Learning Adviser

xUnlocked Learning Team

James Eves

Equity Capital Markets Practitioner

Career banker with over 25 years working in investment banking. James has worked in many aspects of banking including equity capital markets, origination, IPOs and hybrid capital.

Josephine Tan

Mergers and Acquisitions Expert

Josephine has spent the last 20 years working in corporate finance in a number of different roles – as an investment banker, corporate adviser, private equity investor and in publicly listed companies. More recently, Josephine has been leading the corporate finance function of a publicly listed mining company.

Carl Fernandes

Financial Services Lawyer and Regulation Specialist

Carl is a partner in the financial services regulatory team at Linklaters. He has been a financial services regulatory lawyer for the last 20 years, practicing in both London and Hong Kong.

Frances Coppola

Banking Commentator and Economist

Frances has spent 17 years working for assorted banks, retail and investment banks, and even a charity. During her banking career she designed risk management systems for Nat West, and financial & regulatory reporting systems for Midland Bank (now HSBC) and RBS Group. In 2019, she published a book on “people’s quantitative easing”.

Lindsey Matthews

Banking and Risk Management Specialist

Lindsey Matthews is the Chief Risk Officer of the Universities Superannuation Scheme and a Governor at the CFA Institute. He was previously Chair of the Board of Directors at CFA UK and spent the vast majority of his career at UBS. Lindsey is also a Visiting fellow at ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading.

Abdulla Javeri

Financial Markets Trader

Abdulla’s career in the financial markets started in 1990 when he entered the trading floor of the London International Financial Futures Exchange, LIFFE, and qualified as a pit trader in equity and equity index options. In 1996, Abdulla became a trainer for regulatory qualifications and then for non-exam courses, primarily covering all major financial products.

Michael Torpey

Treasury and Banking Expert

Michael began his career working with the Irish Finance Ministry. In 1992 he joined Irish Permanent Building Society as its first Treasurer and in 2000 became Finance Director at First Active. In 2010 he set up a specialist banking unit to lead the Irish State’s handling of the banking crisis. In 2013 Michael became Chief Executive of the Bank of Ireland until he retired in 2018.

Robert Ellison

Capital Markets and Banking Specialist

Rob has spent 20-years working in the city in a career spanning debt origination, debt syndicate and client coverage. Rob has worked at UBS Investment Bank and Lloyds Banking Group, and he is now one of Finance Unlocked's co-founders.

Prasad Gollakota

Capital Markets and Banking Specialist

Prasad has spent 20 years working in financial services, where he spent the majority of his time at UBS, with his last role there being Managing Director within the combined Debt and Equity capital markets business. Previously, he worked at an Infrastructure and Renewables advisory business, where he delivered projects such as financing the largest operational solar farm in Australia.

Andy Sweeney

Trade Finance and Banking Practitioner

Andy began his career at Citigroup Global Markets as a money market trader. He then joined RBC Capital Markets and subsequently Mizuho working in bond syndication. After leaving banking, Andy joined a trade finance team to advise on structuring a bond. Since then, Andy has joined Blackstar, where he advises corporates on structuring trade finance.

David Leeming

Trading and Derivatives Expert

David has over 20 years trading interest rate products. Starting with Italian and Spanish markets in the 90’s enabled him to move to Brazil and then onto Hong Kong. Returning to the UK he ran the GBP Rates Desk at UBS in London trading IRS and Swaptions. He also served on the ISDA Rates Steering Committee and London Clearing Houses’ Default Management Committee.

Kees van den Aarssen

FX and Financial Markets Practitioner

Kees has over 30 years of experience in Financial Markets. He has sophisticated expertise in sales and trading roles working in Foreign Exchange and Money Markets. He now conducts seminars, workshops and training courses for clients all over the world.

January Carmalt

Research and Banking Professional

January began her career in 1999 with Bank of America in Charlotte, NC. From the Credit Products team, she moved into fixed income bond research covering Telecoms and Financials. While in London, January focused on financial institutions bond research until her Director and head bond analyst role at Deutsche Bank. As of 2011, January has worked as a freelance writer.

Peter Eisenhardt

Financial Markets Specialist

Peter has over 30 years experience working in banking. He has held several senior positions in international investment banks. Peter is now the Secretary General of the International Council of Securities Associations

Nigel Owen

Debt Capital Markets Practitioner

Nigel spent nearly 20 years in debt capital markets. During this time, he worked for The Royal Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Canada, and National Australia Bank. Nigel has moved across various teams including treasury, private placement, origination, and syndicate. He currently works for the National Australia Bank to run the new issuance desk in Europe.

Sukhy Kaur

Debt Capital Markets Practitioner

Sukhy has spent over 11 years working in investment banking. She started her career at Barclays Capital and then went onto join the hybrid capital desk at Credit Agricole, focusing on structuring and the initial regulatory developments of Basel 3. Continuing in the structuring space, she moved to the Capital Solutions desk at UBS Investment Bank.

Trevor Williams

Macroeconomist

Trevor is a visiting professor at the University of Derby and an economic consultant. He is the author of several books and articles and is former Chief Economist of Lloyds Banking Group.

Aidan Applegarth

Commodity and Trade Finance Veteran

Aidan spent some 30 years building up Trade and Commodity Finance (TCF) businesses for banks in the UK, Europe and Asia. He is now a consultant providing training and practical guidance to banks and other lenders wishing to develop a TCF proposition and also advises a number of Trade Finance funds on Credit and Operational Risk.

Aya Suzuki

Debt Capital Markets Practitioner

Aya has spent 12 years at UBS Investment Bank. She started as a fixed income salesperson, covering institutional investors in Japan. In her second year, she moved to London and joined the Debt Syndicate desk within DCM, where she spent the following 11 years. There, Aya was in charge of origination, distribution and execution of private placements.

Bill Gallagher

Credit and Banking Veteran

Bill spent over 25 years working in finance and advising corporations. He has experienced finance from legal, banking and corporate perspectives. Most recently, Bill has been a director of a Belgian-based company specialising in high voltage subsea cables and gas pipelines, and advises related companies on financing and M&A.

David Carmalt

Debt Capital Markets Practitioner

David is the head of the debt capital markets team at Lloyds. The team is responsible for the origination, structuring and execution of bond transactions for their client base which includes Corporates, Financial Institutions and Sovereign issuers.

Elvan Hussein

Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer

Elvan is a partner at law firm Addleshaw Goddard. She has over 15 years of experience specialising in cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, fundraisings, investments, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

Farouk Ramzan

Capital Markets Specialist

A thirty year career in Investment and Commercial Banking in London and New York focused on Debt Capital Markets. More latterly Farouk was Head of European Commercial Banking for the Lloyds Group. Farouk now focuses on diverse projects where he can demystify complex financing structures with a much more interesting social impact crowd.

Gurdip Dhami

Treasury and Ratings Expert

Gurdip has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has had roles in corporate treasury, risk management, debt capital markets, debt advisory and credit ratings advisory. During this time Gurdip has worked at Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Resolution Life, and NatWest Markets. He has a BSc in Physics and MSc in Operational Research.

Iain Hoggarth

Risk and Compliance Advisor

Iain has been in the banking industry for about two decades. He has spent a large part of his career in commercial and corporate finance in both the frontline and risk functions. Iain has worked for large banks, small funds and has spent time in consultancy.

Jonathan Ng

Banking Regulation Advisor

Jonathan started his career at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, before moving to APRA, where he was responsible for frontline supervision and implementation of Basel III capital, liquidity and funding rules. Most recently, Jonathan spent 4 years with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia where he was responsible to execute equity and AT1 transactions.

Keith Mullin

Capital Markets Editor

Keith Mullin is the founder and director of KM Capital Markets, a media and thought-leadership consultancy. He spent the past 35 years working in specialist capital markets media and has had a ring-side seat at all of the major market events. Prior to setting up KM Capital Markets in 2017, Keith worked at Thomson Reuters.

Kent Matthews

Economics and Finance Professor

Kent is an academic who has studied at several institutions including the London School of Economics and the University of Liverpool. He is now a Professor of Banking and Finance at Cardiff Business School.

Kevin Gardiner

Macroeconomist

Kevin has worked in the city for over 30 years, with experience as an economist, investor strategist and chief investment officer. Kevin proudly coined the term "Celtic Tiger" used to refer to the Irish economy.

Michael Bond

Fintech and Banking Specialist

Michael currently works as the Director, Expansion & Banking at Trustly. Having previously worked as Head of Global Banking for ePayments. Similarly at Lloyds Banking Group as the head of fintech for the commercial bank. Also covered the public, tech, media and telecommunications sectors.

Moorad Choudhry

Banking and Capital Markets Practitioner

Professor Moorad Choudhry is a non-executive director at two UK financial institutions, having worked in London since 1989. He has experience in wholesale capital markets, treasury, ALM, and balance sheet management. Moorad's most recent role was as divisional treasurer at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He has also worked with Europe Arab Bank, KBC Financial Products, and JP Morgan. He is the author of "The Principles of Banking," which is currently in its 2nd edition.

Nick Beeson

Credit and Banking Expert

Nick has nearly 35 years of experience in banking. He joined his current employer, Lloyds, in 2005 as Credit Director for Loan Trading. Nick has since undertaken a number of Credit Roles for the Bank. Nick has also worked in education and has lectured for numerous institutions.

Pat Curran

Digital Payments Expert

Pat ran the International Payments Operation of a major high street bank for over 7 years, but before that covered all the individual components relevant to Cross Border Payments including Liquidity Management, Reconciliations, SWIFT communications and Static Data management.

Paul Taylor

Corporate Banking Expert

Paul has spent 35 years working in banking, almost exclusively in client facing roles. During that time, he has covered all customer segments from retail to global corporate, and has spent more than half of his career working on the Global Banks coverage team at Lloyds Bank. Paul recently worked in an advisory capacity for a small Fintech bank in the City.

Richard Boardman

Sales and Trading Expert

Since joining the City as an underwriter, Richard has been fascinated by the connectivity and roles played by various parts of the Square Mile. He spent many years in asset management before moving into banking in various derivatives and solutions roles. Recently, Richard took a year out and worked with Finance Unlocked to spark further fascination and interest in finance.

Richard Comotto

Money Markets Expert

Senior Visiting Fellow at the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading, consultant to the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and its European Repo and Collateral Council (ERCC). Technical expert to the IMF, Asian Development Bank and Frontclear market development company on money market and repo market development in Asia and Africa.

Richard Kemmish

Covered Bonds Expert

Richard is a consultant working mainly in the covered bond market. He helps Finance Ministries and Central Banks in countries without covered bond laws to put legal frameworks in place. He has also helped the European Commission with their legislative agenda for covered bonds and related products.

Rob Baston

Securitisation Expert

Rob has worked in banking for almost 40 years. He has spent the vast majority of his time in the industry at UBS, where he is now a Managing Director working on specific private projects for the firm and acting as a senior advisor. Prior to this role he ran the Capital Solutions team at UBS, advising European banks on placing AT1 and T2 capital, debt for equity recapitalisations and rights offerings. Prior to working in the industry, Rob completed his D. Phil in Mathematics at the University of Oxford.

Saket Modi

Chartered Accountant

Saket is a financial trainer and consultant based out of London. He specialises in advanced accounting, financial reporting and financial analysis, particularly with regards to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and Financial instruments.

Sharmila Whelan

Macroeconomist

Sharmila is Deputy Chief Economist of Asionomics Group. A top ranked Asain economist with over 20 years experience analysing Asian economies and policy makers.

Ted Wainman

Chartered Accountant

Ted Wainman trained and qualified as an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) with Ernst & Young before joining JPMorgan on the Investment Management side of the business. He since has over 17 years of experience in designing, developing and delivering financial & business skills training workshops for over 275 clients in more than 35 countries.

Tim Hall

Debt Capital Markets Specialist

Tim has nearly 30 years of experience in the international capital markets at major global institutions and has worked both on the buy-side and the sell-side. He has worked with numerous companies, banks and governments in developed and emerging markets on investment grade and high yield bond issues, from straight-forward to very complex acquisition/leveraged financings. Tim has also been on the board of a UK “challenger bank.” Tim has an MBA from the Wharton School, and is a CFA.

Tim Skeet

Debt Capital Markets Specialist

Tim Skeet is a financial markets expert with more than 40 years’ experience across banking and debt capital markets. He has held senior roles at institutions including Morgan Stanley, Barclays, ABN AMRO, Bank of America, RBS and Bank of China. Alongside his banking career, Tim has served on the board of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and held senior positions with the European Covered Bond Council. He is also a Freeman of the City of London.

Trevor Pugh

Trading and Hedge Funds Expert

Trevor has worked in finance since 1995. He started his career in investment banking after studying Law at Cambridge and taking a Masters Degree in Financial Services from University College Dublin. Trevor spent 18 years at Barclays investment bank where he became a Managing Director and head of Gilt trading. He currently works as Chief Operating Officer for a hedge fund.

Rupert Walford

Capital Markets Practitioner

Rupert has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry working mainly in international capital markets. He is currently a Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets in London responsible for ECM Execution and Healthcare ECM and Corporate Broking in Europe. Rupert was previously at Linklaters for 8 years, at UBS Investment Bank for 9 years as Head of Global Capital Markets Legal and as a member of UBS's ECM Execution team and subsequently at Deutsche Bank in Compliance covering ECM and Corporate Broking. Rupert has extensive experience in a wide range of investment banking transactions in EMEA, predominantly in the emerging markets and in particular Russia. He is also a qualified lawyer.

John Ewan

Capital Markets Practitioner

John Ewan has over 20 years of experience managing financial benchmarks in every major market across asset classes, with direct experience of managing regulated benchmarks and indices since 2013. Currently, John scopes, develops and implements compliance solutions for Treasury, FX rates and FICC. He has a strong track record of implementing reform, management, and commercialisation of benchmarks and indices.

Gontran de Quillacq

Derivatives Trading and ETF Expert

Gontran de Quillacq has 25 years of experience in derivatives trading, portfolio management, proprietary trading, structured products and investment research. He has worked with top-tier banks and hedge funds in both London and New York.

Ritu Sehgal

Corporate Banking Expert

With a career spanning over 20 years, Ritu has worked in several different areas of banking with some of the largest Global Banks in both Asia and the UK. In her most recent role Ritu managed the Payments sales business for Lloyds Banking Group Corporate and Institutional clients.

Francesco Dissera

Securitisation Expert

Francesco is a London-based experienced professional who spent the majority of his career in developing the EMEA ABS market: he has been involved in some of the most innovative transactions, focusing on both traditional and synthetic transactions. He has more than 24 years of investment banking and capital markets experience. Francesco started working at JP Morgan, then spent 14 years at UBS, building the securitisation and covered bond business across EMEA, before going on to lead the EMEA securitisation team at StormHarbour, Santander Continental Europe and Alantra. Francesco has originated and executed more than 80 ABS transactions across EMEA with a focus on FIG, Speciality Finance, Corporate and Government related assets.

Belinda Green

Credit Risk Advisor

Belinda Green is a credit risk specialist, with a career spanning 4 continents and numerous sectors. She has spent over 20 years in commercial and corporate lending roles for FirstRand Bank and UBS, where she was director of Corporate Lending from 2002 until 2013. Belinda shifted into education in 2014 and was a Faculty Lead and Senior Trainer for Moody’s Analytics Learning Solutions in Dubai for over 5 years, leading and delivering training programmes across the Middle East and Africa. In 2019, Belinda launched her own training consultancy in London, delivering learning solutions to clients around the world.

Selim Toker

Derivatives and Risk Management Specialist

After a 30-year career in Investment Banking, Selim Toker transitioned to the FinTech space and is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of incard, a digital banking and financial services platform targeting e-commerce and digital entrepreneurs. Prior to that Selim spent 17 years at UBS and 12 years at Nomura, focussed on derivatives advisory, structuring and marketing.

Permjit Singh

Corporate Treasury Expert

Permjit Singh is the founder of Cash for Invoices, a provider of short-term cash secured by companies' trade invoices. His PhD was on asset securitisation, and he holds a Diploma from the UK Association of Corporate Treasurers. He is the author of The City and global financial services.

Arun Singh

Corporate Lawyer

Arun Singh is a lawyer with over 35 years of experience and was a partner at PinsentMasons and KPMGLegal. He delivers public and in-house courses internationally to corporates, banks, sovereign wealth funds, government organisations and universities. He is the co-author of 'How to Lead Smart People', shortlisted for the Business Book Awards and The Chartered Institute of Management Book of the Year.