WealthBriefing European Awards 2017

Ausaf Abbas founded Coombe Advisors to provide strategic, business and financial advice to a network of clients and associated businesses, with a focus on family offices, the wealth management industry and growth-oriented companies. Prior to that, Ausaf had a 25-year career at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, where he held various senior management positions in both investment banking and wealth management. His international experience includes 13 years based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, and extensive experience managing wealth businesses across the MENA region. His broad range of interests include acting as senior advisor to a real estate investment banking firm and serving as a director of SEO London and Tara Arts, two charities focused on education and Asian theatre.

Ian is an experienced board and executive advisor/partner to wealth and asset managers; family offices, software firms and fin-techs helping to achieve and accelerate their path to be future ready and well positioned ahead of the next wave of industry and competitive disruption. Ian provides industry, strategic, client centric and modern technology assessment, focus and implementation insights, drawing on my extensive network and wide-ranging business and technology model approaches and change experience to optimise growth, resilience and performance. Ian is recognised as a trusted advisor, having supported a range of firms both as an independent advisor, partner and as an executive of major technology and business consulting brands including EY,IBM, PwC and Orbium ,a software platform integrator, sold to Accenture in 2019 where he then held a wider European wealth industry business and technology transformation advisor role across key markets and clients, until 2023, when he became an independent board advisor and partner.

Keith has been a partner advising financial services firms for over 35 years, leading businesses for EY, CapGemini and Capco.  He led EY’s Wealth Management and Private Banking business for over 10 years and continues to advise organisations in this sector.  He is currently advising a range of fintechs and other start/scale ups on strategy, distribution, partnerships and funding.  He is also a trustee and adviser to several philanthropic and charity bodies.

Paul joined BDO in 2000 becoming a partner in 2006 and is now head of BDO’s national private client practice. Paul advises in respect of all private client related tax matters but with a particular specialism in advising clients on their residence and domicile positions. Recognised as one of the most influential individuals in the wealth management industry, Paul is also is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Rosalyn Breedy, is a Corporate, Funds and Financial Services lawyer and Managing Director of Breedy Henderson. She has 30 years of experience working in private practice, investment banking and at a multi-family office. Rosalyn has a particular interest in financial regulation, and financial policy work alongside ESG, diversity and inclusion and she regularly writes and speaks on these matters.

Rosalyn is a non-executive director of Abdrn Smaller Companies Income Trust plc, Artorius Wealth Ltd,   Lanware Ltd  and Greengage Global Holding ltd. Chairman of the Milltrust International Advisory Council, sponsor of the Climate Impact Asia fund. Additionally, she is a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment Integrity and Ethics Committee, a member of the Advisory Council to Black Women in Asset Management and an Associate fellow Said Business School, Oxford University.

Sebastian Dovey is an entrepreneur, thought leader and board director in the fields of global wealth management, consumer insight, technology, scale-up companies and business management. Seb was the co-founder in 1998 of Scorpio Partnership, an award-winning global management consultancy and insight data business. This was acquired by Aon PLC in 2014. Seb is currently Chairman of F2 Strategy, and holds non-executive board roles at FiComm, Entrepreneurs Investment Office, and Angel Academe Nominee. He also holds advisory board seats at Moneyhub, Align 17 and Silver Lane. Separately, Seb is the Chairman of the Global Client Experience Innovation Committee for a major international bank and advises two sizeable financial families on their strategic growth for their investment offices.

Seb’s expertise spans 25 years of developing high-impact commercial strategies for private banks, global banks, asset managers, family offices, technology firms, service providers, aggregators and start-up initiatives. Seb is the 2018 winner of the Wealth Briefing Thought Leader of the Year award and he is Thought Leader-In-Residence for Fitch Learning worldwide. He is a regular commentator on the wealth management industry in the press and at conferences and academies, and has chaired and presented leading industry events in Asia, Europe and the United States. He has been a lecturer at The Swiss Finance Institute (formerly the Swiss Banking School) for its executive MBA programme. He serves as board member of the London School of Economics Generate initiative focused on entrepreneurship in the social sciences and is on the editorial board of WealthBriefing.

Steve is a founding director of Investment & Wealth Management Consultants (“IAWMC”) who provide a full spectrum of consulting services, from strategic advice through to delivery for wealth managers, private banks, family offices, asset managers, software vendors and service providers.

Steve has over 30 years’ experience in the Financial Services’ industry and has held senior positions in the Wealth Management sector as Operations Director for Schroders Private Bank and Head of Product Development for State Street's Wealth Manager Services division. In addition, he has worked at The Bank of New York
where he managed their enterprise level global banking relationships and at Citisoft Consultants where he was Head of European Business Development.

Steve is a regular keynote speaker at Wealth Management events and is often quoted in the press. He also serves on the judging panel for a number of prestigious industry awards covering the UK, Channel Islands and Switzerland and has been included in the Top 100 Most Influential People in Service Provision for Alternative
Investment Firms for the past 3 years.

By utilising his extensive network of contacts and market knowledge, Steve is able to add value to start-up & scale up Fintech companies and private equity organisations.

Wendy has been a wealth management journalist, researcher and consultant for a decade, covering a huge range of international markets and sub-sectors over that time. Known as a technology and communications specialist, she has written an array of in-depth reports on issues affecting private banks and wealth managers, ranging from compliance and innovation trends through to client experience, branding and marketing strategies. As well as speaking at conferences in both the UK and abroad, Wendy also regularly consults for wealth and asset managers, including carrying out research projects among end H/UHNW clients for both internal and external purposes.

Co-founder of Lord North Street Private Investment Office, which was sold to Sandaire Investment Office in 2014, William Drake is a co-founder of Owl Private Office and chairman of RFR Property Private Office.  A barrister and US attorney, William worked in the investment and corporate finance business from 1979 at Kleinwort Benson and Granville before establishing Lord North Street in 2000. He has advised public and private companies and their owners on a wide range of matters. He is an experienced participant in investment committees , non-executive director and chairman.

Bruce is a chartered accountant with over 37 years financial services experience, previously a partner in PwC, latterly as Global leader of their Wealth Management practice and the key driver of their bi-annual Wealth Management Report. Bruce is now CEO of Weatherill Consulting providing advice on client centricity and wider strategic matters to wealth managers. He is the author of The Value of Trust: the quest by Wealth Managers for Trusted Advisor status and a number of other thought leadership reports. Bruce is chairman of ClearView Financial Media and a non-executive of a number of companies including Fidelity Holdings UK, The Wisdom Council, ComPeer, JDX Consulting and Ten Group.

Eric Barnett is an independent non-executive director, having previously been chief executive officer of Kleinwort Hambros, the UK private bank formed from the old SG Hambros and Kleinwort Benson businesses for 11 years 2007-2018. He has over 30 years’ experience in Wealth Management, with a particular focus on commercial and strategy, and has been behind a number of well-known acquisitions in the sector. He is also currently working with a challenger bank in the SME sector.

Etienne d’Arenberg, born 1967, is a Limited Partner at Mirabaud since 2011. He joined the group in 1999 and has developed a very significant portfolio of private clients, including large families and entrepreneurs, who learnt to appreciate his strong investment convictions, his holistic approach to assessing their environment, and his very close attention to their needs.

In 2016, he took over the management of the UK market for the group and sits on the board of Mirabaud Europe Ltd, the European bank of the group. In 2019, in the context of Brexit, Etienne moved to the UK to follow more closely the development of the UK political, legal and tax environment.

Starting his career at the Compagnie Générale des Eaux, one of the world's largest utilities at the time, Etienne joined in 1995 Creditanstalt Investment Bank (CAIB) in Vienna as a Managing Director focusing on CEE countries and in charge of the group wide asset management and of the private equity departments.

Etienne d’Arenberg sits on or chairs several charity boards, most notably linked to music, in Switzerland, Europe and United Kingdom and sits on the board of his own family's Family Office. He holds a MSc (Mgt) from Boston University and graduated from the Hotel Management School of Lausanne. He speaks fluently French, English, German and Italian and has a fair knowledge of Spanish and Dutch.

Gillian is a chartered accountant, a chartered banker and a member of the CISI with MBAs in both banking and finance, and degrees in economics and law. Gillian started off in audit with Price Waterhouse before moving into industry post-qualification. She spent several years working for various financial institutions as well as working for a number years as a senior management consultant, before moving to a role as head of change at a small private bank. Gillian is currently heading up the cyber security programme for global payments at HSBC.

Hans-Peter Borgh was appointed head of wealth management of Banque Internationale a Luxembourg in November 2015. Hans-Peter’s responsibilities include leading BIL’s private banking and investment related activities in Denmark, Dubai Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland. A banker with 20 years experience, Hans-Peter joined BIL from ABN AMRO where he was chief commercial officer Asia & Middle East. Prior to that he was regional head of affluent banking Asia Pacific at ANZ. Hans-Peter started his career at ABN AMRO where he held positions in Amsterdam, London, New York, Hong Kong and Zurich.

Iain joined London & Capital in in 2006 and became a Partner in 2008. He heads the firm’s Private Investment Office, which he founded in 2012. The Private Investment Office provides wealth management services for some of the firm’s largest clients, both UK based and international. 

Before London & Capital, Iain ran his own wealth management business, in association with Zurich Financial Services, where he built a large HNW client base. Prior to that, he was a Partner at Freeman, Farmer and Anderson Company at only 27.

Iain was named Private Client Asset Manager of the Year by Magic Circle Awards in 2021 and as Top Recommended in UNHW Wealth Managers 2022.

Iain is also a trustee for the Daniel Freedman Foundation.

Jean-Louis Tourne’s international corporate banking experience began as a swap trader in New York. His subsequent career has seen him appointed as head of corporate banking at BNP in Los Angeles and Taiwan, and as the firm’s deputy head of wealth management in Singapore and then head of wealth management in Bahrain, Taiwan and Greece (including a position as Chief Executive of Piraeus Wealth Management, a joint venture between BNP Wealth Management and Piraeus Bank).

He has been posted in London since 10/2012.

John Reed has 36 years experience in the financial services industry, over 20 of these at board level. Following his early career with Midland Bank, John spent 14 years with Hambros Bank. Following the firm’s acquisition by Societe Generale, he became group head of risk, then group chief operating officer. His last full-time role was as chief executive of private bank Arbuthnot Latham where he subsequently became a non-executive director. John has held many non-executive director roles, including at Tesco Bank, and today is a non-executive director of five banks and financial services businesses. He recently joined the board of Ford’s in-house bank, FCE Bank.

Mark Hussein is the UK CEO of HSBC Life and Head of UK Insurance at HSBC. Mark has spent more than two decades in a variety of financial services roles, with the majority working for HSBC Group. He was appointed CEO, HSBC Life (UK), and Head of UK Insurance in November 2015. He is responsible for the Life manufacturing business and General Insurance Partnerships across HSBC, First Direct and M&S Bank.

Between two tenures at HSBC, Mark spent three years with Kleinwort Benson as Head of Private Wealth Management UK and the Channel Islands. This gave him responsibility for both Private Banking and Private Fiduciary Services in the UK, Channel Islands and Internationally. He was a member of the Kleinwort Benson group regional executive committee and sat on the board of Kleinwort Benson Trustees.

Combining both an in-depth knowledge of marketing strategy and business development, Matthew has sat on senior management teams and led significant business growth. His deep experience with HNW/UHNW clients, knowledge of wealth management and expertise in marketing strategy to improve brand awareness, client experience and business development are extensive. Until recently he was Managing Director, Head of Business Development & Marketing at Close Brothers Asset Management having previously held senior management positions at Deutsche Bank, Coutts and Credit Suisse.

Mike Reed is managing director, multi family offices for RBC Wealth Management’s international business.

Based in London, Mike has overall responsibility for multi-family offices, and as part of the sales and relationship management team plays a key role in developing its client strategy. He started his career in the Canadian financial services industry and worked as a private client advisor.  Since joining RBC, Mike has held several roles including head of affluent and retirement client strategy and managing director for the RBC Trust Company.

Nick has 20 years experience in the wealth management sector. He currently serves as head of wealth management for Global Emerging Markets at UBS in London, where he leads a team of 100 professionals covering clients in Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. In addition, he is also responsible for the firm’s Financial Intermediaries business, and philanthropy proposition in UK and Jersey. Prior to this, for five years, Nick was head of Investment Products & Services, responsible for the investment offering for over GBP30bn of client assets booked in UK and Jersey. Nick joined UBS in 2002, after spending five years at another wealth management firm.

After seven years as a consultant Olivier joined the BNP Paribas group in 1990.  In 1994 he was appointed managing director of BNP Paribas Equities France and in 2000 moved to BNP Paribas Private Banking as head of the advisory desk. Oliver has been global head of investment services for the business line since 2004. As such he covers the conception and marketing of products, advisory and discretionary portfolio management, as well as fiduciary and wealth planning services for wealth management entities worldwide. He has also been in charge of the sales and marketing function since 2010 and has been a member of BNP Paribas Wealth Management’s executive committee since 2004.

Penny has more than 20 years experience advising private clients, families and charities and joined Sanlam to develop their high net worth and family office offering in September 2017. Prior to this she held various executive roles in wealth management. At Close Brothers she was head of private client and responsible for marketing and distribution across the various business channels. Before that she was managing director at Rothschild. Penny was also head of business development and marketing at Fleming Family & Partners where she also covered philanthropy and financial education. Penny also sits on the boards of Pennies, The Digital Charity Box, Prism the Gift Fund and the development board for Park Theatre.

Richard spent his early career as a bonds fund manager and analyst with BZW but then spent close to two decades in The British Army. Returning to fund management he became a director at Mercury Asset Management and Cazenove Capital Management. He then became a director of Singer & Friedlander followed by two years in Perth with Braveheart Ventures. Recalled to London he spent five years as head of philanthropy with DSP concurrently working with a major UK-based single-family office. Now vice chairman at Floreat, Richard is chairman of Impact Investment Partners and sits on the London School of Economics investment committee.

Tom Burroughes is group editor of ClearView Financial Media, publisher of WealthBriefing, WealthBriefingAsia and Family Wealth Report. Tom has worked at ClearView since 2008, reporting on news stories, interviewing industry leaders, writing features and comment pieces, and has spoken at conferences in London, Guernsey and Vienna, among other locations. He has discussed the industry’s issues on Reuters television and the BBC. Previously, Tom was wealth management editor of The Business, the weekly UK magazine run by the Telegraph Group, from 2007 to 2008. Before that, he was a correspondent in various roles at Reuters, the global newswire. Between 1994 and 2000, he was a reporter for Market News International, a New York-headquartered newswire.

Tom is a Managing Director and Head of International Product and Origination at iCapital Network, responsible for the development and expansion of the firm’s product offering in markets outside the United States. Tom has almost 30 years of experience within wealth management working with clients and managing teams, businesses, and global product classes. Prior to joining the firm, Tom spent 11 years at Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, most recently as head of the Global Funds Group, overseeing the sourcing, research, structuring, marketing, and servicing of both traditional and alternative fund offerings across all client franchises. Previously, Tom was CEO of Deutsche Bank’s UK wealth management business. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Tom spent a decade at Credit Suisse, where his last role was as the London Head of International Private Banking. He started his career in wealth management at Goldman Sachs in London. Tom holds a BA/MA degree in Zoology from Oxford University and completed the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School.