GUY OPPERMAN MP – MINISTER FOR PENSIONS

Guy Opperman was first elected to be the Member of Parliament for Hexham at the 2010 General Election and was re-elected at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 General Elections. In 2015, Guy was appointed a government Whip, and was later promoted to Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion in June 2017.

Guy has an Honours Degree in Law from the University of Buckingham and a first class diploma from the University of Lille, France. Guy was called to the Bar in 1989 and spent 20 years as a barrister – 15 years of which were spent predominantly at the criminal bar. He prosecuted and defended in a number of murder and rape trials, as well as in numerous Crown Court trials. He served as a Director of his family engineering business until 2009.

DAVID FERGUSON

David co-founded Nucleus in 2006 and was chief executive until 2021.

Previously, he was director of Abacus Financial Marketing Limited. He was a trainee actuary with Life Association of Scotland Limited prior to working at Ivory & Sime Limited and what was then known as Scottish Life International Limited.

He has also been a member of Her Majesty’s Treasury Fintech Envoy for Scotland since December 2016 and is the current chairman of FinTech Scotland. He has a BSc (Hons) (Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics) from Heriot-Watt University.

CLAER BARRETT, CONSUMER EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES

Claer Barrett is the consumer editor of the FT. She writes the weekly Serious Money column and presents the FT’s Money Clinic podcast and Business Clinic video series. Claer frequently appears as a commentator on radio and TV, talking about personal finance, consumer and small business issues, and she is a regular guest on Eddie Mair’s Drive show on LBC Radio.

JO LITTLE, DIRECTOR, EMERY LITTLE

Jo is a director of Emery LIttle, a Financial Planner and became a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society at just 27. She then went on to complete the Mentorship programme with the Kinder Institute to become a Registered Life Planner (RLP). She looks to combine both her technical capability with the skills learned as a Registered Life Planner to help her clients build a life and financial plan around what matters most to them. Jo also sits on the Board of NextGen Planners, a membership organisation focused on supporting quality education, innovation and diversity in the financial planning community.

ANTHONY RAFFERTY, CEO, ORIGO

Anthony Rafferty is CEO of the industry FinTech Origo. Anthony joined Origo, and returned to Scotland, in 2018 to drive and deliver the vision of improved operational efficiencies, lowering costs for market participants and improving outcomes for customers. Before joining Origo, Anthony held a number of senior roles in the life, pensions and investments industry, including Aviva and Royal Bank of Scotland. Anthony is passionate about helping customers become more engaged in their financial futures and is committed to making it easier for them to manage by supporting platforms, providers, advisers and software organisations with dynamic and critical services that lower costs and improve efficiencies.

SHEILA NICOLL OBE, HEAD OF PUBLIC POLICY, SCHRODERS

Sheila is Head of Public Policy at Schroders. She has been closely involved in the development of the financial services regulatory system in the UK and Europe since 1982. Before joining Schroders she was a Senior Adviser at EY and from 2007 to 2013 was at the Financial Services Authority where she supervised the whole range of mid-sized financial services institutions during the financial crisis, before becoming Director of Conduct Policy and part of the leadership team which created the Financial Conduct Authority.   At the FSA she led the development of the Retail Distribution Review, the Mortgage Market Review and the review of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  Previously she was Deputy Chief Executive of the Investment Management Association and held several policy roles at the London Stock Exchange, including before and after “Big Bang”.

SARAH LYONS, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, PARMENION

Sarah has worked in long term savings for over twenty years, holding a wide variety of leadership roles in strategy, proposition and marketing across a number of financial services businesses.

She is currently Parmenion’s Chief Marketing Officer and is passionate about the difference good leadership can make in developing a positive culture and high performance.

JAMES DALEY, MD, FAIRER FINANCE

James is Managing Director of Fairer Finance and has been a consumer campaigner and financial journalist for 20 years. Before launching Fairer Finance, he worked for the consumer group, Which?, where he campaigned for a better deal for customers of banks and insurers in the wake of the financial crisis. James is frequently interviewed on national television and radio, and has regularly appeared on shows such as Watchdog, Rip-off Britain, Dispatches and SuperShoppers. Before working at Which?, James spent 10 years as a business and finance newspaper journalist, latterly as the The Independent’s personal finance editor and cycling columnist.