TalkingTech: Enhancing Client Experience: Digitising the Journey for the End Investor

.

In today's dynamic landscape, the expectations of end investors are evolving rapidly. As technology reshapes industries and individuals continue to expect more streamlined digital experiences, investment managers are presented with both unprecedented opportunities and challenges. This event aims to explore how digitisation can revolutionise the client journey, offering insights into key strategies to meet the evolving needs of investors.

During the event, we will explore the disparity in the current methods investment managers use to interact with their customers and the ways that end investors like to interact with their investments. We will hear directly from investment managers about their journeys to continually develop the levels of personalisation in their communications and products. And last but not least, a number of successful platforms will run through the challenges they see investment managers facing, and the technologies they believe can provide a competitive advantage.

Don’t delay, register today! We look forward to seeing you there.

14:30 Registration & Networking

15:00 Welcome remarks

• Harry Thomas, Relationship Manager, The Investment Association

15:05 Changing Needs and Expectations of the End Investor

• Dola Fashola, Consulting Wealth & Investment Director, PwC
• Jessica Lewis, Consulting Director, PwC

15:25 Fireside Chat: How can investment managers better meet the needs of customers?

• Neil Thornburn, Chief Experience Officer, Kurtosys
• Colin Bennett, Global Head of Marketing and Client Experience, GAM Investments

15:45 Panel: Discussing the Technology that can Transform Client Experience

Moderator – Reuben Overmark, Senior Policy Adviser, Retail Markets, Investment Association

• Michelle Wright, Chief Product Officer, Kurtosys
• Adam Grainger, Founder and MD, Accomplish
• Nathan Long, Senior Policy Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown

16:30 Closing remarks

• Gillian Painter, Head of Membership and Engine, The Investment Association

16:35 Networking drinks

17:30 Event close

Harry Thomas, Relationship Manager, The Investment Association
As Relationship Manager for the Investment Association (IA), Harry works closely with the IA’s c.270 investment managers to support them in accessing the IA’s initiatives and policy expertise. Since joining the IA in 2019, Harry has assisted in the growth of Engine, the IA’s FinTech hub and accelerator, which now supports over 150 FinTech firms with buy-side focused solutions from across the value chain. Prior to the Investment Association, Harry held a number of client facing roles within the Legal and FinTech sectors, with involvement in the latter consisting of focus on AI, DLT and Blockchain.

Colin Bennett, Global Head of Marketing and Client Experience, GAM Investments
Colin Bennett is Head of Marketing and Client Experience for GAM Investments, responsible for all marketing, communications, brand and digital distribution activity globally. Colin has more than 25 years’ strategic and tactical experience in the financial services sector, adopting an unrelenting client focus on delivery, innovation and client experiences, in roles spanning sales, marketing, investments, operations and technology. With a focus on sustainable excellence, compassionate leadership and inclusivity, Colin has built successful global teams delivering complex change and distinctive services for clients of asset management, wealth management and private label businesses. He recently earned an Executive Diploma in Digital Leadership from Warwick Business School, is a Chartered IT Professional and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Dola Fashola, Consulting Wealth & Investment Director, PwC
Dola Fashola is a Director in PwC’s Financial Services team and leads the Firm's digital platform and implementation engagements for banking, wealth and long term investment clients. Dola has over 16 years of experience in helping retail banks, private banks, wealth managers and insurers to execute on their digital strategy and deliver large scale customer transformation. She specialises in leading award winning digital programmes, by combining knowledge of changing market and customer trends with data, insight and emerging digital technology. Her projects and assignments empower leaders to understand the customer, commercial and technology implications.
Dola has relevant Wealth industry experience, having worked for a large global bank during its five year digital transformation programme. She brings practical experience of navigating complex stakeholder environments, managing dependencies across a matrixed organisation during periods of transformational change when implementing new customer propositions.

Jessica Lewis, Consulting Director, PwC
Jessica is a director in PwC’s Financial Services team, with a focus on customer experience for life insurance and wealth companies. She specializes in customer-centric design, go-to market strategy, distribution strategy, and target operating model design. Jessica has worked with clients across pensions and wealth management, wealth advisory, and life and health insurance for group and individual products. Jessica has also worked closely with PwC’s Deals team on due diligence and M&A advisory engagements across the advisor, carrier and Insurtech market.
Jessica brings forth her experience in the North American market where she developed the design and launch of a hybrid advice proposition for the life & wealth sector, and worked closely with a number of insurtechs integrating into the wealth ecosystem.

Neil Thornburn, Chief Experience Officer, Kurtosys
Neil is a creative and transformative leader with extensive global digital and marketing experience across multiple sectors, having led digital and marketing teams for two FTSE 100 companies. For the last 12 years Neil has worked in the asset management industry, leading digital across EMEA at JP Morgan Asset Management, then supporting several asset managers with their digital and marketing transformation in a freelance capacity before joining Kurtosys as their Chief Experience Officer in 2021.
Neil’s focus at Kurtosys is firstly to work with clients to help turn their complex problems and scenarios into clear and easy to understand strategies that deliver commercially successful solutions. Secondly, Neil works across the business in internally to ensure that the organisation is as client centric as possible.

Gillian Painter, Head of Membership and Engine, The Investment Association
As Head of Membership and Engine, Gillian is a senior member of the IA Enterprises management team. Engine is the IA’s Innovation hub and FinTech accelerator. Since its launch in October 2019, Gillian has managed the growth of Engine which now encompasses an ecosystem of over 130 firms, innovator programmes, as well as a regional co-working hub in Birmingham and an international programme. Engine is focused on innovation and transformation for the investment management and wealth sectors providing an extensive programme of thought leadership, resources and connectivity. Gillian has a strong experience in technology having worked in technical and operational roles for global IT and telecom firms.

Adam Grainger, Founder and MD, Accomplish
Adam Grainger is a 25-year veteran of the investment industry with a background in client experience transformation in distribution COO roles. His current focus is on breaking down client engagement into the underlying behaviors and helping asset managers measure and compare their effect on them.

Nathan Long, Senior Policy Analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown
Nathan is a research analyst working on pensions, savings, investments and wider public affairs. He is the architect of HL’s Savings & Resilience Barometer and leads the work on using behavioural science to improve client decision making. He’s been instrumental in developing analysis of engagement among workplace pension members. He joined Hargreaves Lansdown in 2003 and has worked in several areas of the business including as a financial adviser to individuals, and as a pension and benefits consultant to employers across the UK.

Michelle Wright, Chief Product Office, Kurtosys
Michelle is the Chief Product Officer at Kurtosys, where she brings extensive international experience in digital product leadership from major financial centres including London, New York, and Singapore. With a proven track record of building transformative client-facing platforms for global leaders across Banking and Data Services, Michelle's entrepreneurial and client-centric approach refines products to drive revenue growth, meeting evolving client needs.

Her experience encompasses the full spectrum of digital product design, delivery, and market introduction. Michelle has a demonstrated history of redefining product development strategies and spearheading innovation across numerous international enterprises.

Reuben Overmark, Senior Policy Adviser, Retail Markets, The Investment Association
Reuben Overmark is a seasoned financial services and government affairs professional having worked in the UK, EU, and the US. He currently serves as a Senior Adviser for Retail Markets at The Investment Association where he leads strategic industry initiatives relating to consumer investments. Reuben has a built a strong reputation for influencing policy changes and driving positive outcomes with prior roles at the Association of British Insurers, on Capitol Hill and on several successful political campaigns in the US.