Archives: Ambassadors

David is a Lead on the Market Integrity Team (MIT) of the Transparency Taskforce. He has project managed the MIT’s 18 month project on Codes of Conduct & Codes of Ethics in Financial Services which has resulted in their White Paper released in July 2018.

 

With a background in pensions & benefits David spent over twenty years with Marsh and Mercer managing the SW region of Mercer Employee Benefits, and latterly in a proposition development and project & change management role.

 

Since 2011 David has worked with leading banks, insurance companies and national IFA firms developing propositions that have focused on aspects of governance and bringing change to the delivery of financial services. Projects managed have included developing and bringing to market a new workplace pension offering for SME clients of Mercer; building a product governance framework for a leading insurance company; defining an Operational Risk Management model for a national IFA firm; developing a governance proposition for Auto Enrolment clients of Barclays Corporate & Employer Solutions; developing a DB to DC proposition for a leading IFA firm; and developing a benefit package to sit alongside Auto Enrolment.

 

David also acted as Co-Chair of the Friends of Auto Enrolment Governance Task Force, playing a large part in the drafting of their Guide to AE.

William Price is CEO of D3P Global, a company dedicated to building better pension systems globally.

 

He is an international pension expert who has worked for the World Bank – for whom he still works as a consultant – UK Treasury, UK Pension Regulator and in collaboration with the OECD and International Organization of Pension Supervisors (IOPS).

 

He co-created the Outcomes Based Assessments (OBA) and Outcomes and Risk Based Supervision (ORBS) models for pensions and has published extensively including the recent book “Saving the Next Billion from Old Age Poverty”.

 

He is also a Program Leader and Advisory Board member for Insurance and Pensions at the Toronto Centre for Global Leadership in Financial Supervision and an Ambassador for the Transparency Taskforce.

 

He gained his first degree from Oxford University and has a Masters in Economics from University College London.

James Daley has been a consumer campaigner and financial journalist for more than 18 years. Before launching Fairer Finance, he worked for the consumer group, Which?, where he campaigned for a better deal for customers of banks and insurers in the wake of the financial crisis.

 

James is frequently interviewed on national television and radio, and has regularly appeared on shows such as Watchdog, Rip-off Britain, Dispatches and Supershoppers.

 

Before working at Which?, James spent 10 years as a business and finance newspaper journalist, latterly as the The Independent’s personal finance editor and cycling columnist.

 

He lives with his wife and two children in Tooting, where he is also a local councillor.

Andrew Parry is Head of Sustainable Investing and a member of the Hermes Strategy Group. He joined the firm in 2009, initially as Chief Executive and Co-Head of Investment for Hermes Sourcecap, now Hermes European Equities, becoming Head of Equities in 2014 and taking on responsibility for developing Impact investing in August of 2016. In September of 2017 he became Head of Sustainable Investing to reflect the commitment of Hermes to building on their success in responsible investing.

 

In 2006, Andrew jointly founded Sourcecap with the aim of building a best-in-class investment boutique focused on excellence in European equity management.

 

Prior to this, Andrew established Pembroke Capital Management in 2003 and successfully launched the Magenta Fund, a global equity non-directional fund.

 

Before that, Andrew worked at Northern Trust Global Investments (Europe) Ltd as Chief Investment Officer of International Equities and was responsible for the management of global, international and regional portfolios.

 

He has also held a variety of senior investment roles, including Head of International Equities at Julius Baer Investments, Chief Investment Officer at Lazard Brothers Asset Management, and Head of UK Equities at Baring Asset Management.

 

Andrew holds an MA in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews. Andrew is Co-Chair of the UNEP Financial Initiative Positive Impact Steering Group and a member of the Investment Committee of the Trafalgar House Pension Trust.

 

He was formerly an independent investment advisor to the Investment Sub-Committee of the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and a non-equity director of Aerion Fund Managers.

Helen is CEO at Eris FX, an international payments firm based in Leeds promoting transparency, technical innovation, competition and good governance.

 

Helen holds a BA(Hons) in English Studies from Nottingham University and a Masters in Japanese Studies from Sheffield University.

 

She was previously Senior Far East Fund Manager for Family Assurance Friendly Society in Brighton and Head of Japanese Warrants Trading for Société Générale in Tokyo.

 

She has spent the last three years successfully campaigning for the removal of unfair and misleading advertising practices in the payment services sector.

Mike is consulting director, and sole-proprietor of the lang cat Isle of Wight office.

 

A driver and survivor of platform mergers, migrations and RDR he held a number of senior roles at Skandia and Old Mutual Wealth, most recently Head of Platform Marketing.

 

His favourite platform is platform 4 at Southampton.

The lang cat is a specialist platforms, pensions and investment consultancy.

 

From its Edinburgh base, the lang cat works with platforms, life companies, asset managers and large advisory firms helping them interpret regulation, develop new propositions, turn marketing strategy into action and articulate their services in such a way that people without a financial services degree have a hope of understanding them.

 

Bit by bit it aims to leave the industry just a little better than it found it.

 

The lang cat is also a strategic communications agency, offering PR and communication services to clients across retail investment, protection and fintech. The comms guys have access to the techy guys, and the techy guys are helped by the comms guys to communicate with impact. It’s a good mix.

 

Mark is a prolific writer, contributor to the trade press and international public speaker, even when people ask him not to be.

 

He doesn’t play guitar as much as he’d like and spends more time than is reasonable going to gigs aimed at people considerably younger and more tattooed than him.

Ian is currently Chief Client Officer at IG Group, a £3bn UK listed global on-line trading firm with offices in 20 countries.

 

Ian oversees a global team responsible for managing over £500m in annual client revenues. In 2016 he led the firm’s entry into the savings and investment by launching a digital wealth management platform, IG Smart Portfolios, in partnership with BlackRock. Ian is responsible for all aspects of the diversification strategy and serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He also served as Head of IG Group for the UK and Ireland.

 

Prior to joining the firm in 2015, Ian worked for Credit Agricole CIB as CEO of the Americas, based in New York, and later as UK CEO of their European Equity Franchise Cheuvreux. In parallel he headed their equity trading and distribution platforms globally. Ian was a member of the executive team leading various business launches, joint ventures and divisional turnarounds as well as launching one of Europe’s first MTF’s.

 

Ian’s other experience includes strategy and commercial roles at the London Stock Exchange, GE and various start-ups in the trading and investment space.

 

Ian serves on the advisory board of CoInvestor, an alternative asset investment company.

 

Ian received a BSc (Honours) in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Leeds and an MSc (Distinction) in Strategy and leadership from London Business School where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Exposing the need for improved corporate and financial product transparency has been at the core of Philip’s campaigning activities which has grown out of his experience as chairman and investment trustee of his family trading company’s SASS. He came to prominence gaining wide media coverage during the 2012 Shareholder Spring through critical AGM comments on excessive boardroom pay.

He demonstrated that company AGM’s could be – and should and indeed have been – converted, where appropriate, into robust challenges from ordinary retail shareholders – the more so when institutional shareholders generally prefer to stay away from such meetings.

He applied the same relentless approach in pursuing and tackling Andrew Bailey at the FSA (then FCA) with particular reference to the way in which the regulator had found itself hamstrung by its application of the so-called principles of Maxwellisation (a concept which quaintly happens to immortalise one of Britain’s biggest corporate crooks) which seriously delayed publication of the FCA’s report into the collapse of HBoS. The FCA ‘s separate report, instructed by the Treasury Select Committee, into the suitability of the former HBoS directors to serve as company directors was eventually published, jointly by the PRA and FCA, in August 2022. The conclusion was not to pursue the investigation. No reasons were given for the decision. Given the amount of available evidence and the conclusion of other investigations it is unthinkable that the PRA/FCA August 2022 will not be challenged.

He is an Ambassador for the Transparency Task Force – a world-wide think tank and forum of financial commentators, academics, financial professionals, politicians – dedicated to improving transparency in financial services. He graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Industrial Economics.

Rory has been in the investment industry since 1997. Prior to co-founding Fundhouse in 2007, he was CEO of a fund management firm. He has had various executive roles at large and small fund managers and has significant experience inside both active and passive fund management firms.

 

At Fundhouse he focusses his efforts on fund research, asset allocation and overall business strategy.  Fundhouse is an independent, owner-managed investment consultant providing manager research, asset allocation and portfolio construction to institutional investors and wealth managers.

 

Fundhouse is regulated by the FCA.