FINTECH 2021

Ivan McKee was appointed Minister for Public Finance in May 2024 where he supports the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government. 

His career has involved a number of senior roles in manufacturing and business, managing companies in the UK as well as Poland, Finland, Croatia and Bosnia. 

Early in his career, Ivan spent two years with VSO in Bangladesh. He is currently a trustee of the charity CEI, which supports education and health projects in Bangladesh. 

Ivan has been MSP for Glasgow Provan since May 2016. He was brought up in Glasgow where he studied at the University of Strathclyde. He also studied at the University of Newcastle. 

He was previously the Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation and Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise. 

Stephen is an influential advocate of making the financial world more open, creative and inclusive through innovative digital and data initiatives, encouraging progressive ways of working and collaboration across diverse organisations.   

His career over four decades has earned a track record and reputation for leading customer focused, technology enabled initiatives and he is passionate about the role of financial innovation shaping the future economy and breaking down barriers and division across the UK, especially with new initiatives such as cluster development and innovation accelerators.  

Today, Stephen is Chairman of FinTech Scotland and a Non-Executive of the Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT), the leadership bodies focused on financial innovation.  

He led the formation and growth of FinTech Scotland since 2018, initially as Chief Executive, to be recognised as a leading fintech cluster management organisations in the UK and Europe.  

In addition, Stephen is Deputy Convenor (Enterprise and Investment) on the Court of University of Strathclyde and Chair of the Strategic Industry Clusters Group  

He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to UK financial technology (fintech) innovation.   

Stephen is an influential advocate of making the financial world more open, creative and inclusive through innovative digital and data initiatives, encouraging progressive ways of working and collaboration across diverse organisations. 

His career over four decades has earned a track record and reputation for leading customer focused, technology enabled initiatives and he is passionate about the role of financial innovation shaping the future economy and breaking down barriers and division across the UK, especially with new initiatives such as cluster development and innovation accelerators. 

Today, Stephen is Chairman of FinTech Scotland and a Non-Executive of the Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT), the leadership bodies focused on financial innovation. 

He led the formation and growth of FinTech Scotland since 2018, initially as Chief Executive, to be recognised as a leading fintech cluster management organisations in the UK and Europe. 

In addition, Stephen sits on the UK Government’s Business Innovation Board, is a Deputy Convenor, (Enterprise & Investment) on the University of Strathclyde Court and is a non-executive director of Smart Data Foundry. 

 He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to UK financial technology (fintech) innovation.  

Janine Hirt is the CEO of Innovate Finance (IF), the industry body representing the world-leading UK FinTech sector. Having joined the founding IF leadership team in 2015 first as Head of Membership then Ecosystem Director, she moved into the COO role in 2017 before stepping up to lead the organisation in 2021. Janine is passionate about driving transformation to create a more democratic, transparent and inclusive financial services sector for all. Her professional career has been marked by roles that sit at the intersection of policy, international relations, and industry, including senior positions at Chatham House, (the Royal Institution of International Affairs) and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. 

Janine received her BA Magna Cum Laude from Boston College, JYA at Oxford University, and her MSc from the London School of Economics. Janine is an American, British, Swiss and German national who calls London and NYC home. 

Ron Kalifa is Chairman of Network International; a FTSE company and Chairman of FutureLearn. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Court of Directors to the Bank of England and is a member of the Council of Imperial College, London.  

Ron was invited to lead an independent Fintech Strategic Review for the UK at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Report was published in February 2021. Additionally, Ron is a member of the Build Back Better Business Council which  is  co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.  

The Secretary of State for DCMS, has also invited Ron to join the Government’s Digital Economy Council. Ron was a Non-Executive Director for Transport for London (until May 2021) and is an Operating Partner for Advent International.   

Previously, Ron led Worldpay for over 10 years as CEO including its divestment into private equity ownership in 2010. He served as Vice Chairman, thereafter, remaining as an Executive director until February 2020.  

Ron was appointed to the Board of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as an Independent Non-Executive Director in November 2020 and also sits on The Hundred Board. Ron was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year 2018 Honours List for services to financial services and technology. 

Maha is Head of Department in the Innovation Division leading the Financial Conduct
Authority’s (FCA) response to the Kalifa review of Fintech and setting up the new FCA Early
Oversight Function.
Prior to this, Maha served as Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK on secondment from the
FCA, responsible for running the payments operations of BACS, Faster Payments, Image
Clearing Services and related managed services.
Maha joined the FCA in 2017 to set up the first Payments Department and was responsible
for crafting and implementing the FCA supervisory strategy for the UK Payments Sector.
Maha is an experienced international business leader with a strategic focus and a long term
vision. Her career has spanned multiple geographies since 1995, covering various markets
in retail banking as well as wholesale and institutional cash management and working capital
management. With a focus in and around payments, her knowledge includes acquiring,
issuing, payables and receivables, liquidity management and working capital solutions. She
has performed a wide variety of roles from sales, strategy and product to governance, risk
and control. Maha has a keen interest in observing and participating in the many exciting
changes that are unfolding in the innovation and fintech environment.
Maha is passionate about leading and motivating teams to high performance by creating a
culture of positive challenge and continuous improvement. The heart of her approach is to
be a champion of diversity in all its forms, with a focus on inclusion and a drive to contribute
to meaningful change.
She has a Degree in Commerce from Macquarie University and a Masters in Public
Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Kevin Collins is the Interim CEO at GOFCoE, and one of the founders of the GOFCoE idea. He currently leads the interim management team, deploying the Strength in Places grant that is funding the start-up phase of the Centre towards establishing GOFCoE as an independent not-for-profit legal entity. 

John Glen was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister on 9 January 2018. 

He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from 14 June 2017 to 8 January 2018. 

He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond from July 2016 until June 2017. 

John Glen MP was first elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Salisbury in 2010. 

He previously worked for the Eric Pickles and Sajid Javid as a Parliamentary Private Secretary. 

Derek is the Head of Digital Solutions at Virgin Money, where he leads teams that develop and
enhance digital products across all Customer and Colleague web and mobile channels.
Derek has had a varied career across Financial Services, leading teams in Product, Sales &
Engineering and is passionate about how we adopt, embed and iterate modern agile, design &
engineering practices to develop better Customers focussed digital products through empowered
and motivated teams.

An experienced businesswoman Sarah spent 17 years at IBM, latterly as Government Affairs Director. Across Government relations, communication, stakeholder, and client management where Sarah led successful teams. These succeeded in lobbying for change as well as winning significant commercial deals and implementing significant innovation programs. Sarah was a member of the founding team at Starling Bank a challenger start-up which succeeded in obtaining a full UK banking license, gaining market traction with over 2 million account holders both retail and business. Since leaving Starling in June 2019 Sarah has held an 8-month interim CEO role at Hope for Children (Charity). She led the market, consumer insights and product design team at Fair 4 All Finance. Sarah is currently CEO at Fintech Wales a member collective focused on empowering Fintech & Financial services in Wales. 

Hilary is the Executive Lead for the UK’s only professional services tech supercluster. A former chartered surveyor and qualified tax technician, Hilary has a wide-ranging career spanning professional and financial services sector including 10 years un practice as a national director in Fortune 500 company AECOM. Since her time in practice, Hilary worked as Executive Director for regional membership body for professional services for 5 years  and established herself as a key influencer in BPFS policy in the West Midlands working for Greater Birmingham & Solihull LEP. She also leads industry engagement on behalf of a range of organisations including nationally funded research projects with University of Sheffield Management School, Oxford Brookes University, City-REDI at University of Birmingham, Dept of BEIS and Innovate UK. Innovation and disruptive technology is a core strand to the policy areas Hilary engages in and SuperTech combines these interests with passion for championing Birmingham and wider West Midlands.

Andrew was appointed as Fintech Envoy for Northern Ireland in March 2021 and brings over 20 years’ experience in the technology sector, including financial services to the role.

On appointment he was quoted: “My mandate as part of the UK Fintech strategy is to capitalise on what we have already have in place here in Northern Ireland. With strong Government support, close collaboration between big companies and start-ups and a world class workforce, Northern Ireland has the potential to become the best place in the world to start and build a Fintech company”.

Andrew is currently part of Arity, a company founded by The Allstate Corporation which works with mobility data and analytics.

Julian is a Director of Whitecap Consulting, a regional strategy consultancy headquartered in Leeds with offices throughout the UK. Whitecap work with executives, boards and investors of predominantly mid-sized organisations, typically with a turnover of c£10m-£300m, helping them analyse, develop and implement growth strategies. 

Julian has been a Director of Fintech North since April 2016 which is collaboration between Whitecap Consulting and a FinTech firm, White Label Crowdfunding, and is a predominantly event-based FinTech entity within the Northern Powerhouse. FinTech North hosts conferences across the Northern Powerhouse and run regular seminars and conferences. 

Victoria is an experienced Policy Director with 15 years’ experience across UK, EU & international markets. She has held public sector roles in UK Civil Service & European Commission and has a wealth of private sector experience in FTSE100 insurer, InsurTech scale-up, UK FinTech Trade Association

Victoria has been a trusted adviser to CEOs and at Board level, and former Private Secretary to the UK Minister for Industry. She is an effective leader across split-site and virtual teams, delivers at pace, leads with passion, and loves to learn.

Phil is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Growth Fund, a growth-stage fintech focused venture capital fund launched in August 2023. Phil is also the CEO of FinTech Alliance, a non-profit digital platform launched in partnership with the UK Government, tasked with supporting the growth of the UK’s fintech ecosystem by generating access to market, capital, and talent. Previously, Phil spent over four years as Group Strategy Director at Pollinate, a growth stage fintech focused on reinventing merchant acquiring for banks around the world.  Prior to this, he spent five years at the UK Treasury, most recently as Head of Global Markets where he was responsible for all financial services activity across Asia Pacific and fintech. 

Phil is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of FinTech Growth Fund, a growth-stage fintech focused venture capital fund launched in August 2023. Phil is also the CEO of FinTech Alliance, a non-profit digital platform launched in partnership with the UK Government, tasked with supporting the growth of the UK’s fintech ecosystem by generating access to market, capital, and talent. Previously, Phil spent over four years as Group Strategy Director at Pollinate, a growth stage fintech focused on reinventing merchant acquiring for banks around the world.  Prior to this, he spent five years at the UK Treasury, most recently as Head of Global Markets where he was responsible for all financial services activity across Asia Pacific and fintech. 

Yvonne leads Pinsent Masons financial services technology practice. She specialises in advising on technology contracts in the financial services sector, including outsourcing, systems development and integration, e-commerce and IT procurement. Yvonne also leads the firm’s FinTech practice and advises on complex projects which combine technology and the regulatory environment in which our financial services clients operate. She leads several of the firm’s TMT and outsourcing relationships with major banking and insurance clients and regularly speaks and writes on TMT and outsourcing issues specific to the financial services sector.

Peter is the Director of International & National Initiatives at Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the UK FinTech sector. Peter leads on developing Innovate Finance’s international and national initiatives, to support and promote UK FinTech, and the opportunities for our members to grow, by developing relationships with likeminded hubs across the UK and around the world. Peter also works alongside our Head of Government Affairs and Policy to ensure our international and national work reflects current political, public policy and regulatory priorities for the sector. 

Joe is a business development and marketing professional with experience in the professional services, legal services and FinTech sectors working across the North since 2016. Joe joined FinTech North as its first full-time employee in September 2019, having previously worked for the Institute of Directors and a global law firm. As Engagement Manager for FinTech North, Joe manages all event, marketing and commercial activity, and regularly supports Northern FinTech entrepreneurs and new market entrants.

FinTech North is the focal point for FinTech in the Northern Powerhouse. Since 2016 FinTech North has brought the northern FinTech community together via events, conferences, virtual seminars and trade missions. FinTech North’s objectives are to bring the community together, to develop the northern FinTech economy, align with development of the national FinTech sector and to promote the North of England as an international destination for FinTech.

Richard has worked in financial services for the last 15 years in digital proposition, product development, innovation and partnerships. He has spent time in management consulting, helping to launch the UKs first digital only bank, Atom as well as running teams in TSB and Barclays. Currently, Richard is the General Manager for Mambu in the UK and Ireland responsible for the commercial strategy and go to market for the region.

Eamon is a founder and investor, with over 20 years experience and several exits behind him.

He sits on the board of FinTech Wales, mentors several startups, and is the Department of Trades Dealmaker for Wales.

He is passionate about growing new ventures at home and abroad. Recently returned to Wales,  Eamon is a founder and investor, with over 20 years experience and several exits behind him.

An early digital marketing pioneer he helped launched Experian’s consumer business in the the UK followed by their Ad-Tech services.

Eamon then went on to found Digital-Labs a successful ‘growth’ focused agency working with many leading brands including  Virgin, CompareTheMarket, AOL, Accential and many more.

In 2015 Eamon founded Motivii.com a brilliant management tool to connect, motivate and enhance teams’ performance. Used by GSK, LLoyds Bank and Expedia but to name a few, Eamon sold this business at the end of 2020.

He sits on the Board of FinTech Wales, is DIT’s Dealmaker for Wales, and runs the growth consultancy X8IQ.com.

Eamon is passionate about helping the local startup ecosystem grow and thrive and can often be found supporting startups with their pitch decks and business models.

Hugh de Lusignan has had 35 years’ experience in financial services (equity capital markets and fund
management) including senior investment banking management roles at NatWest Markets and
SocGen. He joined DIT three years ago working with APAC based SWFs, pension and insurance
companies and corporates to deliver significant capital investment into the UK particularly into
infrastructure, clean energy transition (including smart cities) and house building acceleration. Hugh
joined the FPS directorate as Head of Financial Services in January 2021.

Louise Smith is Lloyd’s first Chief Digital Officer, and is responsible for the programme of work that supports Lloyd’s to further build its digital capabilities and offering across the insurance industry.

Louise is nationally and internationally recognised as a thought leader on digital innovation, disruptive technologies and the emerging workforce. She is currently laying the groundwork to ensure Lloyd’s has a strong, consistent digital approach in its Future at Lloyd’s programme of work.  As well as shaping Lloyd’s digital strategy, Louise will also be working with the Corporation on how it uses agile methodologies and collaborative ways of working, as well as growing its digital skills.

With an extensive career in creating and running digital business models, Louise is at the forefront of influencing and changing the shape and evolution of the financial services sector in the UK and globally. In her current role, she uses customer experience, data, and insight to differentiate the services Lloyd’s offers to its customers.

Louise is also a regional FinTech ambassador, appointed by the UK Government. In this role she supports new incumbents in the financial services sector and collaborates with the ‘start up’ community and challengers.

Tim Bedford, Associate Principal Research and Innovation, University of Strathclyde, UK

Professor Tim Bedford is Associate Principal of the University, leading the Research and
Innovation portfolio in the University Executive Team, working in close collaboration with
the Principal and Deputy Associate Principals Professors Lowit, Kerr and McArthur.

Professor Bedford is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a member of its Business
Innovation Forum. In 2016 he was on the advisory board of the Reid Review of Scottish
Innovation.