Speakers

Rory Stewart is a diplomat, author, explorer, academic, and politician – serving in successive Conservative governments as minister of state for international development, minister for environment, minister of state for Africa, and minister of state for prisons. He is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches politics and international relations.

Stewart is an acclaimed author and co-host of the successful podcast, The Rest is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell. He has been described by the New York Times as “living one of the most remarkable lives on record.”. Stewart was the first man to walk across Afghanistan after the US-UK invasion, and served as deputy governor of two Iraqi provinces at the age of 29. He advised the US President and British Prime Minister on their Afghanistan and Middle East policy. Stewart is proficient in 11 languages.

David Bailey is executive director for UK deposit takers supervision, responsible for the supervision of the UK’s banks, building societies and credit unions. He also represents the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) on the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision.

Bailey joined the Bank of England (BoE) in 2014 as director of financial market infrastructure and has held roles as executive director of international banks supervision and executive director of financial markets infrastructure. His most recent role was executive director of authorisations, regtech and international supervision. 

Prior to working at the BoE, Bailey was head of markets infrastructure and policy at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and at its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

He graduated from Durham University and began his career at JP Morgan.

Marco Giovanni Crotti is a policy expert at the European Banking Authority (EBA). He is responsible for the implementation of the EBA FRTB roadmap and represents the EBA at the BCBS Market Risk Group. 

Crotti holds a MSc in mathematical engineering from Politecnico di Milano and an executive master in EU studies at the centre international de formation européenne.

Jeevan Perera is currently the risk manager for the Orion space vehicle. The Orion is NASA's new spacecraft which will replace the Space Shuttle, service the International Space Station, and then return astronauts to the moon and eventually mount expeditions to Mars.  Perera has been with NASA for 20 years. In his current capacity, he is responsible for risk management policies, processes and analytical tools that ensure the successful deployment and operations of this new spacecraft. Perera oversees both quantitative and qualitative risk analysis processes and provides technical direction to a team of risk analysts. Formerly as the International Space Station risk manager, he designed, developed, implemented and improved the program's risk management processes through a phased, systematic approach setting the standard for NASA’s risk practice. Prior to his work in risk management, Perera has worked in different technical fields in support of many NASA programs and projects. These duties have included management responsibility for versions of the primary and back-up flight software for the Space Shuttle and development responsibility for other software used aboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. 

Perera has been a member of the board of trustees for a local homeowners association, has provided legal advice to the United Space School, a foundation for international space education that brings student from around the world for focused classes on space related disciplines. He often presents on space topics at schools, universities, public events and international conferences. Perera has both a Jurisprudence Doctorate (law) and a PhD in Industrial Engineering.

Daniel Mankowitz is a staff research scientist at Google Deepmind, working on solving the key challenges that will unlock reinforcement learning algorithms to work on real-world applications at scale. This includes a focus on reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) in the context of large language models (LLMs) such as Gemini. 

He has worked on: code optimization, code generation, chip design, video compression, recommender systems, and controlling physical systems such as heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), with publications in Nature and Science. 
 

Chris Knight took the role of group chief risk officer in May 2021. For the previous three years he had been the chief executive of Legal and General’s retail retirement business, where he led the expansion of annuity propositions, developed one of the leading providers of lifetime mortgages and launched their financial advice and care businesses. Knight also serves as Legal and General’s customer champion, representing retail customers’ interests across the whole product range, a perspective he brings to his chief risk officer role. 

He has previously held positions at Legal and General of finance director of the international division, and chief financial officer of Legal & General Assurance Society. Knight has a first-class economics degree from King’s College, Cambridge and has worked on four continents in a career spanning more than three decades. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Victoria Collins' career spans over 25 years working in financial institutions, in trading, finance and risk roles, predominately in risk management. 

She has been with Nomura for ten years, focused on enterprise-wide risk management. Collins was appointed global head of climate risk & ESG three years ago. She is responsible for establishing and managing the global risk management framework for climate risk and ESG, and for ensuring risk management is aligned to the firm’s sustainability objectives, such as net zero.

Marina Antoniou is the global head of global markets risk & control assessment at BNP Paribas. She specialises in global capital markets non - financial risks with a focus on conduct risk, rogue trading, financial crime and trade surveillance. Antoniou also has experience in risks and controls relating to artificial intelligence, large language models and data privacy. 

She is an executive committee and board member at various institutions and participates in global capital market forums. Antoniou is very interested in technology. She is a founding member and vice-chair of the Hellenic Tech Network, participated in studies around the implementation of digital currencies, and reviewed the AI governance of a leading fintech academic centre in the UK. Antoniou takes part in global innovation forums and explores ways to use AI and other innovative technology to transform risk management practices. 

She has extensive experience working with regulators globally. In the past, Antoniou acted as lead validator, at top tier banks, on regulatory conduct risk programmes sanctioned by the US Federal Reserve Bank and the US Department of Justice and also acted as head of audit for Citigroup where she received the global recognition award for her performance. Previously, she worked on due diligence projects and valuations during M&A transactions. 

Antoniou is a qualified chartered accountant and member of the ICAEW. She completed a technology entrepreneurship course at Harvard and an ESG course at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. Antoniou also studied fintech at the University of Oxford Said Business School during which she developed a fintech innovation idea aiming at fundraising for people impacted by natural disasters. She studied investment management at the London Business School and has an MSc in Economics & Finance from Warwick Business School. Antoniou acts as guest lecturer at executive MBA courses and speaker at conferences globally covering conduct risk, digital transformation, digital assets, artificial intelligence, fintech and ESG.

Jeff Simmons joined MUFG Bank in June 2014 as the head of enterprise risk, tasked with creating the function. He has been involved intensively with the enhancement of the risk management framework in MUFG Bank (Europe). This has involved him in the formation of an enterprise risk function in Amsterdam tasked with delivering the full range of regulatory submissions.  In April 2018, Simmons transitioned to MUFG Securities to become involved in the Brexit project. In this capacity he is the chief risk officer for MUFG Securities (Europe) N.V. the Dutch subsidiary of MUFG Securities (EMEA).

Prior to joining the bank, Simmons spent some 20 years specializing in best practice risk management including market risk, credit risk, risk model validation and regulatory risk consulting. As well as having line management responsibilities in various institutions he has also gained extensive experience in implementing risk management frameworks from both a technical and operating model-based perspective.

David Carlin is an acknowledged authority on climate change and its implications for the financial system. He is the founder of Cambium Global Solutions, an advisor to governments, corporates, and financial institutions on climate and ESG topics. Carlin has authored numerous reports that provide practical tools for financial actors looking to address climate change and has run capacity-building programs for financial institutions and supervisors around the world. 

He is the head of climate risk and task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) for the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Over the past years, he has worked with over 100 global banks, investors, and insurers on climate scenarios, climate risk assessments, and climate governance. 

Carlin is an advisor to UNEP FI’s  task force on nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD) pilot program on nature and biodiversity related risks as well as the net-zero banking alliance (NZBA). He has also been a technical advisor to the Glasgow Financial Alliances for Net Zero (GFANZ), is a contributor to Forbes and a senior associate at Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

He has worked as a principal in finance, risk, and public policy for Oliver Wyman and in model risk management for PNC Bank. Carlin's background is in quantitative modeling and decision science.

Rupanjana Borkataky is currently working as vice president in the traded risk modelling team at HSBC. She has over 13 years of experience with the bank in developing and monitoring models, mainly for market risk as part of first line of defence. Borkataky has been instrumental in setting up the monitoring function across different model types which helps in providing assurance to the regulators that the models used by the bank are fit for purpose. She holds an MBA in finance and is also a certified CQF and FRM.

David Semmens is Cadro's chief investment officer, overseeing the investment department and chairing all investment related committees. He is a non-executive director of RiskSave Technologies, a leading provider of technological and regulatory support to asset managers and leading fintechs. Semmens continues to sit on Wealthify's investment committee as an external advisor where he helped develop and oversee the firm’s ethical investment proposition. He also volunteers on the investment committee for one of Scotland's largest education charities and is an adjunct-lecturer delivering a postgraduate finance and investment course at Heriot Watt University. 

Since completing an MSc in economics at the University of Warwick, Semmens has worked in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, New York, and Paris, running the gauntlet in fintech, banking, insurance, and asset management for Wealthify (part of the Aviva Group), HSBC Asset Management, Euler Hermes, and Standard Chartered Bank. He is also a CFA Charterholder with an executive MBA from the University of Cambridge. In his spare time, Semmens enjoys playing cards, crime novels, and walking with his wife in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Eduardo Epperlein has over 20 years experience in the financial industry and is currently managing director and global head of risk methodology at Nomura. He is responsible for credit, market and operational risk methodology, as well as stress testing analytics. Prior to joining Nomura, Epperlein held various roles in risk methodology at Citigroup, including model validation. He holds a PhD in plasma physics from Imperial College, London, and spent 10 years as a research scientist prior to joining the financial industry.

Kanwardeep Ahluwalia is co-head of global markets risk for Bank of America. He joined Bank of America from Swiss Re where he was the group head of financial risk management, which included the role of chief risk officer for asset management, as well as serving as the reinsurance chief risk officer for Emea. Prior to that, Ahluwalia worked at Bear Stearns where he had a number of positions leading to the roles of chief risk officer for Europe & Asia and global head of market risk. This was preceded by a period working in regulation for the UK’s former Securities & Futures Authority.

Cyrille Sallé de Chou joined HSBC in 2016 as chief risk officer at HSBC Wealth & Personal Banking. He has more than 18 years of experience in retail banking in the UK. Prior to joining HSBC, Sallé de Chou was chief risk officer at RateSetter. This followed 8 years at Lloyds Banking Group, where he served as credit risk director for the mortgage business, cards and current accounts and 7 years at Capital One Europe, where he served as chief credit officer.

David Bailey is executive director for UK deposit takers supervision, responsible for the supervision of the UK’s banks, building societies and credit unions. He also represents the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) on the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision.

Bailey joined the Bank of England (BoE) in 2014 as director of financial market infrastructure and has held roles as executive director of international banks supervision and executive director of financial markets infrastructure. His most recent role was executive director of authorisations, regtech and international supervision. 

Prior to working at the BoE, Bailey was head of markets infrastructure and policy at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and at its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

He graduated from Durham University and began his career at JP Morgan.

Kanwardeep Ahluwalia is co-head of global markets risk for Bank of America. He joined Bank of America from Swiss Re where he was the group head of financial risk management, which included the role of chief risk officer for asset management, as well as serving as the reinsurance chief risk officer for Emea. Prior to that, Ahluwalia worked at Bear Stearns where he had a number of positions leading to the roles of chief risk officer for Europe & Asia and global head of market risk. This was preceded by a period working in regulation for the UK’s former Securities & Futures Authority.

Chris Knight took the role of group chief risk officer in May 2021. For the previous three years he had been the chief executive of Legal and General’s retail retirement business, where he led the expansion of annuity propositions, developed one of the leading providers of lifetime mortgages and launched their financial advice and care businesses. Knight also serves as Legal and General’s customer champion, representing retail customers’ interests across the whole product range, a perspective he brings to his chief risk officer role. 

He has previously held positions at Legal and General of finance director of the international division, and chief financial officer of Legal & General Assurance Society. Knight has a first-class economics degree from King’s College, Cambridge and has worked on four continents in a career spanning more than three decades. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Jeff Simmons joined MUFG Bank in June 2014 as the head of enterprise risk, tasked with creating the function. He has been involved intensively with the enhancement of the risk management framework in MUFG Bank (Europe). This has involved him in the formation of an enterprise risk function in Amsterdam tasked with delivering the full range of regulatory submissions.  In April 2018, Simmons transitioned to MUFG Securities to become involved in the Brexit project. In this capacity he is the chief risk officer for MUFG Securities (Europe) N.V. the Dutch subsidiary of MUFG Securities (EMEA).

Prior to joining the bank, Simmons spent some 20 years specializing in best practice risk management including market risk, credit risk, risk model validation and regulatory risk consulting. As well as having line management responsibilities in various institutions he has also gained extensive experience in implementing risk management frameworks from both a technical and operating model-based perspective.

Eduardo Epperlein has 30 years experience in the financial industry and is currently managing director and global head of risk methodology at Nomura. He is responsible for credit, market and operational risk methodology, as well as stress testing analytics. 

Prior to joining Nomura, Epperlein held various roles in risk methodology at Citigroup, including model validation. He holds a PhD in plasma physics from Imperial College, London, and spent 10 years as a research scientist prior to joining the financial industry.

Søren Agergaard Andersen is a chief risk officer with a strong grasp of the risk-return relationship that links risk appetite and business strategy. He has extensive experience within asset management, banking, pension and financial services and a comprehensive knowledge of regulatory requirements, governance framework, risk management techniques and policies. Andersen has long experience interfacing with executive committees, board of directors, chief executive officers and regulatory authorities and a strong ability to communicate risk issues on all levels.

His specialties include: enterprise-wide risk management framework (ERM), operational risk, governance, quantitative analysis, investments, derivatives, framework implementation and strategy execution.

Biljana Vujović is cheif risk officer for Addiko Bank, supervising the bank's management team, ensuring effective decision making and adherence to ethical standards. Her role includes continuously evaluating the bank's risk appetite and ensuring that risk management strategies are implemented effectively, ensuring that bank consistently meets regulatory standards, monitoring for potential violations, and overseeing the establishment and effectiveness of internal controls, as well as supervising the internal and external audit to ensure they are robust and independent. 

Vujović also chars the risk committee of the supervisory board

After graduating from University of Pavia in 1997 with a degree in business and economics, Stefano Biondi started to work as a junior risk manager for JP Morgan, first in Milan and then in London. Soon afterward he joined ABN AMRO Bank and subsequently moved to Amsterdam as senior credit risk manager in charge of trading counterparty credit risk management. 

During his 5 years stint at ABN AMRO Bank, Biondi also worked on the implementation of a bank-wide credit risk portfolio modelling system as well as a risk reporting tool. Following that experience at ABN AMRO he came back to London to accept a role as head of credit risk analytics and portfolio reporting at Standard Bank of South Africa in charge, among other things, of implementing the internal model for the Basel 2 FIRB project. In January 2007 Biondi returned to Italy where he joined Banca Mediolanum as head of risk control with group-wide risk management responsibilities. In 2011 he undertook an executive master in business and banking administration at Bocconi University. In 2014 Biondi took, within risk management of Banca Mediolanum, the responsibility for quantitative modelling, reporting and group wide coordination. In April 2018 became head of risk management for Banca Mediolanum reporting to the group chief risk officer. In March 2020, Biondi became group chief risk officer for Banca Mediolanum. 

Tin Lau is currently the chief risk officer for Mirae Asset Securities UK, part of the largest investment banking and brokerage in South Korea. Previously, he has worked as the group head of risk at Bitvavo, Flow Traders and TP ICAP.  Lau has also worked at the FCA, where he was responsible for supervision of areas such as the review and evaluation of firms, model waivers, structured products, the UK regulated covered bond market and the UK securitisation market including STS.

He has also represented the UK at IOSCO and various ESAs. Lau's previous industry experience was from various roles on the buy and sell side including quantitative analysis, fund management and economic capital modelling. He holds a dual-honours masters in engineering from the University of Warwick, called to the Bar of England and Wales, fellow chartered management accountant, chartered MCSI, a member of the Institute of Operational Risk and of the Network of Operational Risk Modellers.

Duncan Wood is the London-based editor-in-chief of Risk.net. He was promoted to the role at the start of 2015, to lead the editorial reorganisation of the website and its print titles. Wood had been editor of Risk magazine since July 2011. He rejoined Risk as European editor in October 2009, having originally worked for Risk and Asia Risk in London and Hong Kong as a writer and researcher between 1998 and 2000.

In the intervening years, Wood was news editor for the Oliver Wyman-founded online start-up ERisk.com. He also worked freelance for six years while living in Germany, with his work featuring in Euromoney, Financial News, IFR, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as Risk magazine and its sister titles. Wood has written about derivatives and risk throughout his 17-year career in journalism. He is a Neal Awards finalist, and has won Incisive Media's journalist and editor of the year awards.

Jasper is director of G7 portfolio management within the EBRD Treasury. He oversees the central risk warehouse for all hard currency risks across the Bank’s balance sheet, and is also heavily involved with IBOR transition across various RFR working groups. 

Livingsmith joined the EBRD in 2011. Previously he worked as a macro trader, and was a market maker at ABN AMRO.

Philip Alexander is the regulation desk editor for Risk.net, overseeing a team of journalists in the UK, US and Asia. He was previously senior editor at The Banker magazine, covering financial regulation, capital markets, derivatives and central and eastern Europe.

Prior to entering journalism, Alexander edited sovereign credit research for rating agency Standard & Poor’s in London. He was awarded a PhD in modern history by the University of Cambridge for a thesis on Britain and European integration.

Daniel Mankowitz is a staff research scientist at Google Deepmind, working on solving the key challenges that will unlock reinforcement learning algorithms to work on real-world applications at scale. This includes a focus on reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) in the context of large language models (LLMs) such as Gemini. 

He has worked on: code optimization, code generation, chip design, video compression, recommender systems, and controlling physical systems such as heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), with publications in Nature and Science. 
 

In 2016 William Cooper became the head of risk for SEB Denmark with responsibility for protecting the banks financial results and reputation by preventing excessive risk taking and promoting a strong risk management culture. He has a key role in driving and contributing to risk related projects including the banks FRTB program. 

Cooper has worked in the past for both buy and sell side firms, in roles ranging from trading at a large hedge fund to working as a quantitative analyst at a tier 1 investment bank, always with a focus on improving financial modelling and analytics to maximize risk management and market awareness. He holds a BSc in mathematics and economics from the LSE and a MSc in mathematics from the University of Copenhagen.

As a market risk manager at Intesa Sanpaolo, Fabio Lania leads the development and implementation of market risk methodologies that comply with both current and upcoming regulatory requirements, such as Basel 2.5, FRTB, and ICAAP. With over 10 years of experience in the banking industry, he has a strong background in financial risk management, banking balance sheet optimization, analytical skills and team leadership

Lania also supports Intesa Sanpaolo with quantitative and qualitative reporting for RWA optimization, addressing the impact of the new regulatory landscape on business models. Additionally, he actively participates in industry meetings and advocates on behalf of the bank for FRTB implementation. Lania's mission is to drive market risk innovation and optimization at Intesa Sanpaolo, one of the leading European banking groups.

Hanna Sarraf is a senior risk management executive, with over twenty five years’ experience in developing and implementing risk and regulatory management frameworks that deliver effective results in the financial services industry. He was most recently the chief risk strategy officer at Starling Bank and was previously the group chief risk officer at Bankmed, a regional corporate, retail and private banking organisation with operations across the Emea region. Prior to joining Bankmed, Sarraf was the group executive, head of risk strategy at Bank of Ireland and previously held senior risk and regulatory management consulting roles at Ernst & Young, KPMG and Accenture in the UK and globally.

His international industry and client consulting experience spans a wide range of risk and regulatory management roles both at the strategic and execution levels gained with leading financial services organisations across all major industry segments in a wide number of geographic markets.

Sarraf holds a specialised master’s degree in financial engineering from the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) and an MSc in finance from Dauphine University in France. He has authored many articles on financial risk management and is a frequent speaker at leading UK and international conferences.

Alpesh Doshi is a thought leader that focuses on how organisations can transform and future-proof their businesses using emerging technologies – particularly big data, analytics and blockchain. He is focused on innovative thinking and practical strategies to add value for his clients fast and often, introducing an agile approach of working to digital transformation.

David Semmens is Cadro's chief investment officer, overseeing the investment department and chairing all investment related committees. He is a non-executive director of RiskSave Technologies, a leading provider of technological and regulatory support to asset managers and leading fintechs. Semmens continues to sit on Wealthify's investment committee as an external advisor where he helped develop and oversee the firm’s ethical investment proposition. He also volunteers on the investment committee for one of Scotland's largest education charities and is an adjunct-lecturer delivering a postgraduate finance and investment course at Heriot Watt University. 

Since completing an MSc in economics at the University of Warwick, Semmens has worked in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, New York, and Paris, running the gauntlet in fintech, banking, insurance, and asset management for Wealthify (part of the Aviva Group), HSBC Asset Management, Euler Hermes, and Standard Chartered Bank. He is also a CFA Charterholder with an executive MBA from the University of Cambridge. In his spare time, Semmens enjoys playing cards, crime novels, and walking with his wife in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Rupanjana Borkataky is currently working as vice president in the traded risk modelling team at HSBC. She has over 13 years of experience with the bank in developing and monitoring models, mainly for market risk as part of first line of defence. Borkataky has been instrumental in setting up the monitoring function across different model types which helps in providing assurance to the regulators that the models used by the bank are fit for purpose. She holds an MBA in finance and is also a certified CQF and FRM.

Julien joined Artemis in November 2019 to build their investment risk capabilities from the ground up including Market risk, credit risk, Liquidity risk & ESG risk oversight across all the mandates managed on behalf of clients. Prior to Artemis, Julien headed the front office investment risk team at Janus Henderson covering the EMEA mandates across asset classes. His responsibilities covered market risk advisory and oversight, liquidity risk management and support into the front office governance framework including best execution and product governance support.  Julien graduated from Brussels Free University in 2004 in Applied Economics and has completed the Certificate for Quantitative Finance and the CFA program.

Jason Sechrist is the head of product solutions, Emea at AuditBoard where he works with various teams to help automate the administrative tasks of audit, risk and compliance activities. Sechrist was previously the global head of internal audit at Rackspace Managed Cloud Company where his responsibilities included developing and executing on a risk-based audit plan for the company's global footprint of data centers and office locations across the Americas, Europe and Asia. He started his auditing career with PwC in Silicon Valley, working primarily with software and cloud service providers where he advised chief technical officers, chief information security officers, compliance managers, and system engineers. Prior to becoming an auditor, Sechrist led user testing and development for global aviation weather visualization software as a service while serving on active duty for the United States Air Force. He remains active in the industry, volunteering as audit committee chair for the University of Texas San Antonio, and regularly speaks on topics relevant to technology risks at national and international IIA and ISACA events.
 

Katherine Wolicki is the Global Head of Engagement and Outreach for GARP Benchmarking Initiative (GBI).  GBI plays a key role in supporting evidence-based policymaking through the provision of industry benchmarking studies.  Prior to this she was with HSBC for 12 years where she led the Global Financial and Model Risk Regulatory Policy and Engagement team for Risk. The team was responsible for the external regulatory interface for the Traded Risk, Treasury Risk Management and Global Risk Analytics function.  This included the provision of guidance on regulatory risk matters, regulatory policy interpretation and industry engagement.   Prior to this she was based in Brussels as a Public Affairs consultant specialising in financial services regulation.  Katie has an MA in International Economic Relations from American University and a Maîtrise in European and International Law from the University of La Reunion. She is a fluent French speaker and an avid hiker and mountaineer.  

With near 40 years' experience, including UK government, senior legal private practice, corporate board level and academic roles, Mark is one of the UK's leading specialist technology lawyers.  He advises customers and providers in the acquisition and deployment of mission-critical technology products, systems, and IT-enabled services in several sectors, with a focus on regulated financial services and essential national infrastructure.

After 27 years as a partner in leading City of London and international law firms, including as a practice head, and as co-founder and chair of law firms associated with PwC and EY, Mark has rejoined Stephenson Harwood LLP (after a 26-year break) as a senior consultant in the Technology practice, based in their London office.  

Since 2019, Mark has been a Visiting Professor in Practice in the Law School of the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he has lectured on AI and machine learning, cybersecurity and resilience, cloud computing and related computing business models and relationships.  He has also been a guest lecturer on technology, outsourcing and offshoring at Warwick Business School and the Warwick Manufacturing Group.

Mark has served as chair of Morgan Chambers plc, one of Europe's leading sourcing and outsourcing advisory firms (since acquired by KPMG), as an independent non-executive director of Delt Shared Services Limited (a public sector-owned provider of IT, cyber and business process shared services to regional government, the NHS and other public services bodies), as well as a non-executive director of CoSector (a provider of, among others, computing services to the University of London and other major UK universities).

Mark has contributed chapters to various books and leading texts on information technology and outsourcing, as well as co-authoring white papers on ethical investment in AI and the ethical and legal deployment of AI in human capital management. He has had articles published in, among others, the Journal of Securities Operations & Custody, Practical Law (PLC), Practical Law Magazine, and was general editor and UK chapter author in Getting The Deal Through – Outsourcing (2014-16) and Getting The Deal Through – Cloud Computing (2018-20) ".

Mark was called to Bar (England and Wales) by Lincoln's Inn in 1982. He has practised as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales since requalifying in 1991

Mr. James Egginton is a Regional Sales Director for EMEA Analytics at FactSet. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing FactSet’s Risk products across the EMEA region. His primary focus is on ensuring the product meets clients’ regulatory and business needs. Prior to this position, he served as a Portfolio Analytics Specialist and Consultant. Mr. Egginton earned a degree in Chemistry from the University of York.

Nadia Bouzebra is the head of model risk management in Close Brothers, a UK merchant banking group who provides lending, deposit taking, wealth management services and securities trading. Within her current role, she is responsible for providing oversight and challenge to the models used in the Bank. The team ensures models are compliant with internal policy and governance, and with external regulations. They are also responsible for Close Brothers’ understanding and monitoring of the model risk through independent model validation and governance.

Bouzebra has a quantitative background - master’s degree in econometrics and a postgraduate in economics - with over 15 years of experience in risk management in the financial sector. She has worked in several significant engagements in France and UK, with a particular focus on model development, validation, risk governance, stress testing.

Victoria Collins' career spans over 25 years working in financial institutions, in trading, finance and risk roles, predominately in risk management. 

She has been with Nomura for ten years, focused on enterprise-wide risk management. Collins was appointed global head of climate risk & ESG three years ago. She is responsible for establishing and managing the global risk management framework for climate risk and ESG, and for ensuring risk management is aligned to the firm’s sustainability objectives, such as net zero.

Stella Farrington has been writing about energy markets for over 20 years, working at Futures World News and Dow Jones Newswires before moving to Energy Risk in 2004. She spent eight years as the editor of Energy Risk and six as a writer, before moving into her current role as Energy Risk’s head of content and a commercial editor with Infopro Digital’s Ignite team.

Jan-Carl Plagge is head of ESG research, a role in which he focuses on the implications of the various forms of ESG investing for investor outcomes. Prior to assuming his current role, he was head of active-passive portfolio research looking after index and active investing. Plagge has published in peer-reviewed journals and has presented his work at various practitioner and academic conferences.

He has over 18 years of experience in the financial industry. Prior to joining Vanguard, Plagge was head of research and co-head of product at STOXX, working in Frankfurt, New York and London. He also held product development roles with Deutsche Börse AG where he was responsible for the development of international equity and strategy indices.

Plagge earned a PhD in finance from the EBS - Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht, Wiesbaden, Germany and a MSc in business management from the University of Münster, Germany.

Valérie Villafranca joined Societe Generale 5 years ago. She has been director of the Societe Generale Group's ESG by design program for 2 years. The program is in charge of operationalizing the group’s ESG transformation. 

Villafranca started her career at Arthur Andersen where she was responsible for the risk management team in Paris. In 2006, Villafranca joined Aon to develop a consulting and financial intermediation activity specializing in carbon markets, climate risks and commodities. In 2010, she was appointed managing director in charge of Accenture's Emea banking risk management practice. Before joining SG Villafranca was a director at the Boston Consulting Group in charge of risk management and compliance consulting activities for the Wesa (Western Europe, South America and Africa) region.

Maria Lombardo heads the global ESG advisory team at Standard Chartered Bank, supporting the bank clients in their sustainability and transition strategies. She spent more than 25 years in investment banking as managing director, heading emerging market equities sales at Lazard, UBS, Sberbank and Unicredit. 

Lombardo moved into sustainability in 2016 when she joined the non-profit CDP as head of their financial investor members. She then headed the ESG client strategies and climate change strategies at Invesco Global Asset Management in Emea, leading the growth of sustainability investment solutions and the set-up of the global asset manager’s climate strategy. Authors of ESG thought leadership whitepapers, mentor, and contributor to industry initiatives in sustainable financing. Lombardo holds a CFA ESG, a diploma at Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership Institute, along with a CEMS Master and a bachelor’s degree in financial intermediaries at Bocconi University. She is a member of the CFA UK Climate and Investing committee, and is a mentor of the acceleration programme at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership.

David Carlin is an acknowledged authority on climate change and its implications for the financial system. He is the founder of Cambium Global Solutions, an advisor to governments, corporates, and financial institutions on climate and ESG topics. Carlin has authored numerous reports that provide practical tools for financial actors looking to address climate change and has run capacity-building programs for financial institutions and supervisors around the world. 

He is the head of climate risk and task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) for the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). Over the past years, he has worked with over 100 global banks, investors, and insurers on climate scenarios, climate risk assessments, and climate governance. 

Carlin is an advisor to UNEP FI’s  task force on nature-related financial disclosures (TNFD) pilot program on nature and biodiversity related risks as well as the net-zero banking alliance (NZBA). He has also been a technical advisor to the Glasgow Financial Alliances for Net Zero (GFANZ), is a contributor to Forbes and a senior associate at Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

He has worked as a principal in finance, risk, and public policy for Oliver Wyman and in model risk management for PNC Bank. Carlin's background is in quantitative modeling and decision science.

Björn Johansson is the head of group security at Swedbank. He is a former intelligence officer with the Swedish Military Intelligence Service. In his role as security chief at Swedbank, he has leaned on his experience from the intelligence service to establish an innovative corporate security unit that stands ready to meet an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Fazal Mohammed is the head of operational risk management – asset management at Phoenix Group. He has 15 years of financial services industry experience working across investment banking and insurance domains covering global businesses i.e., public and private markets. Focused on supporting first line functions in making sound business decisions on a risk adjusted basis is a key motivation for success.

In his spare time, Mohammed enjoys football, movies and the company of a good book.

Merlin Linehan is a risk manager at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He is also a regular commentator and speaker on geopolitical and climate topics.

Chris Knight took the role of group chief risk officer in May 2021. For the previous three years he had been the chief executive of Legal and General’s retail retirement business, where he led the expansion of annuity propositions, developed one of the leading providers of lifetime mortgages and launched their financial advice and care businesses. Knight also serves as Legal and General’s customer champion, representing retail customers’ interests across the whole product range, a perspective he brings to his chief risk officer role. 

He has previously held positions at Legal and General of finance director of the international division, and chief financial officer of Legal & General Assurance Society. Knight has a first-class economics degree from King’s College, Cambridge and has worked on four continents in a career spanning more than three decades. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Prior to joining Risk, he reported on the futures and foreign exchange industries for Dow Jones' Financial News and the Euromoney group of publications. Osborn holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Warwick.

Andrew Dillin is a seasoned security intelligence lead in the field of cyber security, with over a decade of experience in safeguarding digital environments from evolving threats. With a background in computer science and a passion for staying ahead of emerging cyber risks, he has dedicated his career to protecting organisations against cyber-attacks and security threats.

Throughout his career, Dillin has spearheaded numerous initiatives to enhance security postures, leveraging his expertise in threat intelligence, incident response, and vulnerability management. His insights have been instrumental in fortifying the defenses of a number of finance sector companies.

Andrew Morkot is a UK-based lead consultant for Riskonnect. He has worked in the resilience sector for over 25 years and specialises in the development and testing of highly effective, simple, meaningful, and flexible business continuity and incident management systems and solutions, tailored to align perfectly with operational resilience, organisational strategy, and meeting customer requirements.

Michael Grimwade is managing director, operational risk, at ICBC Standard Bank and has previously held senior op risk management roles at MUFG Securities, RBS and Lloyds. Prior to this, he held management consultant positions at PwC and Deloitte Consulting. Grimwade has been a director of the Institute of Operational Risk (IOR) and is currently the chair of the Association of Foreign Banks' Operational Risk Expert Panel. He has authored a number of articles on setting appetite for op risk; scenario analysis techniques; climate change; quantifying emerging risks; and modelling op risk capital. He received an award in 2014 from the IOR for his contribution to the profession. His second book, Ten laws of operational risk, was published in December 2021.

Vasiliki has more than seven years experience in operational risk capital modelling at Credit Suisse. Currently, she is working on climate risk assessments for operational risk through analytics at UBS. Vasiliki is skilled in quantitative analysis and risk management, with a master's degree in financial risk management from University College London (UCL). She acquired a certificate in ESG investing from CFA in 2021 due to a high interest in climate risk management and the overall ESG realm.

Jeff Simmons joined MUFG Bank in June 2014 as the head of enterprise risk, tasked with creating the function. He has been involved intensively with the enhancement of the risk management framework in MUFG Bank (Europe). This has involved him in the formation of an enterprise risk function in Amsterdam tasked with delivering the full range of regulatory submissions.  In April 2018, Simmons transitioned to MUFG Securities to become involved in the Brexit project. In this capacity he is the chief risk officer for MUFG Securities (Europe) N.V. the Dutch subsidiary of MUFG Securities (EMEA).

Prior to joining the bank, Simmons spent some 20 years specializing in best practice risk management including market risk, credit risk, risk model validation and regulatory risk consulting. As well as having line management responsibilities in various institutions he has also gained extensive experience in implementing risk management frameworks from both a technical and operating model-based perspective.

Justin C McCarthy has worked in risk, complinace and leadership roles in many firms, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ulster Bank (RBS / NatWest) and with the Irish financial regulator at the Central Bank of Ireland. This work has allowed him to see the changes in risk management and compliance since through and beyond the recent global financial crisis. His work on the PRISM risk-based supervision framework with the Irish regulator included exposure to banking, funds and insurance risk practices as well as the quantitative work done on the related impact models and the challenge in feeding valid financial data to these models.

He is CEO of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA). This is a global risk management professional body and education organization for risk managers based in the United States with a network of over 45,000 in over 60 chapters around the world. Previous to this, he spent several years as a senior volunteer for PRMIA, serving on many committees and ultimately chairing the global board.

Justin has a BSc in Computer Science from University College Cork and an MBA from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin. He has a corporate director certificate from Harvard Business School.

Jeff Simmons joined MUFG Bank in June 2014 as the head of enterprise risk, tasked with creating the function. He has been involved intensively with the enhancement of the risk management framework in MUFG Bank (Europe). This has involved him in the formation of an enterprise risk function in Amsterdam tasked with delivering the full range of regulatory submissions.  In April 2018, Simmons transitioned to MUFG Securities to become involved in the Brexit project. In this capacity he is the chief risk officer for MUFG Securities (Europe) N.V. the Dutch subsidiary of MUFG Securities (EMEA).

Prior to joining the bank, Simmons spent some 20 years specializing in best practice risk management including market risk, credit risk, risk model validation and regulatory risk consulting. As well as having line management responsibilities in various institutions he has also gained extensive experience in implementing risk management frameworks from both a technical and operating model-based perspective.

Kanwardeep Ahluwalia is co-head of global markets risk for Bank of America. He joined Bank of America from Swiss Re where he was the group head of financial risk management, which included the role of chief risk officer for asset management, as well as serving as the reinsurance chief risk officer for Emea. Prior to that, Ahluwalia worked at Bear Stearns where he had a number of positions leading to the roles of chief risk officer for Europe & Asia and global head of market risk. This was preceded by a period working in regulation for the UK’s former Securities & Futures Authority.

Juan Jose Salcedo is assistant vice president of the risk governance and strategic analysis team at BNP Paribas UK office. He oversees the risk appetite metric computation and management information for the global banking UK portfolio. Salcedo has a background in economics and statistics holding a master degree in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a career that expands banking, consultancy, and economic research in three countries. More recently he’s been certified in sustainability and climate risk. Salcedo is passionate about integrating market events into business decisions and over the lockdown periods picked up birdwatching a banana bread baking as hobbies.

Victoria Collins' career spans over 25 years working in financial institutions, in trading, finance and risk roles, predominately in risk management. 

She has been with Nomura for ten years, focused on enterprise-wide risk management. Collins was appointed global head of climate risk & ESG three years ago. She is responsible for establishing and managing the global risk management framework for climate risk and ESG, and for ensuring risk management is aligned to the firm’s sustainability objectives, such as net zero.

Chris Knight is currently the director of Market Partners Pty Ltd and is assisting the cross-asset electronic liquidity provider XTX Markets in its distribution push in Asia-Pacific. He was previously head of e-trading (East) FXRC at Standard Chartered where he was responsible for executing the banks electronic trading strategy across rates, FX and credit trading. Knight is a seasoned foreign exchange practitioner with over 25 years of foreign exchange trading experience. He returned to Australia a year ago after spending the 17 years of his career in Asia with senior roles in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Knight is a member of the Global ACI FX Committee and is also a member of the Australian FX Committee which operates under the sponsorship of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Hanna Sarraf is a senior risk management executive, with over twenty five years’ experience in developing and implementing risk and regulatory management frameworks that deliver effective results in the financial services industry. He was most recently the chief risk strategy officer at Starling Bank and was previously the group chief risk officer at Bankmed, a regional corporate, retail and private banking organisation with operations across the Emea region. Prior to joining Bankmed, Sarraf was the group executive, head of risk strategy at Bank of Ireland and previously held senior risk and regulatory management consulting roles at Ernst & Young, KPMG and Accenture in the UK and globally.

His international industry and client consulting experience spans a wide range of risk and regulatory management roles both at the strategic and execution levels gained with leading financial services organisations across all major industry segments in a wide number of geographic markets.

Sarraf holds a specialised master’s degree in financial engineering from the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) and an MSc in finance from Dauphine University in France. He has authored many articles on financial risk management and is a frequent speaker at leading UK and international conferences.

Antonello Russo is a director within BlackRock's risk and quantitative analysis group. He is responsible for the investment risk management of index strategies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, spanning segregated mandates, commingled funds and the iShares exchange-traded fund range. Before joining BlackRock, Russo was head of risk for the investment management arm of Beazley, a Lloyds of London insurer. Prior to this, he worked for Deutsche Bank, where he was a director on the collateralised equity financing and prime brokerage sales desk, and before that a risk manager for fixed income. He holds an honour degree from Bocconi University in Milan, where he graduated in 1995 in monetary and financial economics.

Alpesh Doshi is a thought leader that focuses on how organisations can transform and future-proof their businesses using emerging technologies – particularly big data, analytics and blockchain. He is focused on innovative thinking and practical strategies to add value for his clients fast and often, introducing an agile approach of working to digital transformation.

Michael Grimwade is managing director, operational risk, at ICBC Standard Bank and has previously held senior op risk management roles at MUFG Securities, RBS and Lloyds. Prior to this, he held management consultant positions at PwC and Deloitte Consulting. Grimwade has been a director of the Institute of Operational Risk (IOR) and is currently the chair of the Association of Foreign Banks' Operational Risk Expert Panel. He has authored a number of articles on setting appetite for op risk; scenario analysis techniques; climate change; quantifying emerging risks; and modelling op risk capital. He received an award in 2014 from the IOR for his contribution to the profession. His second book, Ten laws of operational risk, was published in December 2021.

Fazal Mohammed is the head of operational risk management – asset management at Phoenix Group. He has 15 years of financial services industry experience working across investment banking and insurance domains covering global businesses i.e., public and private markets. Focused on supporting first line functions in making sound business decisions on a risk adjusted basis is a key motivation for success.

In his spare time, Mohammed enjoys football, movies and the company of a good book.

Stefana Brown is chief risk officer, UK protection and fintech, and director, IT and data protection risk, at Legal & General Retail. She spent 10 years at Lloyds Banking Group and four at M&G Investments before joining Legal & General Retail.

Sophie Dupre‑Echeverria is the chief risk and compliance officer of Gulf International Bank (UK) Limited. She is responsible for driving an effective risk culture throughout the company, designing the risk and compliance frameworks and overseeing risk management and regulatory compliance practices. Dupre‑Echeverria joined GIB (UK) with extensive experience in the field, having previously served as executive director for compliance and operational risk control at UBS Asset Management. Before this, she was the global head of operational organisational risk at Barings and non-executive director of the Baring-Coller Secondaries Fund. Dupre‑Echeverria was also an operational risk manager and the group head of investment risk framework at Schroders.

She graduated from Université Lumière Lyon 2 with a master’s degree in economics and finance. Dupre‑Echeverria is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, a fellow of the Climate Safe Lending Network and a trustee of First Light South West, a charity supporting people affected by sexual violence and domestic abuse.

Amit Lakhani is a thorough IT risk and information security leader with a proven track record of leading, developing, designing and delivering wide variety of programs over the span of last 15+ years. He has a particular interest in raising information risks at board level and enabling business through mitigation or avoidance of IT risks through industry-accepted and sometimes cutting-edge solutions.

Lakhani has presented and published a number of research papers, articles and chapters in the information security field. His key focus has always been keeping the balance between business, technological and operational issues. In Lakhani's most recent position at BNP Paribas, he leads the IT risks and third party risk management practices globally for the corporate and institutional banking business. Lakhani has developed and implemented robust methodologies for effective IT risk management and is embedding a strong framework for internal and external vendor risk management.

Danny Frost joined Legal and General in 2023 and currently serves as global head of operational risk. 

Before joining Legal and General, Frost joined AIG in June 2015 and served as chief risk officer and regional head of operational risk for Emea and Apac. Before joining AIG, he held roles in investment banking, managing derivative operations, the middle office and prime brokerage functions. Frost spent 19 years at Credit Suisse and most recently held the positions of global head of operational risk for collateral, clearing, valuations and liquidity, and global head of new business and new product approval.

Praveen Singh heads up the IT risk and cybersecurity at ICBC Standard Bank. He has spent over 20 years in the financial services sector, including 10 years in management consultancy.  Singh likes to speak about technology, risk, regulation, cybersecurity and transformation. He is also a fan of Formula 1 and cricket.

Hasintha Gunawickrema is an experienced leader in the financial services industry, having led numerous large-scale business, digital, and culture transformational programs across UK, Europe, and Asia. Throughout her career, she has been instrumental in delivering better outcomes for both customers and colleagues. Gunawickrema's focus on improving operational excellence has also led to significant improvements in enterprise-wide risk management and Business growth.

With nearly two decades of experience in the financial services industry, she has held various roles across Europe, UK, and Asia. These roles have included chief operating officer, chief control officer, chief administration officer, head of business performance, and finance business partnering. Gunawickrema's last role was with HSBC as the chief control officer for wealth and personal banking in the UK.

As the Chief Control Officer, she was responsible for overseeing the risk and control framework across the bank’s risk taxonomy, ensuring that it is effective and aligned with regulatory requirements. Gunawickrema's role also involves monitoring the bank's risk management practices, identifying potential risks, and implementing appropriate controls to mitigate them.

In addition to her extensive experience, she is an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Business School and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) - UK. Gunawickrema's background and education have undoubtedly contributed to her success in the financial services industry.

With her extensive experience across risk, digital, transformation, cost management and business growth, she is well-positioned to help organizations navigate these challenges and achieve their strategic objectives. Gunawickrema's dedication to delivering results and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration make her an invaluable asset to any team.

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