James Brown – Head of Client Services, ComPeer

James joined ComPeer in October 2006 as an Analyst following his graduation from The University of Warwick, where he studied Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics. Today he manages ComPeer’s team of Analysts. He has widely presented key trends in the UK Wealth Management Industry, with in-depth experience of providing statistical analysis of firms’ business performance. He regularly provides recommendations during presentations to Executive boards and is actively involved in bespoke research projects.

Neil Carmichael – MP

Neil Carmichael has served as Member of Parliament for Stroud Valleys and Vale since 2010, and as Chair of the Education Select Committee since 2015. He has previously been a member of the Environment Audit Committee and also established two All Parliamentary Party Groups: Governance and Leadership in Education, and Vascular Diseases. Neil took the Antarctic Act through Parliament, safeguarding both the Antarctic environment and British interests in the area for future generations.

Neil was born in 1961 in Northumberland. His family background was associated with hill farming. After university, where he studied politics, and until 2001, he was actively involved in agriculture, focusing on breeding cattle and sheep farming. Neil was also Chief Executive and then Chairman of Northumbria Daybreak, a charity providing day care for adults with learning disabilities.

Prior to his incumbency as MP, Neil spent several years as a visiting lecturer in British political history, European Union policies and institutions, and rural economic development. He also worked in business from 2001 until 2010, working in business development projects, developing project finance capabilities and liaising with firms and corporations, including Bevan Brittan, Hutchinson and Sainsbury’s.

Neil established Stroud’s Festival of Manufacturing and Engineering (FESTOMANE) in 2011. His vision was to create a long-standing event which would contribute to the manufacturing and engineering industry, through encouraging young people to consider entering careers in this sector. FESTOMANE works to encourage and promote the importance of STEM subjects to children and young people, celebrate Stroud Valleys and Vale’s strong manufacturing and engineering heritage, and support local businesses.

Neil’s interests include Europe, education, history, economics, energy and foreign affairs. As well as refurbishing his Massey-Ferguson 135 tractor, Neil continues to garden and enjoy woodland, follows Formula 1 racing, and enjoys visiting a good pub and watching films.

Roger Bootle – Managing Director, Capital Economics

One of the City of London’s best-known economists, Roger Bootle is Managing Director of Capital Economics.  He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Committee.  Roger is a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph and has also written several books including his new book, The Trouble with Markets, which analyses the deep causes of the recent financial crisis and discusses the threats to capitalism arising from it and the widely acclaimed Money for Nothing. In July 2012 it was announced that Roger and a team from Capital Economics had won the Wolfson Prize, the second biggest prize in Economics after the Nobel.

Anthony Hilton – Finance and Business Commentator, The Evening Standard

Anthony Hilton joined Fleet Street in 1968 as a Trainee on the Guardian.  He moved to New York for the Sunday Times in 1979, returning to become a City Editor of the Times in 1981 and moved to the Evening Standard in 1984 where he has served as  City Editor, Managing Director and Financial Editor. Currently he is the finance and business commentator for the Evening Standard and a weekly columnist for The Independent.

In addition was a visiting professor in economics at London Metropolitan University in 2010-2012  and in 2010 was awarded an honorary degree in recognition of his journalism by the University of Aberdeen.

Anthony has won many other awards notably the  2007 “Decade of Excellence Award” for business and financial journalism given annually by the World Press Awards in competition with a short list of writers from Fortune, and the Wall Street Journal and other English language titles and the Wincott Award in 2002.  More recently he won the Association of British Insurers “Commentator of the Year”, two years in a row and  was shortlisted as economics commentator and as business commentator of the year at the Editorial Intelligence Awards in 2011 and 2012

In addition to journalism he has also had a commercial career, being involved with the launch of several magazine and publishing companies, serving as a non executive director of an insurance company and a management consultancy and serving for six years as chief executive of the Evening Standard and a director of Associated Newspapers Ltd, owners of the Daily Mail.

Barnabas Reynolds – Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP

Barnabas Reynolds is head of the global Financial Institutions Advisory & Financial Regulatory Group and is Global Co-Head of Financial Institutions for the firm. He advises the full range of financial market participants on their businesses in the London and European markets. His practice focuses on financial institution law and regulation and legal risk management, national and cross-border. From 2010 to 2014, he served as an elected member of the firm’s Policy Committee. Barnabas is recognised as a leading UK and EU financial regulatory lawyer, including being named as a Law360 MVP and being included in The Lawyer Hot 100 list.

Clara Durodié  – Founding Partner, Cognitive Finance Group

Clara Durodié is a business technologist and Board member with leadership roles in asset & wealth management in UK, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Clara is the founder of Cognitive Finance Group, an advisory and investment company focused on applied artificial intelligence in wealth & asset management.

Clara works with Boards, senior management, academia and A.I. start-ups. Her focus is risk management and business intelligence for profit and growth. Clara serves as Fintech Resident Expert at University of Oxford and mentor at leading Fintech accelerators in London.

Clara is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) London UK, has a Certificate in Investment Management and holds an MBA from University of Oxford. When not collecting fine art, Clara is pursuing research for a part-time PhD at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning interrogating how episodic memory informs investment and savings decisions.

Simon New  – Group Executive, Strategy, IRESS

Simon joined IRESS in November 2015 from Ernst & Young where he was a director in wealth and asset management.  He has extensive experience of domestic and international private wealth management and has clocked up around 23 years of financial services experience split between industry and management consulting. He’s also held senior management positions at Lloyds Bank and Capco. A lover of the great outdoors, his hobbies include skiing, running, mountain biking and golf.

Alex Hore  – Head of Strategic Account Management, IRESS

Alex joined IRESS in April 2016 as Head of Strategic Account Management. He has considerable experience of domestic and international private wealth, split between vendor side, industry and consulting. He previously worked for Ernst & Young as a consultant in their Wealth & Asset management team and specialises in business and digital transformation, product development, regulatory change and sales force effectiveness.  Before moving to the UK, Alex worked for BT Financial Group in Australia.

Kathryn Earnshaw  – Head of Marketing, Equiniti

Kathryn is head of direct-to-consumer marketing at Equiniti. Equiniti is a specialist provider of administration, payment, and investment services that reach over 25m people in the UK. Prior to joining Equiniti Kathryn held senior finance positions across a variety of industries.

Kathryn’s background in accounting and finance places her in a unique position as a marketer; to gain insight into the Equiniti customer base through logical and meaningful analytics as well as customer behaviours.

Kathryn is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Peter Smith  – Head of Policy Strategy Development, TISA

Peter is currently Head of Policy Strategy Development at TISA.  In this capacity, he oversees the Distribution advisory, Wrap & Platform, Retirement, and the new Technology Innovation Policy Councils and leads many of the TISA projects and industry Special Interest Groups. His work involves working with the financial services industry, political parties, Treasury, HMRC, DWP, TPR, and the FCA, to  enhance  &  improve  the  range,  features,  benefits,  promotion  and  quality  of  savings  & investment  schemes  to  all  UK  citizens  and  the  financial  services  industry.  He works on various FCA and other regulatory  Working  Groups  and  is  a  regular  contributor  to  TisaTalks,  blogs  and  various industry  articles.  Prior to that, Peter  held  a  number  of  Strategic  &  Senior  Director  positions  with Legal  &  General  Group.  His   work included strategic planning on  market  developments  both legislative and tactical & key strategic relationships within the UK intermediary market. He has over 35 years’ experience in the Intermediary market and a wide knowledge of strategic industry issues.

Tessa Pollock  – Product Director, AssetQ

Tessa is Product Director for AssetQ. She is the concept designer to a new approach to and better customer experience for fund research, due diligence and investment suitability. Tessa has over 25 years’ experience in the investment management industry, working for and consulting to market leaders around the globe including Merrill Lynch, Investec Asset Management, Deutsche Investment Trust, Threadneedle Asset Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Barclays Wealth, Gartmore Investment Management, Prudential, Scottish Widows and the Sultan of Brunei. Tessa quickly evolved from an accountant to an equity analyst, fund manager and consultant before returning to helping Wealth Managers with their investment research.