WealthBriefing European Awards 2016

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.

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.

Philippe is the CEO of FNZ for Switzerland and Private Banking. FNZ is a global leading tech company offering IT & Operations outsourcing services to financial institutions allowing them to leverage the scale of a 1.5 Trio AUM platform and be able to focus exclusively on their key differentiation activities. Prior to his current role, Philippe advised both wealthy individuals on leaving a legacy as well as Wealth Managers. He headed the Wealth & Asset Management practice of leading consulting firms where he advised global, regional or domestic leaders on all continents and in both offshore and/or onshore markets - seeking to improve their competitive position and economics. He also had operational roles in strategy, business development, sales management and digital, notably at UBS Weath Management.

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.

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.

James is a partner at Bedell Cristin. He advises professional trustees and intermediaries in the Channel Islands, Geneva and internationally on all aspects of Jersey trust law to include the settlement, ongoing operation and restructuring of trusts.

James is co-author of the recently published “Guidelines for Jersey Directors” published by the IoD and is a regular speaker at seminars and conferences. James is ranked as a “leading lawyer” by the Legal 500 2014 directory where they say he is “the standout trust lawyer of his generation in the island”. The Chambers 2015 directory states that James “provides coherent, competent, concise and clear advice on what can be extremely technical issues” and includes James in their “leaders in their field” listing.

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.

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.

Marnin Michaels has been practicing for more than 15 years in the areas of tax and international private banking. He also handles insurance matters, particularly as it relates to tax investigations and wealth management.

Marnin has written extensively for many international publications and focuses his practice on international estate planning and taxation of trusts for families with connections in the US. He counsels clients on US withholding tax and qualified intermediary rule, as well as money laundering avoidance legislation.

Peter was CEO of the Hawksford Group, a regulated Jersey-based wealth structuring business, for four years to March 2014 and now runs his own consultancy business, Innobridge, specialising in business turnarounds, due diligence and strategy.

He has considerable background in the design and implementation of business transformation programmes and strategic initiatives for major blue-chip, start-up and existing operations.

Operating at senior executive level across a range of disciplines, including IT, HR, customer service, marketing and operations management, Peter has worked with a number of prominent businesses in the UK, Western Europe, Russia, Middle East, USA, India, South Africa and Singapore.

With more than twenty years’ experience in the offshore fiduciary industry, Alison Parry trained with Coutts & Co before moving to an international bank to lead a team specialising in offshore structures for high value international clients, particularly focusing on North America. Following a secondment to Hong Kong, Alison headed up the Guernsey fiduciary operation at Barclays Wealth.

Alison joined Legis Group in 2008 to run the trust and corporate services division which was subsequently acquired by Butterfield Trust in 2014. Alison is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

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.

Ian is an experienced plural board and executive advisor to wealth managers ,technology providers and is part time Strategy Advisor to Multrees Investor Services. Through an innovative partnership approach, he helps craft market responsive strategies, navigate client, operational, technology and partner changes to optimise success.

He is recognised as a trusted advisor, having supported a range of firms as an independent advisor and as executive of major technology and business consulting brands. These include EY,IBM, PwC and Orbium ,a core banking software platform integrator, sold to Accenture in 2019, where he then held a European wealth industry business and technology transformation advisor role across key markets and clients until late 2023, when he became an independent plural board advisor.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Michael Reed is a seasoned angel investor, board director, and sustainability strategist, specialising in aligning wealth with impact. With a 28-year career in wealth management - including 22 years in senior executive roles at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) across Canada, the US, UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore, he has built deep expertise in advising UHNW families. As former CEO of RBC Singapore and head of Southeast Asia, he led strategic growth in one of the world’s most dynamic financial regions.
He founded Family Sustainability, a firm helping UHNW families integrate sustainability into their wealth strategies. He also serves as COO/CIO of Etcho, a technology platform empowering advisors to align client investments with personal values. In his role at Imagine H2O, he mentors sustainability start-ups focused on water innovation. As a Senior Advisor to The Sustainability Board, he supports governance and impact initiatives, particularly through the Institute for Sustainable Family Business. He holds an MSc in Environment and Sustainability from University of London – Birkbeck College, an MBA from Kellogg/Schulich (Northwestern/York), and a Honours BA in Economics from Queen’s University. He is a CFA Charterholder, Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP), and holds multiple professional investment designations.

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.

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.

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.

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.