Huw van Steenis

Group Managing Director and Senior Adviser to the Chief Executive of UBS (and former Senior Adviser to Mark Carney, the Governor of Bank of England)

Huw van Steenis is Group Managing Director and Senior Adviser to the Chief Executive of UBS.  He chairs the firm’s Sustainable Finance Committee.

Huw joined UBS in September 2019 after serving as Senior Advisor to the Governor Mark Carney at the Bank of England. In this role he led a review of the Future of Finance and the implications for the Bank of England's policies, capacities and toolkit.  The review helped catalyze a series of announcements by the Governor which included the Bank developing a world-class digital regulation strategy, updating the payments system for the digital age and facilitating firms use of technology. The Bank also announced it would undertake an exploratory climate change stress test for financial institutions, to be the first central bank to put its own portfolio on TCFD basis, as well as promote standards for sustainable investing in corporate reporting. 

Prior to this role, van Steenis held roles at Morgan Stanley for 14 years including as Global Coordinator Banks and Diversified Financials research. He was then Global Head of Strategy at Schroders and served on their Group Management Committee.  Van Steenis serves on the World Economic Forum’s (WEFs) Global Future Council on Financial and Monetary Systems.   He also served on the European Central Bank’s Group on Macro-Prudential Policies and Financial Stability.   

Huw van Steenis is a Trustee of English National Opera and chairs the advisory board.

Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court GCB

Chairman of C. Hoare & Co.

Nick Macpherson became Chairman of C. Hoare & Co. in October 2016.

Nick was Permanent Secretary of the Treasury from 2005 to 2016, leading the department through the financial crisis and the subsequent period of banking reform and fiscal consolidation.

Nick joined the Treasury in 1985, after training as an economist at Oxford University and University College, London, and working at the Confederation of British Industry and Peat Marwick Consulting.  He was Principal Private Secretary to Kenneth Clarke and Gordon Brown in the mid-1990s and went on to head the public spending and tax policy sides of the Treasury.  Nick is a Director of the Scottish American Investment Trust, a visiting Professor at King's College, London, and a Trustee of the Royal Mint Museum.

Hannah Gurga

MD, Digital, Technology and Cyber, UK Finance

Hannah joined UK Finance in 2018 as chief of staff and in 2019 assumed responsibility for the Digital, Tech & Cyber (DTC) team. Priorities include establishing the new DTC Product and Service Board, and working with members and UK public authorities to develop a cross-sector cyber collaboration capability. Prior to joining UK Finance, Hannah was group chief of staff at LCH. She previously led global regulatory strategy and government relations at the London Stock Exchange Group and had been Head of European Affairs at interdealer broker ICAP. Hannah began her career in the civil service, leaving HM Treasury as a senior civil servant responsible for markets policy having previously worked in the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat. 

Jonathan Middleton

Principal, Digital and Technology Policy, UK Finance

Jonathan joined UK Finance in 2018 and oversees work on a range of topics including innovation, fintech, disruption, regtech and AI.

Prior to joining UK Finance, Jonathan was Head of Technology Policy at the Government Digital Service in the UK Cabinet Office. He was primarily responsible for managing cross-government policy and technology standards for how departments bought, built and managed their technology estate. He also led work on emerging and disruptive technologies including distributed ledger, AR/VR, internet of things, and AI/machine learning. 

Jonathan is a graduate of Oxford University and the University of London. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Nicholas Merriman

Senior director and the financial services CTO for Avanade in the UK & Ireland

Nicholas Merriman is a senior director and the financial services CTO for Avanade in the UK & Ireland. He has over 25 years’ experience in technology, consulting and financial services, having worked for some of the UKs largest and most innovative banks including HBoS, LBG and Egg where he held roles including the CTO for Retail Bank, CTO Wealth and International and Chief Architect. Having started his financial services career at Microsoft, he has continued to deliver of solutions that deliver value to both customers, employees and shareholders. Nic has extensive payments experience having worked with some of Europe’s leading payments organisations whilst consulting with AlixPartners. At Avanade, Nic is focused is on helping customer realise the value from their investment in the Microsoft and wider technology ecosystem. Focusing on Open Banking, Data, Customer and Employee experience through data driven, cloud based, mobile strategies whilst supporting organisations in their transformation journey.

Paul Kelly

Modern Workplace Director for UK Financial Services, Microsoft

Paul Kelly is the Modern Workplace Director for UK Financial Services. Paul’s been with Microsoft for 12 years in a variety of roles, all of which have had one thing in common - helping clients to transform how their people work, collaborate and come together in high performing teams. This has never been truer than in recent times where we’ve seen 2 years of digital transformation in 2 months. Paul’s specialist team cover a broad portfolio of Microsoft products across Office 365, Enterprise Mobility, Windows and Security. Before joining Microsoft, he previously held management roles in the consulting businesses of IBM, PwC and EY. Paul will give Microsoft’s view of the future of work, the direction we see the modern workplace taking and the steps our clients are taking to adjust to the post-Covid new normal.

Peter Barrett

Global Marketing Lead, Financial Services at Avanade

Peter Barret is the Global Financial Services Lead in the Marketing team. Prior to joining Avanade, he worked at Finastra, a global banking software business, where he helped set up their Partner Marketing function. He spent 10 years at Fujitsu where he was the global Marketing lead for the Financial Services sector.

Janet Jones

Industry Strategy Lead for Financial Services at Microsoft UK

Janet Jones currently leads the Industry Strategy for Financial Services at Microsoft UK, ensuring that drivers of change and emerging technological trends across the sector are core to how Microsoft works with Financial Services organisations, supporting their digital transformation. Before joining Microsoft in 2018 Janet held roles within commercial banking; most latterly at Lloyds Banking Group and prior to that at Barclays and RBS. She has a personal interest in cultural transformation and has also played an active role in supporting and driving the inclusion and diversity agenda during her career.