GFSC - Finovation: The Guernsey Edge

Tim Jones CBE is the Executive Director of Tata Limited, representing the Tata Group in London.

After graduating from Christ’s College Cambridge with a degree in the History and Philosophy of Science, his early career was spent at Shell UK, Lucas Industries and playing guitar in a pop group.

Tim spent 17 years at NatWest, working extensively on payment systems including the development of Mondex digital cash, before going on to become NatWest’s Chief Executive of Retail Banking. After NatWest Bank, Tim was the CEO of Simpay Limited, a payments initiative owned by Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Telefonica Moviles.

In 2007, the UK Government appointed Tim to lead the design and build of what became NEST Pensions, during which time he became a customer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He was awarded a CBE for his work on pensions.

Tim left NEST in 2015 to return to the world of digital cash, designing and leading Tibado, a new design for Central Bank Digital Cash.

Tim’s corporate Board service includes Capital One Bank (Europe) PLC in London and ITG Inc, a NYSE listed institutional broker/dealer, in New York. He served as an Independent Director at ITG for 14 years until its takeover by Virtu Financial in 2019.

Tim also served, from 2018 until 2021, as a Non-Executive Director of the Money and Pensions Service in the UK, a UK Government body focused on debt advice, money guidance and pensions. Tim is a Trustee of the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, a London-based think tank.

Simon Fried is VP of Marketing at Classiq, the leading quantum computing software company. With 14 years of experience of deep technology companies and as a 3x company founder, Simon has worked in the solar power, medical device, 3D printing, electronics, bio-tech, food-tech and advanced computation sectors. Previously, he worked as a strategy consultant on projects covering sectors such as pharma, automotive, financial services and regulation, retail, FMCG, pharmaceutical and telecom industries. A graduate of UCL, Bocconi and Oxford University he's a bit of a geek when it comes to the psychology of risk and consumer decision making.

Guy has a wide-ranging practice which covers corporate finance, capital markets and private equity led transactions. He advises financial institutions, funds and governments on investments in, and fund raisings of, financial institutions, including restructurings and asset sales and regulatory matters.

Guy regularly acts for a number of UK and international companies, including Drax Group, Euroclear, Banco Santander, Santander UK, Legal & General, Prudential, United Utilities, GlaxoSmithKline, UK Asset Resolution, M&G and Direct Line. He has also been heavily involved in the restructuring of UK financial institutions following the global financial crisis and their ongoing resolution, acting for HM Government, and more recently emergency funding measures to support the UK economy during the COVID pandemic.

Guy is ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers UK and as a market leading lawyer in the Capital markets: Debt and Capital markets section of IFLR 1000. Guy is listed as a leading individual in Legal500.

David is a partner in Slaughter and May’s Financial Regulation Group and a member of its Financial Institutions Group. His practice incorporates transactional and advisory work for a broad range of established financial institutions, financial technology firms and challenger banks.

He has detailed practical experience of the prudential and conduct regimes that apply to UK financial institutions in all financial sectors, and of the UK recovery and resolution regime. He regularly advises financial institutions and investors on the structuring of capital instruments, with a particular focus on complex funding models, group structures and capital structuring in an M&A context, including leveraged acquisition structures.

David is co-author, alongside Jan Putnis and Nick Bonsall, of the UK chapter of the Banking Regulation Review (published by Law Business Research).

Recent highlights include advising:

·         Nationwide Building Society on its recommended acquisition of Virgin Money UK PLC

·         Monzo on its £340m Series I funding round

·         HM Treasury on the implications of the crisis in confidence in Credit Suisse

Katherine was appointed as co-Deputy Director General in December 2022 and is responsible for finance, IT, risk, and financial stability. Katherine joined the Commission in June 2016 as Chief Risk Officer from Deloitte in London where she provided prudential and risk support to a wide range of FCA regulated firms; this included working with firms following regulatory issues. Prior to this, Katherine spent five years at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA and previously the Financial Services Authority) where she supervised a wide range of firms including FTSE Listed companies. In her role, Katherine is responsible for the oversight of bringing new technology and AI into the Commission’s own systems and developing new tools and techniques for supervisors to ensure our processes are as efficient and effective as possible.

Alison joined the Commission in October 2010 as an Analyst in the Investment Business Division and was promoted to Senior Analyst in December 2013. In May 2015 she took up the role of Assistant Director in the Authorisations Unit, and was promoted to Deputy Director in November 2016. In September 2018, Alison transferred as Deputy Director to the newly formed Investment, Fiduciary and Pension Division where she headed up the supervisory team. She was promoted to co-Director of the Authorisations and Innovation Division in October 2021.

Prior to joining the Commission Alison worked in the Bailiwick’s financial services sector for over 15 years. Alison graduated from the University of Durham with a degree in Geography, and also holds a degree in Financial Services from UMIST. 

Caroline joined the Commission in February 2008 as Assistant Director in the Insurance Division, and was appointed Deputy Director in the Banking and Insurance Division in October 2011. She moved to the Authorisations and Innovation Division in February 2020 and was appointed co-Director in October 2021. Caroline graduated in Economics from the University of Manchester and completed a graduate training programme with a UK insurer. She then became a Loss Adjuster before moving to Guernsey in 1994 and spending 14 years in the local insurance industry prior to joining the Commission. Caroline is a former President of the Insurance Institute of Guernsey and chaired the Captive Insurer Drafting Group of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors which published the Application Paper on the Regulation and Supervision of Captive Insurers in November 2015. 

Conor was appointed as Deputy Director in the Risk and Operations Division in January 2019 with an added responsibility of being Head of Projects and Innovation since September 2022. Conor joined the Commission in May 2016, working as Assistant Director in Risk before being appointed to his current role. At the Commission, Conor oversees the delivery of our three-year business plan projects and leads the delivery of key projects, specifically related to data, IT infrastructure, artificial intelligence, suptech and risk-based supervision. Conor is a member of the Interntional Association of Insurance Supervisors fintech forum, the Bank for International Settlements informal suptech network, and between 2019 and 2023 coordinating member of the Global Financial Innovation Network.

Prior to joining the Commission, Conor spent 16 years as a university academic, with senior lecturing roles in Manchester and Nottingham (UK), and a visiting professorship in Leuven (Belgium). During this time, Conor specialised in teaching, research and consultancy relating to high-performance sport and has worked at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is also published in several peer-reviewed, scientific journals. Conor holds a BSc from Nottingham Trent University, an MSc from Loughborough University, and a PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Ryan Warne is a Partner at d-fine and heads the UK subsidiary of the organisation. Since graduating in 2010 with a PhD in Astrophysics, Ryan has worked at the firm with his role heavily focussed on the areas of technology and regulation – particularly their interplay. With d-fine’s strong ethos of innovation and its scientific approach to solution engineering and implementation, Ryan has been able to help steer numerous public and private sector organisations through policy and technology change. When Ryan is not working with his clients, he can be found swimming, golfing or running after his two young children.

Mark Sedwill, Baron Sedwill of Sherborne GCMG FRGS LLD, is Chairman of Geopolitical Advisory, Saudi Arabia and Supervisory Board member for Rothschild & Co and a non-executive director of Lloyd’s of London and BAE Systems. He is a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. He chaired the 2021 G7 Panel on Global Economic Resilience and is Chairman of the Atlantic Future Forum.

Lord Sedwill was Cabinet Secretary & Head of the Civil Service (2018-20), National Security Adviser (2017-20), Permanent Secretary at the Home Office (2013-17), and British Ambassador and NATO Representative in Afghanistan (2009-11). Before that he had a diplomatic and security career serving in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Pakistan.

Educated at St Andrews and Oxford Universities, Lord Sedwill is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Institute of Directors, an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University and of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is President of the Special Forces Club, an Honorary Colonel in the Royal Marines and Vice-President of the Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charities (RNRMC). He is President of the Civil Service Retirement Association and a Trustee of IISS, and of the RNLI.

Lord Sedwill is an Honorary Doctor of Laws of St Andrews University, and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple. He is also the recipient of several awards and honours for national and international public service.

Alexis Augier is the founder and CEO of Vega, the core operating system for alternatives. Prior to founding Vega, Alexis was an investment professional at Elliott and KKR. Alexis started his career at Goldman Sachs.

As the CEO and Founder of B2B alternative asset infrastructure solutions provider, Ctrl Alt, Matt is playing a pivotal role in opening up the world of alternative asset investing.

After achieving a first-class undergraduate degree in Economics, with his fitting final dissertation on breaking down barriers to film investing, Ong went onto work across fund structuring, alternative investments and trading at Morgan Stanley. He was then hired by Credit Suisse to build out their fund structuring business, as an expert in the field.

Matt's experience in these roles exposed him to various complexities and inefficiencies within traditional investment avenues, sparking his determination to bring about meaningful change in the industry and hence how Ctrl Alt was born.

Dan is a successful serial entrepreneur, having founded his first computer software business at the age of 13, which he ran for five years. Dan is the inventor of a range of patents, and the author of several books and over 30 papers, including co-authoring the UK Government’s Foresight project paper “Technology Trends in the Financial Markets, a 2020 Vision”.

Dan is Entrepreneur in Residence at University College London, where he has commercialised a range of computer science activities and is an international speaker and media commentator on Information Systems. Dan is Director of Industrial Relations for the Centre for Doctoral Training in Financial Computing and Analytics at UCL and has led on the industrialisation of undergraduate, MSc, doctoral and faculty intellectual property.