PIMFA Women’s Symposium 2025

Liz joined PIMFA (then known as the Wealth Management Association) as Chief Executive in 2014.

She has 30 years financial services experience, 19 of which as a Chief Executive. She successfully transformed and advised several businesses through redefining strategy, re-branding, change management and inspirational leadership, creating profitable businesses.

She has substantive experience of people and corporate culture risk, regulatory knowhow across the industry – banking, insurance and wealth management and providing good practice guidelines for the industry to adopt.

She is an accredited coach and industry leader encouraging collaborative participation of diverse groups of industry experts to address sector challenges and to leverage industry resources for collective benefit.

Liz holds a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Occupational Psychology from Birkbeck.

Having led learning teams at the Institute of Risk Management, The British Bankers Association and most recently at UK Finance where he developed learning academies on Vulnerability, Financial Crime and Conduct & Culture, Philip is considered a leading authority in L&D within financial services. At PIMFA, Philip’s responsibility is to design and deliver a suite of innovative learning solutions that not only support members to meet their regulatory obligations but help them develop the skills and talents their staff need to take advantage of digital transformation. A qualified trainer, Philip was awarded Fellowship of The Learning Performance Institute in 2018.

Elissa has spent her life in private client wealth management looking after clients, their families, pensions, charities and general life care. Many have become friends over the years and it remains a highly personal business, although hopefully a level of professionalism has developed over the years as the needs have become more complex.

Elissa has spent a lifetime in wealth, and was an early female member of the Stock Exchange. She has held a range of Board positions, including Head of Private Clients, covering all aspects of the business, and has a special interest in media, marketing and developing new business. She also mentors several of the younger fund managers, which has been most rewarding.
Elissa is now the proud Grandmother of seven grandchildren and likes entertaining, being social and travelling.

Annabel is Regional Centre Head for London & the South East at RBC Brewin Dolphin having previously been Head of Relationship Management for RBC Wealth Management in the UK and Channel Islands.

As part of the leadership team, Annabel is focused on driving the success of RBCBD and ensuring our clients receive the best of our organization. Her positivity and broad experience garnered from a twenty year career in wealth management have been instrumental in helping her bring teams together, under a common goal and culture.

Prior to joining RBC in July 2019, Annabel started her career at Barclays and has also worked at Citi, Deutsche and Julius Baer.

Born in Lincoln, Annabel grew up in Yorkshire, before travelling to Oxford to further her education. Annabel holds an MA (Hons) from Oriel College, Oxford and is also a member of the CFA Institute.

When not looking after her young family, Annabel enjoys rugby (playing, coaching and cheering on) paddle boarding and yoga.

Zoe Burns-Shore is the Executive Director for Customer Delivery at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS). Her focus is on making impartial money guidance accessible to all by ensuring MaPS is delivering high quality services that get the right outcomes for our customers.

Zoe brings over 20 years’ experience, working both in the public and the private sectors, developing strategies that support and reward colleagues in customer focused delivery, most recently at Yorkshire Water. Zoe also sits on the board of the Leeds and York NHS Trust.

Natalie’s journey into health and wellness began in the high pressure corridors of corporate life, where she faced personal health challenges, including daily bloating, severe PMS and fluctuating weight. These experiences, combined with a family history of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, propelled her to transition from her demanding job to a career dedicated to nutritional therapy and functional medicine. Today, as a Clinic Director and registered Nutritional Therapist, Natalie specialises in metabolic and cardiovascular health, providing personalised guidance to help clients manage weight, reduce diabetes risk and increase overall energy.

Her approach to health is deeply client focused, prioritising listening and supportive guidance to empower individuals to regain control of their well being. Natalie’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that ‘health is true wealth’, advocating for proactive steps to preserve health before it becomes a necessity. Her expertise makes her a sought after voice in the field; Natalie frequently appears in national press and media, where she shares her insights on maintaining life balance and enhancing personal health.

Beyond her professional role, Natalie is an advocate for regenerative farming and actively campaigns against ultra-processed foods. As a military wife and stepmother, she finds joy in nature, hiking in Scotland with her family and engaging in activities like strength training, swimming and yoga. Her personal and professional life is dedicated to inspiring others to live healthfully and fully, exemplifying how to turn life’s challenges into opportunities for growth and advocacy.

Vivian is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Longevity Centre (ILC), where she has led a number of projects focusing on highlighting the benefits of longer lives and identifying what government, businesses and society can do to make the most of these opportunities. She has a particular interest in understanding what drives household financial decision-making and financial wellbeing, and how this varies by gender and across generations.

Her recent work includes a project on maximising the longevity dividend in Portugal, which was supported by the British Embassy in Lisbon, and a project on promoting intergenerational fairness, supported by M&G. Before joining the ILC, Vivian worked as an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Reading. Vivian has a PhD in Economics from the University of York, which she completed in 2012.

David’s role is to create and deliver the distribution strategy for our Regional Development Managers who work with our key introducers. David works alongside our Heads of Office in ensuring that our supporting advisers across the country receive the highest possible care and attention.

David joined Quilter Cheviot in 2012 as a Business Development Director and became the Head of Strategic Accounts in 2016, responsible for the Head Office Relationships with National, Networks and Platforms, until moving into his current role in April 2020.

Alexandra Daly is Founder and CEO of AA Advisors, an independent global placement agency. She has over 20 years’ experience working in finance, 17 of which she has spent in the alternatives sector, raising assets in multiple jurisdictions and across the capital structure. She founded AA Advisors in 2007 and to date has advised on over 80 raises across private markets including Private Equity, Private Credit, Real Estate, Infrastructure and Venture Capital firms raising billions of dollars in these sectors.

In addition to her work with AA Advisors, Alexandra leads an initiative spun out of the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, commissioned by the UK Government, which aims to promote entrepreneurialism across the UK and reduce the entrepreneurial gender gap. Alexandra is the Chair of the Council for Investing in Female Entrepreneurs, a steering committee comprised of leading financial institutions, which is looking at implementing the recommendations of the Rose Review that urge LPs and investment funds to help their clients invest in female-run businesses. As part of her role she is helping to address the funding challenges for female-run businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to access capital from the alternatives community. Alexandra also sits on the Ecosystem Working Group for the Invest in Women Taskforce backed by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) which continues the UK Governments work to promote and grow the opportunities presented by female entrepreneurship.

Before founding AA Advisors, Alexandra worked at Man Group for three years, where she cross-sold the firm’s multi-manager platforms, fund of funds businesses and investment services capabilities to European and UAE institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. Prior to this, Alexandra worked at J.P. Morgan in their London office in the derivatives products group. She started her career in finance at Morgan Stanley, as a member of the Fixed Income and Money Markets division. Alexandra has a BA Honours in Law from City University of London.

Tracey was appointed CEO of Hampden & Co in October 2024. She started her career at Barclays where she worked across the UK latterly in a variety of senior positions within the corporate and wealth management divisions.

Tracey joined Handelsbanken in 2003 and accelerated her career quickly becoming Senior Vice President and Head of Northern UK. During this time Tracey was entrusted to lead an acquisition team to identify and acquire an investment and wealth management business. After the successful acquisition of Heartwood (a wholly owned subsidiary of Handelsbanken Plc), Tracey was appointed CEO in 2014.

During Tracey’s tenure as CEO, the firm received numerous awards for its global multi-asset funds, wealth management solutions, and as Best Private Bank. In 2019 Tracey took on the position of Deputy CEO of Handelsbanken Plc.

Tracey is also Chair of the Chartered Institute for Securities And Investment (CISI) Integrity & Ethics Committee. Tracey was regularly named one of PAM’s Top 50 Most Influential including 2023. She also received the ‘Initiatives in Diversity’ award at The City of London Wealth Management Awards 2019.

Charley is the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Evelyn Partners Group which she joined in September 2022 as Group General Counsel and was appointed as Group Company Secretary in April 2024.

She joined Evelyn Partners from Provident Financial Group PLC, the London Stock Exchange listed specialist bank, where she was Group General Counsel and Company Secretary. Prior to this she served as General Counsel and Company Secretary at Cabot Credit Management. She has also held the General Counsel and Company Secretary role at Lockton, the global insurance brokerage, and has held a number of non-executive positions.

She began her legal career at Clifford Chance, before moving to Norton Rose.

David’s primary role is to collate, simplify, regularly update and share technical knowledge, in a user friendly and practical way, within the Quilter group and with the adviser community. This is to assist with maximising financial planning post-tax investment returns given the complexity and fast changing legislation impacting wealth management.

Caroline is a Senior Investment Manager and leads Railpen’s investment stewardship work globally across £37bn of assets under management.
She was previously in charge of the investment, stewardship and collective engagement programme at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). Prior to this, she was Head of Public Policy at the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) and a Senior Policy Adviser at PIMFA (then APFA).

She is Co-founder and Chair of the $4.5tn Investor Coalition for Equal Votes (ICEV) and the $2.5tn Workforce Directors Coalition (WDC) and a fully accredited professional pension trustee at the Standard Life Master Trust – where she is also Chair of its Investment and Sustainability Committee. She has won various industry awards, including as Women in Pensions and Rising Star Awards “Investment Manager of the Year”, Investment Week’s “Investment Woman of the Year” and was picked as one of Financial News’ “Top 50 most influential in European Sustainable Finance” and “Top 25 Rising Stars of Asset Management in Europe”.

In her spare time, she is Co-Chair of the FCA-supported Vote Reporting Group (VRG) and is a Board Director of the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a cross-party think-tank.

Mark Freed has dedicated twenty years to his work at E2W, supporting women and helping them to flourish and succeed in their financial services careers.

Four years ago frustrated at the slow pace of change, Mark recognized the imperative to get more men to drive diversity and inclusion by helping them to fully understand the issues and the opportunities at hand and formed Men for Inclusion.

Today Mark works with a number of firms across the industry helping them to get more men involved in, and supportive of, inclusion initiatives.

Heather is the founder and CEO of NextWealth, a market research and events business focussed on the UK wealth management market, covering business models, investment solutions and tech. She has worked in Toronto, Boston, Tokyo and London and is a data and research expert.

Outside of work, she spends time with her family and tries not to dunk into the river Thames as she learns to scull.

Verona Kenny joined abrdn Adviser as Chief Distribution Officer in Q4 2024. Verona has over 25 years of experience in financial services, she previously held the role of Managing Director, Intermediary at 7IM and prior to that as Marketing and Proposition Director at Cofunds.

Before coming to the UK from her native Australia Verona worked on the launch of the first true Wrap platform in the Australian market. Known for her leadership and innovative approach, Verona has been instrumental in driving growth and transformation within the companies she has worked for. Verona is passionate about driving diversity and inclusion in the financial services industry and is active in many associations and forums to advance this.

Hannah Maple is a Consultant Transplant and Dialysis Access surgeon based at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. Prior to becoming a consultant, she was the first clinical lecturer in transplant and general surgery in London. Her research interests are in health psychology within the field of living donation and transplantation. She was the chief investigator of the NIHR funded BOUnD study – the world’s largest study of unspecified kidney donation – and was awarded the prestigious Medawar medal from the British Transplantation Society for her work.

She is lead for research at the Simulation and Interactive Learning (SaIL) centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and was awarded an Emerging Leaders Fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons in 2021.

Over the course of her career Hannah has acquired waaaay too many feminist t-shirts and a wicked sense of humour. She is unashamedly herself and proud to be considered ‘not a typical surgeon’ by her wonderful nursing colleagues. In her (limited) spare time she enjoys torturing herself in the gym and putting her feet up in front of the telly with a cup of tea and a biscuit (or two).

Holly Mackay has worked in the investment industry since 1999, after gaining a degree at Oxford University and working in television. A serial entrepreneur, she sold her first financial services business in 2014 and set up Boring Money -an independent investment data, research and insights business– in 2015. Boring Money supports the investment industry with consumer insights – and supports consumers with personal finance and investment product information and guidance.

Boring Money’s award-winning consumer website is now the largest investment-specific comparison website in the UK. Holly was awarded Investment Week’s Investment Woman of the Year (Small to Medium Firms) for the second consecutive year in 2023, in recognition of her work to tackle both the Gender Investment Gap and the Advice Gap

Holly is a regular speaker at conferences and media commentator, appearing on the BBC, ITV and Sky News, as well as writing columns for national newspapers and financial publications. She is one of the UK’s most trusted voices to help consumers make sense of investment markets and products, and to help investment Boards to understand their customers.

As an experienced business development manager, Helen’s role is to grow the footprint of Quilter Cheviot by interacting closely with professional intermediaries in the North London area. Helen aims to develop the relationships between the professional intermediaries and our investment managers by creating an awareness of the added value that Quilter Cheviot provide to both their business and clients.

SongDivision UK’s Client Executive, Bec Quinn, is also a professional singer and backing vocalist based in London. When she’s not designing and delivering World-Class SongDivision Experiences, Bec can be found performing alongside Jason Donovan and providing backing vocals for renowned artists such as Pixie Lott, Becky Hill, Mimi Webb and Kylie Minogue.

Bec has performed at the iconic Wembley Stadium at Capital Radio’s ’Summer Time Ball’ and made TV appearances singing backing vocals for Keale Settle, famously known as the Bearded Lady from The Greatest Showman. As a top 24 finalist on the X Factor Australia, Bec has since performed at high-profile events worldwide, showcasing her exceptional talent.

Christine joined Handelsbanken Wealth and Asset Management in 2015 as Head of Wealth Advice with responsibility for the leadership and development of their Wealth Advice team, delivering comprehensive wealth planning, pensions and tax advice to customers.

In 2018 she moved to the position of Head of Private Office & Client Director and provides strategic financial planning and wealth management solutions to the businesses wealthiest customers. Christine is a Certified Financial PlannerTM professional, a Chartered Wealth Manager and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Sneha is an Executive Vice President at SEI and Head of New Business Ventures, responsible for new business and platform identification and incubation; engaging clients, accelerators and the entrepreneurial community to invest and accelerate new ideas and solutions; and cultivating innovation that drives top-line growth.

With more than 25 years of experience in business leadership, strategy, and execution globally, Sneha most recently served as Managing Director and Group Head of the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) Business Accelerator, where she created and scaled new businesses at the intersection of data, artificial intelligence, and technology. Prior to LSEG, her roles as Managing Director, Global Head of Risk Managed Services at Refinitiv and Managing Director in Africa for Thomson Reuters included leveraging emerging technologies, innovation, and strategic partnerships to drive profitable growth. She has also held senior leadership roles across finance and risk, operations, sales, and client service.

A global citizen with a passion for purpose-led initiatives, Sneha currently serves as a Board Trustee for the African Leadership Foundation, the Education Development Center, and the Harambeans Alliance. She is also Board Chair for the Young Presidents Organization’s New York Polaris Chapter. Sneha was selected for Innovate Finance’s “Women in Fintech Power List” and was a two-time winner of the Gender Mainstreaming award by Business Engage.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in politics with international studies from the University of Warwick in the U.K. and completed the Harvard Business School’s YPO Presidents’ Program.

Martha Silcott began her career out of Uni as an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) before transitioning into financial services data. At Experian, she developed the Unclaimed Assets Register, reuniting people with lost funds. She later took on senior roles at Capita, Punter Southall, and other companies, managing client relationships and business growth.

The idea for FabLittleBag came from an awkward moment when Martha, at a dinner party, had to do the “handbag smuggle” with a used tampon as there was no bin in the downstairs loo.

Frustrated by the lack of solutions to help with these awkward situations and realising that almost half of women habitually flushed period products causing blockages and eco pollution, she invented FabLittleBag; a sustainably sourced, discreet, and hygienic disposal bag for tampons, pads, and condoms.

The patented product is opaque, seals securely, and is easy to use with one hand. Martha brought FabLittleBag to market, aiming to address both the environmental harm caused by flushing period products and the social stigma around period disposal.

Abby is responsible for leading the service in the delivery of the FOS’s vision and strategy.

Abby joined the Financial Ombudsman Service in October 2022 from Virgin Media O2, where her roles included leading the Virgin Media Customer Operations function, and leading the Virgin Media O2 B2B Strategy, Marketing and Transformation teams.

Abby started her career as a strategy consultant, working for Accenture, Hedra (a specialist public sector consultancy), and EY. Moving into the telecommunications industry in 2014, Abby was responsible for BT’s flagship digital transformation programme for the Consumer division. Abby then moved to oversee the global Customer Operations function at Vodafone, before moving to Virgin Media.

Gemma is a qualified financial planner known for her friendly and patient approach, bringing her clients empowerment and understanding of their own finances. Gemma helps clients to identify their financial goals and sets them on the path to achieving those goals, often using interactive financial planning to make the process engaging and accessible.

She has a particular focus on helping clients implement effective intergenerational planning strategies, ensuring an effective transfer of wealth to the next generation.