TISA Vulnerability Conference 2027

Helen has worked in Financial Services for 27 years, building her career within Quilter. Following a range of management roles, she was invited to become the Vulnerable Customer Specialist for the Platform business. In December 2024, Helen was appointed Customer Inclusion Lead for Quilter. In this role she takes a strategic view across the business, offering consistent support and guidance to staff and advisers to help them identify customers in vulnerable situations, tailor services appropriately, and record and monitor any additional support needs.

Prior to Vikki’s role of CEO which she took up in May 2023, she lead the charity’s operational teams who provide debt advice and ongoing solution service provision for our clients across a number of sites and all jurisdictions in the UK. She has worked at the charity since 2005 and has held several senior leadership positions including Head of Debt Advice where she was instrumental in the launch of the sectors first online debt advice service, and Director of Client Experience where she was responsible for the charity’s strategic relationships and funding. Over the years Vikki has also played an active role in shaping and defining the sector working alongside the Money and Pensions Service and other debt advice charities. Vikki is also a Trustee of Frank Parkinson Yorkshire Trust, a local Leeds based charity that provides almshouses for residents over the age of 65, and a board member at the Money Advice Liaison Group. Earlier in her career Vikki held leadership positions within outsourced providers and financial services organisations.

Matt is Interim Chief Executive of Toynbee Hall, one of the UK’s leading charities tackling poverty, financial exclusion and social injustice since 1884. Over the past seven years, he has led the development of award-winning technology, innovative models of advice delivery and cross-sector partnerships that are transforming how people access debt advice. His work includes pioneering video advice kiosks in prisons, hospitals and community settings. Matt works across financial services, government and the voluntary sector and is a regular speaker on financial inclusion, vulnerability and service innovation. He is also a Trustee of AdviceUK and the British Gas Energy Trust.

Dr Christopher Fitch is Vulnerability Lead at the Money Advice Trust and a Research Fellow at the Personal Finance Research Centre (University of Bristol). Chris is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at King's College London. Since 2007, Chris has led a programme of award-winning guidance, research, training, and intervention on vulnerability. This programme has involved improving practice in more than 600 firms, over 60,000 staff, and across the financial and essential service sectors. Chris has also co-created industry-wide tools for working with vulnerable customers such as TEXAS, IDEA, and BRUCE, as well as co-founding award-winning Vulnerability Academies with UK Finance (for firms) and the UK Regulators' Network (for regulators). Previously Chris was a Research Fellow and Head of Policy at the Royal College of Psychiatrists where he led research programmes and national mental health policy development. Prior to this a Researcher at Imperial College Medical School where he worked on international WHO and United Nations research studies and public health projects in the areas of drug injecting, sex work, and HIV and STD prevention.

Andy Langford is the Clinical Director for Cruse Bereavement Support – the UK’s largest and leading bereavement support charity. Andy has been working in bereavement for over 20 years, and in other voluntary sector direct support, team management and senior positions for longer. Andy is a qualified and British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy accredited Counsellor/Psychotherapist, with additional qualifications in cognitive behavioural therapy, clinical supervision, and life coaching, as well as an MSc in voluntary sector management from Bayes Business School. Alongside his work at Cruse, Andy has a private therapy practice and consultancy, focusing on fostering staff resilience, dealing with high impact and potentially traumatising events, and working with suicidal ideation. Finally, Andy is a post-graduate researcher with the Open University, focusing on vulnerability and resilience in the grief experience.

Helen Lord is the CEO of the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS) which is a data sharing platform for vulnerable individuals to alert service providers to the challenges they fact in order to get the appropriate support and customer journeys. VRS’s aim is to ensure a central and streamlined route to allow vulnerable individuals to communicate regardless of sector. Helen also campaigns for additional support for Unpaid Carers. Helen has a compliance background, particularly in data protection and worked for a credit reference agency for 20 years in consumer, compliance and fraud related roles.

Sophie leads TISA’s work on the Advice/Guidance Boundary Review, Disclosures, Financial Education, Financial Crime and TISA’s Inclusive Investing initiative. Before joining us, Sophie worked in Wholesale Markets Policy at the FCA, gaining experience in Primary and Secondary legislation, as well as FCA consultations. She has worked on Brexit and the LIBOR transition and was seconded to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Prior to that, she worked in M&A for a FTSE 100.