Bruce Weatherill, Master of Ceremonies

Bruce is a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years’ financial services industry experience around the world. He was a partner in PwC for 20 years and is now a non-executive director of Compeer as well as other companies.

James Brown – Director 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.

Benjamin Reid – Director, Technology and Innovation, CBI

Benjamin leads the CBI’s policy team and programme on technology and innovation. The team works closely with both business and government to: strengthen the UK’s R&D and innovation ecosystem, ensure the UK leads on AI and emerging technology regulation, support business to effectively adopt technology to boost productivity, and make the UK the most effective place to grow and scale an innovative business.

Prior to the CBI, Benjamin held roles as Head of Capability Development at the Behavioural Insights Team, Head of International Innovation at innovation charity Nesta where he designed and directed the influential 16-country ‘Global Innovation Policy Accelerator’ programme, and as Head of Open Innovation at London-based think tank the Big Innovation Centre He started his career as a MBA tutor at Henley Business School where he also gained his PhD for work in innovation, leadership and impact assessment.

Joey Cozens-Smith – Managing Director (UK), FA Solutions

Joey is the Managing Director UK at FA Solutions and joined the company in 2021 to help consolidate the teams across the UK and Europe and look to align the growth of their investment management solutions that cover the full front-to-back office operations.

Prior to FA Solutions Joey worked 12 years at StatPro for the launch and growth of their cloud based analytics and reporting solution Revolution where he lead the business development of global key accounts as well as managed the UK and European teams.

Mark Foulds – Associate Consulting Director, Nagarro

Mark is a seasoned problem solver with a track record in strategic business transformation and leadership across premier Investment Banks and Asset Management firms globally. He started his career on the London Stock Exchange, progressed to trading FX for international banks, before founding an Equities Hedge Fund.

Mark’s pivot toward technology brought him to IBM’s Consulting Practice, where he honed his skills as a certified Management Consultant and Change Management expert. He has held pivotal roles, such as leading Business Strategy & Change for RBS’s Equities division, directing global equity transformation programmes at Deutsche Bank, and overseeing the implementation of eCommerce platforms at finance giants like JP Morgan and BNP Paribas. More recently, at Dassault Systèmes, Mark steered the Financial & Business Services Consulting unit, liaising with prominent clients across the UK, Europe, and North America.

Currently, Mark brings his expertise to Nagarro, where he continues to leverage his deep industry knowledge and consulting acumen, delivering customer-centric solutions that address the dynamic challenges of today’s Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Private Banking industries. Mark’s mission remains to forge personalized solutions that generate unparalleled customer value. ​

Russell Andrews – Head of Wealth & Asset Management Vertical EMEA , FIS

Russell Andrews serves as Head of Wealth & Asset Management Vertical EMEA within the FIS Capital Markets division.

Over the course of his 23-year career, Russell has worked across both asset servicing and wealth & asset management in roles spanning operations, client management, distribution, solutions and strategy.

Russell’s most recent role was as Global Head of Advice Solutions at SEI where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and development of advice and wealth management focused solutions globally. Before his last role he was head of solutions UK, Europe & Asia at SEI where he had strategic responsibility for SEI’s asset management solutions for all intermediary markets outside of North America.

Prior to joining SEI, Russell was head of distribution services at Momentum Global Investment Management. In that role, he managed the relationship between investment and operations teams and internal and external sales channels across all target market segments, including the UK, South Africa, and Far and Middle East for both Retail and Institutional. Before that he was an oversight manager at the firm, where he had oversight of all delegated outsourced functions, including custodians, administrators, transfer agents, company secretaries, and sub-investment managers across schemes domiciled in Luxembourg, Guernsey, and the UK.

Russell began his career in 2000 at BNY Mellon’s asset servicing business providing third party administration services to UK based asset management clients.

Dacil Hernandez – Director of Data & AI, Nagarro

Meet Dacil Hernandez, the visionary Director of Data & AI at Nagarro, a global leader in digital product engineering and technology consulting. With over two decades of expertise, Dacil excels in transforming raw data into invaluable insights. Her commitment to innovation and efficiency sets her apart as a true industry trailblazer. As a fervent advocate of digital innovation, she crafts powerful solutions driving business growth. With a strategic mindset and unwavering pursuit of excellence, Dacil consistently exceeds expectations, delivering results that surpass the ordinary. Beyond her role, she enthrals audiences at prestigious conferences, sharing her vast knowledge and boundless enthusiasm. Always at the forefront of the latest innovations, Dacil ensures her insights are fresh, relevant, and transformative.

Charlie Crossfield – Digital Product Lead, Evelyn Partners

Charlie leads the Digital Channels at Evelyn Partners, with a vision to use digital to reinforce relationships with advisers and place the power of good advice into more hands.  His focus is on accelerating the pace of change in complex organisations and architectures, with better engineering, product design and delivery decision making.

Gareth Johnson – Head of Digital Channels, RBC Brewin Dolphin

Joining the business in 2002, Gareth is now responsible for our Brewin Portfolio Service (BPS) and WealthPilot, the group’s digital channels. In his previous role, Gareth, worked closely with our research department and intermediary division, and oversaw the growth of MPS (Managed Portfolio Service) from just £15m in 2012 to over £4.5bn in 2020 and an intermediary division that grew from £300m in annual sales to in excess of £2bn. In his current role, he developed and is responsible for BPS, the Group’s digital offering, which has attracted in excess of £200m of AUM and 6,000 clients. He also took on the responsibility for WealthPilot in 2020, our new digital financial advice service. Reporting into the managing director of advice and innovation, he works closely with the Executive Committee of the Board to strategically influence the Group and our service offerings utilising new technologies with a laser focus on client outcomes. Gareth is part of our client facing leadership team, who together are responsible for all aspects of the client journey.

Gareth is an advisory panel member for the Investment Association’s (IA) fintech accelerator, Engine. He also sits on the TISA Digital Innovation Council. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). In his spare time, he enjoys football, NBA basketball, reading and listening to podcasts.