Bim Afolami MP
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
The Rt Hon. the Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Ed Vaizey was appointed to the UK House of Lords in September 2020, where he sits as a Conservative Peer and is a member of the Communications and Digital Committee. Ed was the Member of Parliament for Wantage between 2005 and 2019. He served as the UK Government Culture and Digital Minister from 2010-16, and is the longest-serving Minister in that role. He was appointed a privy councillor in 2016. In his role as digital minister, Ed was responsible for the roll out of the successful rural broadband programme to more than 4 million homes, the introduction of 4G, and tax credits for film, television, animation and video games, which have helped make the creative industries the fastest growing part of the UK economy. In addition, he played a key role in putting coding in the national curriculum for schools, and in attracting inward investment to the UK tech economy. Ed also helped persuade Lucas Films to make the new Star Wars in the UK, and received a credit in the first film of the series.
Stuart Cheetham
Chief Executive Officer, MPowered Mortgages
Michael Eakins
Chief Investment Officer, Phoenix Group
Mike is currently the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) for Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement provider with over £270bn of Assets under Administration, on behalf of over 13 million customers. In his current role, Mike is a member of the Group Executive Committee, reporting into the Group CEO, Andy Briggs.
Mike is responsible for leading all of the investment functions within the Phoenix Group, but with particular focus on (i) Illiquid Asset origination for Phoenix Bulk Purchase Annuity business, (ii) developing a leading capability for Sustainable Investments and (c) developing a best in class investment operating framework. Mike has eight direct reports, with over 150 professionals making up Phoenix Asset Management.
Prior to joining Phoenix in July 2020, Mike was the Group CIO of ReAssure (which was acquired by Phoenix Group in July 2020), a consolidator of UK Life and Pensions companies. At ReAssure, which Mike was a member of the Group Executive Committee and was charged with developing the investment strategy in preparation for the planned IPO and acquisition of insurance companies.
Prior to joining ReAssure in May 2019, Mike was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he spent over 14 years undertaking a variety of client facing roles, including M&A, running UK Fixed Income and responsible for Goldman Sachs Pension and Insurance business across EMEA. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mike qualified as an Actuary with EY.
Outside of work Mike is married to Anna and has three children, living in West London. Mike enjoys all sports, particularly golf, football and skiing.
Daniel Harrison
Chief Executive, True Potential
Daniel co-founded True Potential in 2007 and today, with Daniel as its CEO, True Potential is one of the largest private wealth management and fintech firms in the UK, with a turnover of £407m and assets on its platform of £30bn. It is a huge British success story, providing financial advice, investment solutions and auto-enrolment service to millions of clients across the UK.
Daniel led the technology development at True Potential and oversaw the creation of its impulseSave technology in 2013, enabling members of the public to open and top up their pensions and investments in seconds from their mobile devices and from as little as £1. Today the technology team is exploring opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) with some services already benefitting from AI integration.
Daniel created the True Potential Academy to remove barriers to a career in financial services and to open up the sector to a wider pool of talent. More than 30 apprentices are currently gaining valuable experience at True Potential, learning key IT and digital skills. Several former apprentices now have full-time employed roles at True Potential.
As a founder and trustee of True Potential’s private charity partner, the Harrison Foundation, Daniel has donated millions of pounds to health, education and social mobility charities across the UK and beyond.
From financial grants to hospitals, hospices, youth charities, veterans' groups and adult education services, Daniel has been the driving force behind both True Potential's and the Harrison Foundation's charitable giving.
Andy Howard
Global Head of Sustainable Investment, Schroders
Andrew Howard is Global Head of Sustainable Investment at Schroders and a member of the firm’s Group Management Committee. He has been at Schroders since 2016 and is responsible for the firm’s sustainability strategy. He oversees the firm’s sustainability thought leadership, ESG integration and stewardship.
Andrew was an Equity Analyst at Didas Research from 2013 to 2016, an independent investment research firm he founded. He was an Equity Analyst at Goldman Sachs from 2007 to 2013, where he headed the GS SUSTAIN research team in London identifying long term investment opportunities across global industries.
He also previously worked at McKinsey & Co as a consultant and Deutsche Bank as Head of European Mining Research.
Andrew graduated with a BSc in Economics from London School of Economics and has an MBA in Business Administration and Management from INSEAD.
Gregg Hutchings
Programme Director, Financial Services Skills Commission
Simon Morris has been a partner in the firm’s Financial Markets team since 1988, having joined the firm in 1980 and qualified as a solicitor in 1982.
He advises a wide range of UK and overseas financial institutions on regulatory matters including in relation to market conduct, systems and controls, governance, and responding to regulatory concerns.
Simon has represented firms in over 500 regulatory and enforcement proceedings brought by the UK PRA and FCA, their predecessors and overseas regulators.
Gemma Woodward
Head of Responsible Investment, Quilter Cheviot
Gemma Woodward joined Quilter Cheviot in 2015 to develop its approach to responsible investment and lead the strategic direction across the business. She is a member of the Investment Oversight Committee within Quilter Cheviot and is a member of several industry body committees focused on responsible and sustainable investment. She has over twenty-five years of investment experience and has spent the majority of that time focused on the not-for-profit sector. This experience of being an investment practitioner is helpful in understanding the real-life issues of incorporating ESG factors within the investment process and for client portfolios and strategies.
Carol is CEO, TISA as well as COO and Company Secretary for the wider TISA Group. Carol has been in financial services since 1998, having previously worked in variety of industries, including education, local government, Civil Service and the gaming industry. A qualified and experienced teacher Carol gained her degree at King Alfred’s College in Winchester and taught in Romsey, Hampshire. She then spent 7 years at Skandia, managing the PEP & ISA new business and transfers department.Carol joined TISA in 2004 and has been responsible for the day-to-day running of the Association’s administration centre, technical support, member communications, expanding the events and training programme and technical issues in the cash savings sector. In 2009, she also took on the role of Company Secretary. Carol joined the TISA Board as Operations Director in July 2011, extending her responsibilities to include finance. This was swiftly followed by taking a position as Executive Director for TISA Exchange.In August 2015, Carol became Chief Operations Officer for TISA, supporting the Director General with the general running of the company and with personal responsibilities for Children’s Financial Education, internal administration, HR and finance together with acting as TISA spokesman for the media and at functions.Carol is also a Director for both TeX (the contract club managing the legal structure supporting electronic messaging for transfers) and CT Holdings & Services Ltd (which operates under the brand of STAR where TeX and Criterion are working in collaboration to deliver the Service Level Agreements recommended by the Transfers & Re-registration Industry Group tasked by FCA to improve transfer times).Carol was appointed CEO, TISA Membership Services in January 2022 following the retirement of David Dalton-Brown.
Tony Stenning
Chairman, TISA
Tony Stenning, Chairman of TISA has been a non-executive director
since 2014. Tony is also a Partner and Head of Liquid Alternatives at
Downing LLP and has worked in financial services for over three
decades, beginning his career as an economist and fund manager.
He has spent the majority of his career at BlackRock where he was a
Managing Director and held various senior positions.
Lisa Laybourn
Director of Risk and Technical Policy, TISA
As Director of Risk and Technical Policy at TISA, Lisa has emerged as one of the leading voices in Consumer Duty, having brought together the industry to produce a comprehensive Best Practice Guide, and currently working to bring about a standardised framework for data sharing across the distribution chain. Lisa also leads TISA work on vulnerability, an area which she is particularly passionate about, having had lived experience. Lisa is an experienced outsourcing, risk and CASS specialist with over 25 years’ experience in financial services, with a particular focus on client protection. She has held senior roles encompassing oversight of outsourced delivery of services within the asset management sector to both retail and professional clients, and held the role of CF10a, an FCA approved role responsible for compliance to Client Asset Protection. Prior to this she held senior roles in a large outsourcing service provider, including as a Lead Client Relationship Manager responsible for delivering services appropriate for a regulated firm, and leading large operational finance teams based in the UK and India. She has significant experience in implementing oversight and risk management frameworks to effectively identify and manage the risks associated with outsourcing and offshoring regulated activities. During her time as a CF10a, she took a key role in a joint client/service provider remediation programme, gaining valuable experience and insight into meeting the regulators expectation in relation to service providers performance, and regulated firms oversight of its outsourcing arrangements. She has a breadth of regulatory knowledge, in particular with a deep understanding of SYSC; CASS; COBs; COLL; MiFID; and MiFID II and is accomplished in assisting senior managers to Board level in understanding regulatory obligations.
