Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Advisor operating in the Finance space. If you think a Advisor is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Jon Kamaluddin
Venture Advisor of Felix Capital
Jon Kamaluddin was international director at online retailer ASOS from 2009 to 2013 after having spent five years as CFO. In his role as international director, Kamaluddin led ASOS global expansion, including the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, and Australia, which helped ASOS grow its overseas sales to almost 60 percent of its overall sales. He also served as a member of ASOS Board of Directors.
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About : Felix Capital is a venture fund that focuses on digital commerce, digital media, and information technology companies.
Rob Devey
Advisor of Bought By Many
Rob joined Octopus as an independent non-executive director in October 2013. Prior to this Rob was the CEO of Prudential UK and Europe, where he was responsible for developing the company’s business in the UK and Europe as it continued to meet the savings and retirement needs of its millions of customers. Rob has over 15 years’ experience in financial services. Prior to joining Prudential in 2009, he worked at Lloyds Banking Group across a number of senior management roles and was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group in both Europe and the US.
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About : Bought By Many is a pet InsurTech company that provides insurance products and a streamlined customer experience.
Pablo de la Infiesta
Managing Director, Head of the Private Funds Advisory group in EMEA of Moelis & Company
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About Moelis & Company: Moelis & Company is an investment bank that provides innovative strategic advice and solutions to a diverse client base.
David Grainger
Chief Scientific Advisor of Medicxi Ventures
Prior to co-founding Medicxi Ventures, David was a venture partner with Index Ventures for four years, having joined the life sciences team in 2012.On behalf of Index, David co-founded Epsilon-3 Bio, Methusalah Health, and XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals) among other companies. Before joining Index, he founded Funxional Therapeutics and the out-sourced drug developers Total Scientific and RxCelerate. Prior to that, David led an internationally-recognised research group in Cambridge University’s Department of Medicine, where he published more than 80 first author papers in leading journals including Nature, Science and Nature Medicine. David is the Chair of the Translation Awards Committee of the British Heart Foundation. He ran a widely-read blog on life sciences-related topics, DrugBaron, before moving his writings to Forbes.com, where he is a Contributor.David has over 150 patents and patent applications in his name, and holds MA and PhD degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge
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About Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Critical Pressure, Forbes, Foundation Institute for 21st Century Medicine, Morphogen-IX, Z Factor: Medicxi is a life sciences-focused investment firm.
Justin Cooke
Advisor of Northzone
I am the Vice Chair of Unicef UK, a Venture Partner at tech VC Northzone, Chairman of The Drum, Deputy Chair of social learning platform FutureLearn and a Non-Executive Director, adviser and investor in numerous fast-growing technology businesses and sit on the British Museum Digital Advisory Board. Prior to Northzone I was the CEO and Founder of POSSIBLE UK, WPP Digital’s largest global agency. I am also the former Chair and now an Ambassador of the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA), the industry body for everyone working in digital Britain. I discovered digital media while studying Quasi-Theatrical Leisure and Computers as Theatre while studying Drama at the University of Manchester. After graduating with honours I worked for the BBC, Universal Music and United News and Media before Co-founding global digital agency Fortune Cookie in 1997. I secured venture capital funding and grew the business across three continents before exiting to WPP in 2012. For two years I served on the Board of EPiServer – the world’s fastest growing content management and community platform until its sale to investment bank, IK Partners. I also served on the board of ActiveStandards until its merger with CrownPeak and raising of $50 Million from venture capital firm K1 to become the world’s leading cloud-based digital experience management company. I have been lucky enough to have been listed in the Wired Top 100; rated the UK’s second most influential person in digital by Econsultancy; inducted into the British Digital Hall of Fame and most recently, Business Insider ranked me as one of the UK’s coolest tech VC’s.
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About : Northzone is an early-stage venture capital fund built on experience spanning multiple economic and disruptive technology cycles.
Lord Francis Maude
Advisory Board Member of OakNorth
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About : OakNorth is the creator of the ON Credit Intelligence Suite – proven cloud software that transforms commercial lending
Lord Adair Turner
Independent Advisor of OakNorth
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About : OakNorth is the creator of the ON Credit Intelligence Suite – proven cloud software that transforms commercial lending
Greg Clark
Senior Advisor of HSBC
Greg Clark is the chairman of The Business of Cities, a strategy firm that provides intelligence, analysis, and insight on cities, regions, and business development worldwide.He has global level experience in city leadership, urban investment and regeneration, city policies, and metropolitan planning. Greg works with global organisations on the metropolitan century, with city leaders on strategic developments, and with global firms and investors on business, investment, and development in an urbanising world.
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About HSBC: HSBC is a banking and financial services organization that offers a comprehensive range of services.
Simon Greenman
Advisor, formerly Venture Partner of DN Capital
Simon Greenman has over twenty years of leading digital transformations through technology, data science, and AI. He is co-founder and partner in Best Practice AI, a London based AI executive advisory with a leading library of AI use cases and case studies. Earlier in his career, Simon was a co-founder of MapQuest.com, one of the first internet brands. He has over ten years as a chief digital officer leading transformations of media companies for private equity. He has also consulted or worked for HomeAdvisor Europe, AOL, Bowers & Wilkins, and Accenture. Simon is highly active in the AI startup community. He is an AI entrepreneur in Resident at Seedcamp, co-president of the Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of London, and an advisor and former venture partner at DN Capital. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BA in computing and artificial intelligence from the University of Sussex.
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About Best Practice AI: DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Jay Stevens
Advisor of DN Capital
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About : DN Capital operates as an early-stage venture capital firm.
Jason Downes
Advisor of Frontier Ventures
Jason Downes is a Consultant of International Finance Corporation. Previously, Jason Downes served as an Senior Investment Officer at International Finance Corporation for seven years. Previously, he co-founded and served as General Director and Chief Investment Officer at ru-Net Holdings for five years. Prior to joining ru-Net, he held senior positions in the investment banking divisions of United Financial Group, Renaissance Capital and Credit Lyonnais. Jason Downes has nearly 20 years of dedicated technology, media and telecom industry experience in venture capital, private equity and capital markets banking, primarily in Russia/CIS, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa. He serves as an Advisory Board Member of Frontier Ventures. He served on the Boards of Yandex, Ozon, and Vested Development Inc. Jason Downes graduated in Actuarial Science from City University, London (1986-1989).
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About : Frontier Ventures invests in early stage internet companies with network effects and connects them with global markets.
Mark Malloch-Brown
Senior Policy Advisor of I Squared Capital
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is a Senior Policy Advisor of I Squared Capital, an independent multi-billion dollar global infrastructure investment company with over 70 professionals based in New York, Houston, London, Delhi, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company specializes in infrastructure investments with $4 billion of assets under management in the energy, utilities and transport sectors in the U.S., Europe and select high-growth economies including China, India and Latin America. Lord Malloch-Brown is the Chair of the Global Commission on Business and Sustainable Development, a group of senior business and civil society leaders, which recently published a report, “Better Business Better World” on the role of business in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. He served as Deputy Secretary-General and previously Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. He spent the previous six years as Administrator of the UNDP, leading the UN’s development efforts around the world including the international efforts in support of the Millennium Development Goals. He was later Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia, and a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet. Other previous positions include Vice-Chairman of the Open Society Institute, a Vice President at the World Bank and Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He began his career as a journalist at The Economist.
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About I Squared Capital: I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment manager that focuses on energy, utilities, and transportation.
Marshall W. Parke
Advisor of Lexington Partners
Mr. Parke is primarily engaged in the origination and evaluation of secondary purchases of non-U.S. private equity and alternative investments, and non-U.S. equity co-investments.
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About : Lexington Partners is an independent manager of secondary private equity and co-investment funds.
Chad Giussani
Head, Transaction Reporting, FM Compliance Advisory of Standard Chartered Bank
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About Standard Chartered Bank: Standard Chartered Bank is an international banking group.
Mark Whittaker
Corporate Advisor of Parkwalk Advisors
Mark Whittaker joined Parkwalk Advisors as Corporate Advisor in 2012.
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About Royal College of Art: Parkwalk is an investment management firm focused on UK-based technology companies that are spun out of UK university and research centres.
Mike Ullmann
Advisor of Prodigy Finance
Michael Ullmann has been involved in more than 40 different entrepreneurial businesses in various capacities; always as a shareholder. His main focus has been on turnarounds in the bakery business and engineering. He has served as chairman of the board for more than a dozen companies. He is currently chairman of Prodigy, an educational debt provider and an investor in H2O, a business in water management and Black Mountain Insulation, a company providing environmentally friendly house insulation; the first two have INSEAD CEO’s and the third has been primary financed via an INSEAD network. Michael was an affiliate professor in entrepreneurship at INSEAD from 1987-2005 where he helped the Entrepreneurship Department develop into one of the most vital and popular departments in the school. Michael has backed many of his former students in their own business ventures and continues to be a mentor to several companies. He has written many cases and articles on Entrepreneurship. He has an MA from St Catherine’s College, Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD. He has been a fellow of St Catherine’s since 2004. Apart from his main hobby and passion, business, Michael enjoys games of skill and chance, along with outdoor pursuits such as shooting, sailing, skiing and golf.
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About : Prodigy Finance provides postgraduate student loans to international students to attend a top school.
Ramona Liberoff
Advisor of Angel Academe
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About : Angel Academe helps engage female founders and co-founders with their tech startup to a unique pool of, mainly female angel investors.
Jim Stidham
Special Advisor in Tax of PwC
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About PwC: PricewaterhouseCoopers is an accounting firm that provides tax, HR, transactions, performance improvement, and crisis management services.
Tyler Christie
Founder, Independent Interim Executive and Advisor of Natural Capital Advisors
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About Hopin, Natural Capital Advisors: Natural Capital Advisors helps businesses, governments, and philanthropic organizations manage natural capital with minimal risk.
Richard Girling
Advisor of Hikma Ventures
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About : Hikma Ventures operates as the corporate venture capital arm of Hikma Pharmaceuticals.
Julie Pelta
Senior Advisor Healthcare of DataArt
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About : DataArt is a global software engineering firm that takes a uniquely human approach to solve problems.
Marco Taricco
Advisory Board Member of Satispay
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About : Satispay is a fintech company that provides a bank account enabled mobile payment platform.
Stephen Roberts
Co-founder & Chief Scientific Advisor of Mind Foundry
Stephen Roberts is the Royal Academy of Engineering / Man Group Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Statistical Society, the Institute of Physics and the Alan Turing Institute. Stephen is Director of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance and founding-Director of the Oxford Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems (AIMS). He has published widely, having some 350 publications which have accrued over 20,000 citations. Stephen’s interests lie in methods for machine learning, data analysis & AI in complex problems, especially those in which noise and uncertainty abound. His major research works include the application of machine learning to huge astrophysical data sets (for discovering exoplanets, pulsars and cosmological models), biodiversity monitoring (for detecting changes in ecology and spread of disease), smart networks (for reducing energy consumption and impact), industrial sensor networks (to better acquire and model complex events & to monitor the condition of equipment) and finance (to provide better insight into time-series, risk and trading actions and to fuse knowledge from large numbers of unstructured information streams).
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About Mind Foundry: Mind Foundry is an Oxford University company that has developed an AI platform to solve the world’s most important problems.
Michael Osborne
Co-founder & Chief Scientific Advisor of Mind Foundry
Mike Osborne is the Dyson Associate Professor in Machine Learning at the University of Oxford. Back in 2013, he co-authored a highly-cited paper (with economist Carl Frey) that used machine learning to estimate that 47% of US jobs are at risk of being automatable through advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. This work was born of Mike’s interests in the practical use of machine learning to enable automation, while ensuring that such advances are made in sympathy with societal needs. Mike’s technical expertise in Bayesian optimisation and probabilistic numerics underpins recent advances in automated and interpretable machine learning pipelines. His algorithms have been deployed in industrial and scientific applications ranging from battery monitoring, pigeon navigation and self-driving cars. As co-director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, his research on the future of work has resulted in both sustained coverage in almost all major media venues (e.g. his being interviewed on BBC Newsnight, a cover feature in the Economist) and policy impact (including presenting oral evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee).
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About Mind Foundry: Mind Foundry is an Oxford University company that has developed an AI platform to solve the world’s most important problems.
Nick Bliss
Senior Advisor of Oxford Capital Partners
Nick is a senior adviser to our Infrastructure investment team. Until May 2016 Nick was a senior partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He worked at Freshfields for more than 30 years, including 21 years as a partner. Throughout his partnership he was heavily involved in infrastructure markets in the UK, across the EU and further afield, including the Middle East, Asia and North America. He is a well-known figure in the infrastructure market having acted for governments, developers, infrastructure funds and direct investors, banks, arrangers and export credit agencies. He made his name as an innovator in the early days of PFI and has subsequently been involved in the development and globalisation of the PPP and other infrastructure models. By background a project financier, since the rise of infrastructure as a recognised investment class in the early 2000s, Nick has used his understanding of the market and its project structures to facilitate the entry of institutional and other investors into the regulated and unregulated infrastructure and utility markets. Nick is the executive chairmanship of a company owned by three infrastructure funds which holds the concession to build and maintain major developments to two teaching hospitals. He is a trustee of The London School of Architecture, a new architectural school offering an alternative postgraduate route into the profession. Nick is a graduate of Corpus Christi College Cambridge where he read Law.
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About Chatham Partners, Oxford Capital Partners: Oxford Capital is a technology venture capital investor based in London and Oxford.
Nigel Payne
Non-Executive Director Advisor Channel of rebuildingsociety.com
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About rebuildingsociety.com: peer to business loans platform connecting lenders directly with businesses needing debt funding.
Dominik Woessner
Secondaries Advisory of Lazard
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About : Lazard is a financial advisory and asset management firm focused on income strategies, alternative investments, and private equity funds.
Claudia Trauffler
EU Policy Advisor of British Bankers Association
Claudia joined the BBA in November 2013 as EU Policy Advisor. Prior to this she worked for an MEP in Brussels and in the European Parliament office in London. Claudia holds a Master degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
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About : The BBA is the leading trade association for the UK banking sector with more than 230 member banks headquartered in over 50 countries
Nick Smith
Policy Advisor of British Bankers Association
Nick’s key responsibilities at the BBA include issues relating to tax, corporate governance and diversity. Nick also manages the BBA’s Private Banking and Wealth Management Panel.
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About : The BBA is the leading trade association for the UK banking sector with more than 230 member banks headquartered in over 50 countries
Robert Driver
Policy Advisor of British Bankers Association
Rob’s key responsibilities at the BBA include issues relating to reporting requirements, COREP, FINREP and wider data management issues. Rob also manages the BBA’s small banks panel.
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About : The BBA is the leading trade association for the UK banking sector with more than 230 member banks headquartered in over 50 countries
Simon Yun-Farmbrough
Member of Advisory Board of Creamfinance
Simon has a proven track record of envisioning, leading and delivering growth initiatives in a number of financial companies. In addition to leading the IPO of Egg, the first digital bank in United Kingdom, Simon has more than 20 years of consultancy experience within financial services. He is also a member of the Investment Committee of the world’s oldest scientific society, The Royal Society. Simon joined the Advisory Board of Creamfinance to facilitate the growth of the company.
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About : Creamfinance is a financial services company based on cutting edge financial technology instruments.
Angela Goldberg
Team Advisor of Agily
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About : Agily is a collaborative and team goal management app improving organisational alignment, business agility and competitiveness.
James Alexander
Advisory Board Member of LANDBAY
James has been one of the main revolutionaries of British financial services over the past decade. He radically transformed the notion of financial intermediation as co-founder and UK CEO of Zopa, the world’s first peer-to-peer lending platform. Prior to that, he was Strategy Director of Egg, the groundbreaking online bank, where he launched the company’s digital TV and mobile services and the UK’s first and most successful account aggregation service. James is currently a Partner of The Foundation, a leading growth and innovation consultancy, where he has worked with clients including M&S, O2, Just Giving, Barclaycard, Tesco, Eurostar, The Guardian, Save the Children, A&n Media, Friends Life, Old Mutual and HSBC. He is also a Trustee for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a Trustee and former CEO of Green Thing and a Chair of GEN Community, an industrial provident society that delivers low carbon investments as well as social impact.
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About : Landbay is a specialist Buy to Let mortgage lender using peer-to-peer technology to fund its loans.
Eleanor McConnell
Advisor of Clydesdale Bank
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About Clydesdale Bank: Clydesdale Bank growth finance provides a range of innovative debt solutions for early stage, high growth businesses.
Amit Kahana
Advisor of Finiata
Amit Kahana is a Chief Risk Officer with over 10 years of experience in SME lending, within Risk and Product Management. Amit has worked in Fintechs across the UK, US, Israel and Europe.
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About Finiata: Finiata provides working capital financing for freelancers and SME’s over a fully automated data driven scoring technology.
Keith Saxton
Advisor of ForwardLane
Keith Saxton Independent Director and Advisor An experienced executive leader Keith has a deep understanding of the Financial Services industry, and the role that technology plays in developing and executing business strategy. He is an expert in how business risk can be changed and managed by technology, and understands the risk of technology – a combination providing a unique perspective and executive capability.
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About : ForwardLane is the essential insights platform used by financial professionals for personalized conversations
Bernhard Engelien
Managing Director & Co-Head of European Private Capital Advisory of Greenhill & Co
Bernhard Engelien is a Managing Director in Greenhill Secondary Advisory’s London office and advises institutional investors and fund managers on private equity secondary market transactions in the UK, Continental Europe and the Middle East. Prior to Cogent Partners’ acquisition by Greenhill, he was a Partner and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Prior to joining Cogent Partners, Mr Engelien was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company where he served financial services companies and private equity firms on a broad range of strategy and corporate finance topics. He was also a leader of McKinsey’s European Banking & Securities practice. Mr Engelien started his career at Goldman Sachs in London covering the pan-European Business Services sector as an equity analyst. Mr Engelien holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and a Master’s Degree in International Management from the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS).
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About Greenhill & Co: Greenhill & Co is an investment bank providing financial advices.
Yann Gindre
Deputy Chairman and Head of Advisory board of Akoni Hub
Advisory Board Member, bringing international finance and diverse experience servicing corporate banking clients. Senior executive with global experience In Corporate Investment Banking, Hedge Funds with a front to back experience. Previous roles from 2004 to late 2012, include CEO Natixis, The Americas & CEO Natixis UK, Chairman of the New York and London Executive committees, Chairman of Natixis Alternative assets. Yann has been a financial consultant and a Director at UNPRI until 2015. Between 1988 and 2004 he was MD Global Head of DCM at JP Morgan Chase, UBS and Barclays Capital and Global Head of Markets at Commerzbank. Yann Gindre holds an MBA from London Business School.
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About Akoni Hub: Akoni provides simple cash management tools for individuals and SMEs.
Ryan McNelley
Managing Director – Alternative Asset Advisory of Duff & Phelps
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About Duff & Phelps: Duff & Phelps is a provider of advisory services to companies.
Paul Duggan
Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Advisor of Canstar
Paul Duggan is the Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Advisor at CANSTAR.
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About Canstar, Zookel: Canstar provides general financial product advice through the provision.
Ali Bernat
Advisor of Ernest
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About : Ernest is a personal Banker for All powered by Artificial Intelligence: a chatbot that answers questions, gives insights & forecasts issues.
Rowan Austin
Head of Trade Finance Origination and Advisory of NatWest Bank
Rowan is Head of Trade Origination & Advisory for NatWest, and has extensive cross-product and sectoral knowledge having worked for four banks across six continents. He commenced his career with Goldman Sachs, before joining Barclays with roles across Corporate, International and Investment Banking. Rowan then joined Europe Arab Bank where he built a commodity and trade finance function across Europe and the MENA region, as well as building an Islamic Finance capability. Joining NatWest in 2011, Rowan supported the restructuring of the global business to focus on core UK and western European markets, and was appointed to lead the Trade & Working Capital Product function which focuses on delivering product and service excellence to NatWest’s customers. Now leading the Trade Origination & Advisory team, Rowan is driving NatWest’s presence and capability in the Trade Finance market, with a key focus on innovation, digitisation and business development across all product areas.
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About NatWest Bank: NatWest Bank is a large retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom.
Rowan Austin
Head of Trade Finance Origination and Advisory of NatWest Bank
Rowan is Head of Trade Origination & Advisory for NatWest, and has extensive cross-product and sectoral knowledge having worked for four banks across six continents. He commenced his career with Goldman Sachs, before joining Barclays with roles across Corporate, International and Investment Banking. Rowan then joined Europe Arab Bank where he built a commodity and trade finance function across Europe and the MENA region, as well as building an Islamic Finance capability. Joining NatWest in 2011, Rowan supported the restructuring of the global business to focus on core UK and western European markets, and was appointed to lead the Trade & Working Capital Product function which focuses on delivering product and service excellence to NatWest’s customers. Now leading the Trade Origination & Advisory team, Rowan is driving NatWest’s presence and capability in the Trade Finance market, with a key focus on innovation, digitisation and business development across all product areas.
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About NatWest Bank: NatWest Bank is a large retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom.
Janet Thomas
RIsk Advisor of Moneymailme
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About : Moneymailme is a mobile application that enables its users to receive and transfer payments with others.
