joss is a Director of WBCSD’s Redefining Value programme, dedicated to the development of initiatives and tools to align finance, business and true sustainability.

Joss is also a founding partner at Terrafiniti LLP, a pioneering sustainability and systems consultancy and leads their innovation initiative, Towards 9 Billion.

Joss Tantram is an expert in sustainable strategy, reporting and management, with 26 years’ experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors in the UK, Europe and world-wide.

Joss is the author of a wide range of practical guidance for sustainability professionals as well as the Towards 9 Billion book series – presenting big, playful, hopeful ideas for a sustainable, equitable future. Available from Amazon.

www.terrafiniti.com

Mark has worked in the Financial Services Sector for over 30 years.

Having worked for various Insurance companies and Fund Managers, he decided to form his own IFA brokerage in several locations across the UK. In 2000 he decided to scale down his operation which culminated in MBO’s for his advisers and then moved to work in the private client sector.

As well as running his own successful brokerage, Mark also has excellent experience of working with the expat community as he set up and ran a successful brokerage in Portugal as well as running his UK business interests . In 2012, he was recruited into major Financial Advisory group as a Business Development Consultant and was quickly promoted to Business Development Director. Six months later he was promoted to Managing Director. In 2017 he left to join Tavistock Investments PLC as Group Business Development Director.

Mark is a member of several Advisory and Steering groups within the Financial Services Sector and is a keen advocate of Transparency and Fairness.

Flora Coleman joined TransferWise – one of the fairest, easiest and most transparent ways to manage money across borders – as global Head of Government Relations in early 2016. This followed a decade of senior political advisory work, including nearly three years as a Special Adviser to the Leader and Chief Whip in the UK Upper House.

Flora has worked most policy areas but has a particular specialism in European politics and financial services. She played a key role in delivering the Cross-Border payments regulation, pushing for global transparency and to secure a law in the EU which means that from Q2 2020 the 500 million people in the EU will know what it costs to make an international payment. This law will lead to an addition €4bn in the European economy from day one.

In 2019 she was awarded as a stand out top 5 policymaker and regulatory expert in fintech by Innovate Finance, as well as the 4th most influential woman in UK public affairs. Flora advises start ups on political relations and is on the Steering Board of Coadec – the policy voice of start ups.

In her spare time she is the National Deputy Chair of the Tory Reform Group – an independent group which brings together members and friends of the Conservative Party to promote the values of One Nation Conservatism. She is an advocate for diversity in business and technology companies, and speaks passionately about the power of mentoring.

Mark is a Managing Director within Duff & Phelps’ Regulatory Consulting practice, specialising in risk management, control, governance and accountability within the financial services sector.

He has over 20 years of experience working in the financial services industry, in professional services and regulation.
Mark has advised financial services firms on regulatory matters since 2013, prior to which he was a Senior Risk Specialist at the PRA and FSA, working within the Risk Specialists Division. During his time as a regulator, Mark reviewed the control infrastructure at several leading international insurers and banking groups. Before joining the FSA, Mark had a career within investment banking for over eight years and spent six years as an entrepreneur in the retail sector.

Mark has become one of the UK industry’s leading advisors on individual accountability and the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), having advised some of the largest banks, insurers, brokers and other financial services firms on both implementation and the ongoing expectations of Senior Managers and individuals subject to the Certification Regime.

Advising a number of major financial banking institutions on SMCR implementation, including leading the implementation working with the Compliance function at one of the UK’s largest banks.

Advising one of the UK’s largest insurers on their compliance with the requirements of the Senior Insurance Managers Regime
(SIMR), including a review of Statements of Responsibilities and the Governance Map.

Designing a risk management framework, policy framework, governance arrangements, Compliance structure, three lines of defence model and policy and process implementation at a large financial services firm.

Leading a review of front to back controls at a European investment bank, following accounting irregularities and regulatory challenge. Recommending control improvements, and advising management of regulatory expectations and industry best practice.

Reviewing the governance, risk, compliance and control arrangements at a major general insurer, providing a report with findings and recommendations for improvements.

As a regulator, following a high profile rogue trading incident, reviewing the control infrastructure at a large European investment bank, advising the Supervision team on remediation actions; supported the FSA enforcement team in formal enforcement interviews with senior management.

Qualifications:

Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA)

BSc (Hons), First Class, Mathematics, Imperial College

Romi is Chief Executive Officer of PensionBee, the leading online pension manager she founded to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a harrowing pension transfer experience of her own.

Romi began her career at Goldman Sachs at the height of the 2007 global financial crisis in the Credit Risk Management and Advisory Division, working in New York and London. In 2012 she joined Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division to advise major banks, insurance companies and pension providers.

In 2014 Romi followed her entrepreneurial spirit to become employee number four and Head of Corporate Development at Credit Benchmark, which has subsequently grown to be one of the world’s most successful B2B data start-ups. Fascinated by the emerging world of financial technology, Romi incorporated PensionBee shortly thereafter.

Romi received an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker scholar and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University.

In 2017, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year at computing.co.uk’s Women in IT Excellence awards.

John Howard joined the BBC as one of the leading voices on Radio 4. He presented documentaries, phone-ins and discussion programmes, winning several awards. He became best known as the consumer’s champion on the daily magazine programme ‘You and Yours’, which he presented for 14 years.

In 1997 he was invited to join the Mortgage Code Compliance Board as an independent director. He subsequently became a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, which he chaired for 3 years until 2008.

Between 2006 and 2008 he was a member of the Market Participants Group of CESR, the European committee of securities regulators, and he also joined the Treasury’s Retail Financial Services Group. On stepping down from the Consumer Panel, he joined the Board of the Financial Ombudsman Service and also became a Non Executive Director of the energy Regulator, Ofgem.

In 2010 he was appointed as an Independent Commissioner by the Treasury for the Equitable Life Payments Commission.  He served on the With Profits Committee and the Independent Governance Committee of Scottish Widows. He was a Trustee of the Thalidomide Trust. He is currently Vice Chair and Senior Independent Director of the Family Building Society and a Non Executive Director of the Banking Competition Remedies Company.  He is Chief Executive of the company he founded, Consumer Insights, which provides advice on principles based regulation and fairness in the financial, energy and water sectors.

Peter Uhlenbruch currently leads investor engagement within ShareAction for the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP), which publicly assesses and ranks how the world’s largest institutional investors are strategically responding to climate change.

He is also the lead author of the ‘Winning Climate Strategies’ research report, which comprehensively reviews the leading climate strategies of 22 global asset owners including common features, barriers faced and practical advice for other asset owners.

He has a background in teaching business ethics at a range of Australian universities (including Monash University and RMIT) as well as industry experience in corporate governance research (at Ownership Matters), ESG ratings research (MSCI) and climate governance research (CDP).

Sital has 15 years of investment experience across a broad range of disciplines including ESG and Climate Change Specialist, Chair of Global Thought Leadership Forum, institutional DB and DC business development, building strong investment consultant / client relationships as well as researching fund managers and monitoring their ongoing performance via due diligence.

Sital is responsible for publications, research and thought leadership, trustee training and advising institutional clients on how to genuinely integrate ESG into their overall investment strategy and underlying portfolios.

She speaks at conferences, sits on discussion panels and drives regulation forward through government consultation and draft reviews of new legislation.

In March 2019, she was appointed Steering Group Member to provide technical expertise on the BSI’s Sustainability Investment Management Standards Project to develop PAS 7341.

Sital is an advocate of enhanced transparency of both physical and transition risks associated with climate change. Her ambition is to encourage a collaborative standardised approach leveraging the existing TCFD framework, Cambridge Impact Framework, ClimateWise Physical and Transition Risk Frameworks and SASB’s model from the stock level upwards.

Transparency Task Force Ambassador (February 2019)

Member of the Sustainable Finance Network.