Charles has over 25 years financial services experience and joined UK Finance in August 2020. As Director of Mortgages he has overall responsibility for delivering the mortgage policy work of UK Finance.

Prior to joining UK Finance, Charles was Executive Director and Chief Risk Officer at The Nottingham Building Society where he was accountable for designing and implementing the Society’s risk strategy and framework. Charles brings with him a wealth of experience including time as a director in the Regulatory Financial Services Practice at Grant Thornton LLP and 11 years regulation and compliance experience at the FCA. Whilst at the FCA, Charles was Head of Department for the mortgage sector, where he developed the FCA’s approach to the supervision of the UK mortgage market and oversaw the implementation of both the Mortgage Market Review and Mortgage Credit Directive.

Graham is the Head of Operations for Monmouthshire Building Society. Graham has over 20 years' experience in financial services in both a distribution and operations capacity. Grahams career spans both large banks and investment companies as well as more latterly the building society sector giving a broad range of industry experience.

Graham is accountable for writing the Society’s Responsible Lending Policy and Underwriting Criteria which includes the provision of supporting green finance. Graham has lead the Green Home Finance Innovation Funded Valuer Project which was fronted by the Monmouthshire Building Society in conjunction with SERO, Rightmove and RICS.

With over a decade of experience in the financial services sector, starting her career as a mortgage advisor, Rachael has held multiple positions across the finance landscape including business development, national accounts and new build.  Rachael is passionate about the role finance plays in creating sustainable, positive social and environmental outcomes for all.

Joining the Green Finance Institute in early 2023, Rachael lead the GFI’s Green Mortgage campaign as part of the flagship Built Environment programme and in February 2024 progressed to Associate Director for Built Environment. Rachael is responsible for driving growth, scale and impact across the green home finance market, working with stakeholders from across the public and private sectors.

Continuing her commitment to positive social and environmental impact, Rachael also holds a Non-Executive Director position for Social Enterprise Kent, a community interest company which provides training, business and community support to drive lasting positive social impact.

Heff’s practice focuses on handling complex financial and regulatory disputes for banks, building societies and private/wealth banks. He is known for his work in the secured lending space and is often engaged by market-leading lenders to advise on strategic issues affecting their portfolios. This includes receivership and property-related issues. Heff is known for his commercial and down to earth approach

With over 15 years’ financial services and consulting experience, Andrew led strategy and transformation at Invesco Ltd and spent 5 years at Kearney, leading their retail banking strategy. Prior to this, Andrew worked for Lloyds Banking Group in a project delivery role and spent 3 years at KPMG in their Risk Consulting function. He has completed his MBA at Cambridge University.

Paula is an Associate Director in Frontier’s Strategy Practice focused in Financial Services. She has more than 15 years of experience in advising financial service companies, in a wide variety of issues. Since joining Frontier in early 2019 she has supported different clients in strategic and commercial issues.

Prior to that, as a partner in Financial Services at Analistas Financieros Internacionales (Afi), Paula gain extensive expertise in projects linked to Financial Planning, Stress Testing, Valuation and Risk Quantification and Management. Paula has worked extensively on supporting clients with regulatory and supervisory compliance. She has also acted as a trainer in numerous courses regarding aspects including Behavioural Economics, Stress Testing, Provisioning and Risk-based Management.

Sandy Hore-Ruthven MBE is the CEO of Severn Wye Energy– one of the UK’s largest charities tackling fuel poverty and Climate Change through our energy system. It works to support those struggling with fuel poverty through advice and retrofitting their homes. Each year Severn Wye supports 12000 households, saving over £1.5m in energy bills. 

Severn Wye also invests in cutting edge technology to capture carbon and generate renewable energy saving over 20,000 tonnes of Carbon each year.  Sandy has been a charity CEO since 2006 managing large charities supporting young people and disadvantaged communities across the UK and is a Director of Friends of the Earth in the UK.    

He is has been Chair of Children in Need in the South West and has held a number board positions including the Chair of Youth Action Network and VOSCUR and has been a board member of the Quartet Community Foundation. He was a founder member of the Bristol Mayor’s ‘One City’ board where he initiated the plans to reach Net Zero by 2030 and worked with business, charities, communities and local authorities to tackle a range of other environmental issues. 

Sandy has cycled in many places across the globe including the Andes, the Tibetan Plateau, Himalayas and central Africa.  He has two adopted children who are now grown up and making their way in the world.  

Simon Pugh is an ombudsman manager at the Financial Ombudsman Service. Appointed as an ombudsman in 2013, he specialises in complaints involving mortgages and secured lending, and in cases involving vulnerability, discrimination and related issues. Before joining the ombudsman service he was a solicitor working in private practice and the charitable sector.

Yanthé began her career in law in 2003 and qualified as a fellow of CILEX in 2010. Having practised family and residential property law in Lincolnshire, London and Devon, Yanthé now leads Foot Anstey’s specialist new build property teams based across the south west of England. She has extensive experience advising on all aspects of residential property and a keen interest in the role that technology can play in improving the home buying and selling process. Yanthé leads on projects developing the operational and strategic direction of her teams, with a particular focus on the consumer journey.

Yanthé was a Specialist Reference Group Advisor to CILEX (from February 2019 to September 2021) and during that tenure became CILEX’s representative on the Home Buying and Selling Group. She continues to advise government on the Land Registry’s Advisory Council. With years of experience managing people and conveyancing teams, Yanthé’s focus has driven her towards aiming to reduce delays and complications in conveyancing transactions while providing excellent client care. 

Kate is a leading consultant and property market commentator. She is chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group and helped set up and run The Lettings Industry Council. Kate’s business provides accurate and independent research, content and analysis about the property market and key issues of the day.

Her consumer website Propertychecklists.co.uk provides city specific property price and rental data to keep the industry and consumers up to date with latest trends. Kate has written eleven books on property, including four for Which? She has produced the UK’s only Buy to Let online TV show and is a regular contributor to the media including BBC News Channel, Breakfast, R4’s You and Yours and MoneyBox as well as ITV’s This Morning and provides regular commentary to major newspapers and magazines.

Jane Tully is the Trust’s Director of External Affairs and Partnerships and has served on the charity’s Senior Leadership Team since 2014, including Head of Insight and Engagement. In that time, she has led on building and strengthening partnerships with creditors and overseen the charity’s external affairs, business development and insight functions, and its training and consultancy services.

Jane leads on the Trust’s business planning as well as commissioning and contract management, having led the Trust’s recent successful bids for debt advice contracts in England.

Before joining the Trust, Jane led the policy and public affairs team at Charity Finance Group and worked for the Charity Commission, NSPCC and the London Borough of Camden.  Jane also volunteers for a number of London based community groups.

James has over 25 years’ experience in housing and financial services economics and analysis. Joining the Council of Mortgage Lenders in 2003, which merged into UK Finance in 2017, he has continually developed the mortgage industry’s rich data assets, creating a world-leading knowledge base for the sector. Leveraging these assets and his two decades of industry and data knowledge, James has overall responsibility for UK Finance’s mortgage sector analysis and authors many of its publications, including our flagship Household Finance Review.

Prior to settling in financial services James held a range of academic, public and private sector roles in economics, interspersed with sabbaticals to lose himself in various interesting corners of the world. He has now mostly grown up and is married with two mostly grown children and two mostly grown dogs, all of whom believe they are superior economists to him.

James Clark is a data protection, privacy and cyber security lawyer who is passionate about all areas of ‘data law’. He demystifies this complex area for his clients and prides himself on delivering thoughtful and practical advice. 

James has worked on international projects his entire career and has spent time on secondment in the firm’s Brussels and Washington, D.C. offices. He has a particular focus on the life sciences, insurance and government sectors, and leads the firm’s privacy law practice for the life sciences sector.

James has led numerous multi-jurisdictional advisory projects and data protection audits. He loves working with clients early in the design of new products and services to ensure that privacy compliance is ‘baked in’ and complex regulatory issues are solved before they become enforcement risks.

Nichola Donovan advises on complex and strategic technology and sourcing arrangements, technology build and development, cloud computing, including platform, software and device as a service, business process and IT outsourcing.

She advises both users and suppliers of technology, particularly across the financial services and insurance sectors, and her work often concerns business critical projects with global reach.