Funds Symposium 2026: Building Momentum in the UK Funds Market

Jonathan Lipkin, Director - Policy, Strategy and Innovation, The Investment Association

Jonathan is Director of Policy, Strategy and Innovation at The Investment Association (IA) and a longstanding member of the IA's Executive Committee.

Jonathan’s role focuses on helping the investment management industry to best serve its customer markets at a time of accelerating change. The PSI Division has evolved into a multi-disciplinary and diverse team that covers a wide range of policy and regulation affecting the industry, including competition, communication, financial stability and fund governance, as well as the broader shape of pensions and long-term savings markets.

It also houses a specialist Innovation and Operations Unit to assist the industry in adapting to new technologies and help shape the broader landscape. Jonathan joined the IA in 2005, becoming Director of Public Policy and a member of the IA Executive Committee in 2012. Prior to 2005, he worked for a number of years at Oxford Analytica, a geopolitical analysis and advisory firm. At OA, he led European political and economic analysis serving a wide range of corporate and government clients, both domestic and overseas.

Jonathan is a Board Member of the Cost Transparency Initiative, Chair of the EFAMA Pensions Group, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Asset Management Research at Bayes Business School. He writes and speaks regularly both in the UK and abroad on investment management and pensions issues.

Cassie Waller, Chief Executive Office, Santander Asset Management UK

Cassie Waller joined Santander Asset Management UK as Chief Commercial Officer in February 2023, earning promotion to the role of Chief Executive Officer in May 2024.

Cassie joined Santander Asset Management from Syntax Research Inc, where she was Chief Operating Officer. She also held the role of Chief Marketing Officer based in Florida, as well as a number of senior roles in State Street Bank Europe and State Street Global Markets, with responsibility for consultant relationships and portfolio solutions sales. Roles at Putnam Investments, Friends, Ivory & Sime and Wellington Management saw her gather a wealth of experience across a diverse range of disciplines.

A forward-thinking senior executive with a proven record of accomplishment during her 25-year career, Cassie is a driven and ambitious business leader, dedicated to continuous business improvement, with a focus on enhancing revenue and streamlining business operations. Cassie has been successful in executing successful investment sales strategies, establishing winning teams and forging strong industry and internal partnerships.

Cassie Waller holds a degree in International Politics, Communications and Marketing from Boston College. She is committed to diversity and inclusion, supporting women in business through a number of industry initiatives.

Alyson Yule, Head of Depositary and Custody UK, Apex Group

Alyson has worked in financial services for over 30 years and joined Apex as part of the Ipes acquisition in early 2019. Alyson is a Chartered Accountant having completed her training with PwC and has worked with in various aspects of financial services - private banking, trustee services, fund administration as well as depositary and custody.

Alyson is now heading up Depositary and Custody services in the UK and leads the team in the provision of depositary services to clients.  Alyson is also Global Head of Product for Depositary services for the Apex Group. 

Alyson headed up the London Branch of European Depositary Bank SA (owned by the Apex Group) until its closure in late 2024.

Matthew Beesley, Chief Executive, Jupiter

Matthew Beesley was appointed Chief Executive of Jupiter on 1 October 2022 having joined Jupiter as Chief Investment Officer in January 2022.  With nearly 25 years of experience in the investment industry, Matt was previously CIO at Artemis Investment Management and prior to that Head of Investments at GAM Investments. From 2012 to 2017, he was Head of Global Equities and portfolio manager at Henderson Global Investors, having previously managed global equities funds at Mercury Asset Management where he started his career, JP Morgan Asset Management and Trinity Street Asset Management.  Matt is a CFA Charterholder and a Director of the Investment Association.

Jonathan Wilcocks, Global Head of Distribution, Premier Miton 

 Jonathan joined Premier Miton in September 2022, where is he is the Global Head of Distribution, a member of the Executive Committee and CEO of Premier Fund Managers.

Previously,  Jonathan was Global Head of Distribution for M&G Investments where he spent 17 years building up M&G’s UK and International distribution business across the UK,Europe,AsiaandtheAmericas.Jonathanjoinedtheindustryin1986,beginninghiscareerwith Hambros Bank in the Investment Management Division. Having moved into Investment Sales from Hambros, he joined Prolific as Regional Sales Manager in 1993 responsible for marketing mutual funds to intermediaries in East Anglia and West Midlands. Following the merger with Aberdeen in 1997, he became Investment Sales Director, having additional responsibility for clients in London and Switzerland. He moved to US investment house MFS in 2001 as Sales Director, responsible for sales into UK and Scandinavia before joining M&G Investments in February 2005.

Jonathan is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments and is a Chartered Wealth Manager of the CISI. He is Chair of the UK Investment Association’s Investment Funds Committee and also a member of the IA’s Retirement Income Committee.

Michelle Beck, Director Wholesale Buy-Side, FCA

Since starting her career in financial services in 1986, Michelle has served as a risk management fellow in the Analytics Office of the SEC and chief risk officer for buyside firms including TIAA Financial Solutions, Nuveen and Russell Investments. Michelle has played leading roles in market and operational risk, as well as derivative product trading roles, for banks in the US and Europe including Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank. Michelle joined the FCA in 2025 as Director of Wholesale Buy-Side.

Miranda Seath, Director of Market Insight & Fund Sectors, The Investment Association

Miranda leads the team analysing data and trends in UK investment management, producing evidence-based insight to support the IA’s policy agenda. The division provides insight to members and external stakeholders through the Investment Management Survey, retail funds market commentary and investor research. Miranda is also responsible for the IA Sectors, the fund classification scheme designed to help UK investors navigate the retail fund universe.

Miranda joined the IA in May 2019. Before joining, she was Research Director at Platforum and NextWealth, research and consulting firms focused on retail investment distribution.

Doug Abbott, Chief Product Officer, Hargreaves Lansdown

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team: December 2025

Doug Abbott is responsible for ensuring clients can access a high-quality range of financial products across the platform, spanning funds, retirement solutions, ETFs, and innovation across public and private markets. Doug is also directly responsible for HL Fund Managers, HL Workplace, our partnerships team and platform investments.

He is passionate about improving financial outcomes across the UK, with a strong belief in the opportunity to help more people benefit from saving and investing, supported by the right products and guidance.

Doug joined from Vanguard, where he was Head of the UK Client Group, leading relationships with UK clients across ETFs, mutual funds, and model portfolios. Prior to this, he spent 15 years at Schroders, where he started on the graduate scheme and went on to hold a number of senior roles, including Head of UK Wealth, Country Head of South Africa, and Head of UK Investment Trust Sales.

Imran Razvi, Senior Policy Adviser, Pensions & Institutional Market, The Investment Association

Imran Razvi is Senior Policy Adviser, Pensions & Institutional Market at the Investment Association. Imran leads the Association's policy work on pensions and retirement, covering a range of topics in institutional investment management. Since 2019 Imran has worked on the development of the Long-Term Asset Fund regime and its operational implementation in the Defined Contribution pensions and retail markets as part of the Association's work to broaden investor access to private markets. Prior to the Investment Association, Imran began his career as an Economist at the Department for Work and Pensions before working as a senior policymaker on pensions reform at the Department.

David Genn, CEO, Goji Investments

David Genn is the CEO of Goji, a British fintech company and part of the Euroclear group. Following Euroclear’s acquisition of Goji, David also serves as Euroclear’s Head of Product, Alternative and Private Market Funds. In this expanded capacity, David is responsible for driving the strategic evolution of private market infrastructure, bridging the gap between traditional financial systems and the digital future of alternatives. A developer by background, David upholds innovation, keeps technology at the core of his work, and simplifies the complex.

Henri Loombe-Temple, Product Structuring Director, Schroders Capital

Henri Loombe-Temple is a product structuring director in Schroders Capital, which is the private markets arm of the Schroders group. He has 14 years of asset management experience and works globally on private markets fund structures, including those for the wealth market. He has worked on LTAFs since their initial regulatory consultations, and has most recently delivered what Schroders understands to be the first two wealth-eligible LTAFs to the UK market; composing a private equity strategy and an energy infrastructure strategy. As well as supporting products, he spends a significant amount of time providing private markets structuring advice to clients. He also co-chairs the Retail LTAF Distribution Group, which is an industry group initiated by the Investment Association and the Platforms Association to facilitate the uptake of LTAFs in the UK market. He spent the first six years of his career at PIMCO, predominantly in their product team covering a wide range of fixed income and alternative strategies. He has a degree in engineering from Imperial College, London.

Cécile Rigault, Senior Policy Adviser, Fund Risk & Regulation, Policy, Strategy & Innovation, The Investment Association

Cécile leads the Association’s policy work on fund risk and regulation, covering a broad range of topics including money market funds, fund innovation and the evolving UK and EU regulatory frameworks for investment funds. Cécile works closely with members, regulators and policymakers to support the development of the UK funds sector.
Prior to joining the Investment Association in 2025, Cécile spent more than 12 years in consulting, where she was a Senior Manager specialising in risk and regulatory matters across the banking, wealth and asset management sectors. Before moving into consulting, she worked as an adviser in retail and private banking.

Edward Malcolm, Co-Head EMEA ETF Distribution, J.P. Morgan Chase

Edward Malcolm, executive director, is Co-head of EMEA ETF Distribution, leading a team of pan-European ETF Client Advisors. He also focuses on expanding the J.P. Morgan ETF offering in the UK market and is based in London.

Before joining JPMorganChase, Edward spent over seven years at State Street Global Advisors in the SPDR ETF team, where he led distribution of the SPDR ETF range to UK clients and later headed the UK Wealth team. Earlier in his career, he worked at JM Finn & Co, managing private client portfolios and ETF model portfolios. Edward holds a BA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Newcastle.

Cora Gibbons, Head of Product, Royal London Asset Management

Ms Cora Gibbons is Head of Product at RLAM and has over 25 years of experience in the asset management and investment funds industry, having held senior executive and fund board positions in various organizations across Europe. In her previous roles, Ms Gibbons lead and structured Product departments, responsible for strategy, design, development, management and governance. She has covered investment strategies and fund structures across all asset classes and global domiciles. Ms Gibbons was previously Head of Product EMEA and APAC at Credit Suisse Asset Management and Head of Products Europe at UBS Asset Management, based in Zurich. Prior to this, she was Managing Director for International Product at Nuveen, Head of Product at Artemis and Head of Product and Fund Development at Barings in London. Prior to joining Barings, Cora was based in Frankfurt, focussing on Product Development and Strategy for the international business of Allianz Global Investors.

Ms Gibbons started her career at Bank of Ireland Asset Management in Dublin where she worked in the International Department before moving to Germany. She has a degree in Law and German from Trinity College Dublin and an Executive MBA from ESSEC and Mannheim. 

Hector McNeil, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, HANetf 

Hector is a veteran of the ETF industry, establishing Susquehanna’s ETF desk in Europe before co-founding ETF Securities in 2005. In 2011, Hector founded Boost ETP with Nik Bienkowski, which became WisdomTree Europe in 2014 with Hector serving as co-CEO. Following WisdomTree's acquisition of Boost ETP in 2016, Hector stepped down as co-CEO to establish HANetf, with business partner Nik Bienkowski.

HANetf provides a full white-label operational, regulatory, distribution, and marketing solution for asset managers looking to launch and manage UCITS ETFs and ETCs in Europe. HANetf has since launched a wide range of products including Europe’s first gold ETC sponsored by The Royal Mint and a range of thematic ETFs focusing on themes such as defence, energy, critical materials, and more.

Hugues Gillibert, Founder and CEO, Fitz Partners Ltd

Hugues (H) Gillibert is founder and CEO of Fitz Partners Ltd now part of the RiskConcile Group.

A pioneer in fund cost calculations in Europe, from 1996 Hugues developed Fitzrovia International alongside Paul Moulton before selling their well-respected business.

In 2013, Hugues established Fitz Partners, a specialist provider of detailed investment fund fees and costs calculations, benchmarking, and market intelligence. The firm's mission is to support participants across the European asset management industry in fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities and enhancing their cost management practices.

Fitz Partners addresses the industry's ongoing need for consistent, transparent, and reliable fee data, enabling fund operators and boards to accurately assess and benchmark their funds operating expenses and costs.

Building on this success, Fitz Partners joined the RiskConcile Group in September 2025, further strengthening its ability to serve the evolving needs of the industry.

Throughout his career, Hugues has contributed to industry initiatives and research on fund expenses for organisations including INREV, the Investment Association (IA), ALFI, EIOPA, and the Irish Department of Finance. He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences and events, where he shares his expertise on fund fees, costs, and governance.

James Alexander, Senior Vice President, Northern Trust

James Alexander is a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust, where he partners as a strategic advisor to leading wealth managers, asset managers and investment platforms, advising them on strategic transformation, operating model transformation, outsourcing and technology-enabled innovation. He works closely with senior executives across the industry to help them drive growth, improve efficiency and enhance client outcomes.

James has more than 20 years' experience across wealth and asset management. Prior to joining Northern Trust in 2026, he was a leader in Deloitte's Investment Management and Wealth Consulting practice, advising clients across EMEA on strategy, M&A, business transformation, operating model design and regulatory change. Before moving into consulting, James held a number of senior leadership roles within investment firms, where he built and led several businesses, with responsibility for strategy, distribution, operations and investment governance. Drawing on experience gained both as an industry practitioner and consultant, he is a regular contributor to executive forums and industry roundtables, with a particular focus on transformation, innovation and the future of the industry. James holds a degree in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Jonathan Cleborne, Managing Director, Vanguard & Investment Management Taskforce Technology Group Chair

Jonathan Cleborne, CFA, is Managing Director for Vanguard Europe, responsible for leading the operations and distribu- tion efforts of the European business. Mr. Cleborne relocated to London from Vanguard’s global headquarters in the United States in 2024.

Prior to this role, Mr. Cleborne was head of Personal Investor Advice leading a team that provides Vanguard’s U.S. clients with ongoing asset management and investment advice consultations with Certified Financial Planner™ professionals through Vanguard's Personal Advisor offers. Mr. Cleborne and his team were also responsible for Vanguard Digital Advisor®. Collectively, the team stewarded over $300B on behalf of indi- vidual investors and 401(k) plan participants.

Since joining Vanguard over 20 years ago, Mr. Cleborne has held a variety of roles in Personal Investor, Financial Advisor Services, Corporate Strategy, and the Investment Strategy Group. He was also the global head of Vanguard Portfolio Review Department, which oversees Vanguard's 400-plus mutual funds, ETFs, and their advisors. The department is also responsible for developing the optimal fund lineup for inves- tors, analyzing the health, usage, and competitive landscape of Vanguard's funds and ETFs and serving as specialized product experts.

Mr. Cleborne earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of the United Kingdom.

Theo Golden, CFA, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford

Theo is an investment manager at Baillie Gifford and Chair of the Tokenisation Working Group. Theo is the architect of the firm's tokenisation strategy, and responsible for designing and creating tokenised funds as one of the firm's Digital Asset experts. Theo co-manages the Baillie Gifford Strategic Bond Strategy, and is chair of the Corporate Credit Macro Group. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford in 2021, Theo was a financial journalist from 2019, with roles at various news outlets including Bloomberg and Business Insider. Theo graduated BA (Hons) in Music from Durham University in 2020 and is a CFA Charterholder.

Jamie Singleton, Head of UK & Ireland Sales, Titanbay

Jamie focuses on helping wealth managers, private banks, and digital platforms build and scale their private markets programmes.

He has led strategic engagements across some of the UK's most prominent financial institutions, and aids in the adoption of evergreen retail solutions.

Ellen Hodgetts, Investor Insights Manager, The Investment Association

Ellen Hodgetts is Investor Insights Manager at the Investment Association, where she leads a programme of research into retail investor behaviour and sentiment.

Her research projects focus on topics including investor communications, product use and the barriers to investing in the UK. Ellen works closely with member firms, policymakers and research partners to translate market trends and consumer insights into practical recommendations for the industry that aim to improve investor outcomes.

Mandeep Bhandal, Head of Retail Market Delivery, The Investment Association

Mandeep Bhandal is Head of Retail Market Delivery at the Investment Association, where she leads the Association’s retail investment policy agenda and supports the delivery of key industry initiatives affecting the UK retail market. Her work spans areas including Consumer Duty, Assessment of Value, Consumer Composite Investments (CCI), and wider retail market reform.

She works closely with member firms, regulators and policymakers to help shape policy and regulatory developments, support industry implementation, and promote effective retail investment markets.

Prior to joining the IA, she spent eight years at the Financial Conduct Authority, where she gained extensive experience in policy development and regulatory affairs, working with a broad network of domestic and international stakeholders. Earlier in her career, Mandeep worked in political and resilience consulting and held roles within the legal and compliance functions of investment banks.

Emma Tilt, Head of Digital Wealth & Platforms, Wealth & Premier Solutions UK, HSBC

Based in London, Emma is responsible for both the D2C Retail Digital Wealth business and the Financial Planning Proposition & Platforms ensuring a seamless experience for both end investors and advisers across the continuum.

Emma was previously Head of Personal Investing for Fidelity; responsible for leading the business, defining the strategy and commercial management, serving half a million customers with £35B of assets and before that headed up the Digital Advice business.

Emma has been in the Financial Services industry for over 20 years holding various proposition, change and transformational roles across Fidelity, TD and Barclays.  She spent two years in Canada in a global leadership role defining a digital robo-advice proposition.

Emma started her career as a Project Manager, she is both MSP and PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Simon Belsham, Chief Client Officer, Hargreaves Lansdown

Appointed to the Executive Leadership Team: August 2025

Simon has extensive experience leading digital platform businesses and online retail platforms grounded in customer insights. In both the UK and the US, he has held senior roles at Equinox, Walmart, Ocado and Tesco, where he led the online business as Managing Director.

Through his background in digital retail platforms, Simon is expert in designing truly consumer-centric experiences and services to deliver what people need.

Simon received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2007.

John Allan, Director of Innovation and Operations and Director of Engine, The Investment Association

John is responsible for the regulatory policy and FinTech work of the UK asset management trade body. The Innovation & Operations Unit aims to build the industry’s innovation capacity through IA policy development on technological change, DLT, crypto and AI, as well as promoting fund modernisation and supporting firms on operational policy including resiliency and cyber security. The Engine connects best-in-class FinTech innovators to forward-looking investment managers to transform how the world invests.

Catriona Kellas, International Legal Lead – Digital Projects, Franklin Templeton

Catriona Kellas is the International legal Lead for Digital Projects at Franklin Templeton. Franklin Templeton is at the forefront of the industry in tokenisation, having launched the first blockchain-based ‘40 Act fund in the United States and, more recently, the first such UCITS in Luxembourg.  Catriona leads the legal and regulatory support for all international projects (globally ex-US) involving digital infrastructure and digital assets, such as fund tokenisation, AI, asset tokenisation, and structuring digital asset-based products and strategies, including projects replicating the success of Franklin Templeton’s tokenised fund in Luxembourg, BVI and Singapore. She acts as SME for digital projects in all regulatory engagement as well as helping the business navigate complex regulatory questions in a number of jurisdictions. Prior to taking up her digital role, she was Legal Head of UK Product at Franklin Templeton in London.

Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Catriona specialised in asset management regulation at international law firm Eversheds Sutherland, in their London and Hong Kong offices. She holds an MA from the University of Cambridge.

Alastair Sewell, Senior Investment Director, Aviva Investors

Alastair is a senior investment director, with responsibility for Aviva Investors' tokenisation initiative and strategy, including the recently announced partnership with Ripple. Alastair is also the lead representative for Aviva Investors' liquidity and short duration strategies, focussing on strategic initiatives spanning portfolio management, distribution and product development.

Alastair is chairperson of the Institutional Money Market Fund Association, chairperson of the Investment Association's Money Market Fund Working Group, a member of the European Fund and Asset Management Association's Money Market Fund and Tokenisation Working Groups and Aviva Investors' representative on both the Technology Working Group of the UK Government's Investment Management Workforce and the UK's Wholesale Digital Markets Champion Workforce.

Alastair joined Aviva Investors from Fitch Ratings, where he was Head of Fund Ratings, responsible for producing ratings and research on money market and short duration bond funds in EMEA and Asia Pacific. Prior to this, Alastair was a CDO rating analyst in Fitch’s structured credit group. Alastair started his career at a UK local authority in 2003.

Alastair holds and undergraduate degree from the University of Bristol, an MBA from the University of Bath and is a CFA Charterholder. He is a student of Mandarin Chinese.

Tony Stenning, Chief Commercial Officer, Boring Money

Tony Stenning is Chief Commercial Officer at Boring Money, the consumer-led research and insight business, a role he assumed in November 2025. He has over three decades’ experience in financial services, with a career spanning economics, fund management, distribution, retirement and executive leadership.

Tony spent much of his career at BlackRock, where he held a number of senior roles including Managing Director, Head of UK Retail and Head of Retirement for EMEA. He was also CEO of BlackRock Fund Managers Limited. He subsequently served as CEO of Atlantic House Group and has held advisory and non-executive roles across asset management, FinTech and governance.

Tony joined the board of The Investing and Savings Alliance (TISA) in 2014 and served as Chair for 6.5 years before standing down in December 2025. He holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

Jasveer Singh, General Counsel, Jupiter Asset Management 

Jasveer is the General Counsel at Jupiter and has responsibility for the firm’s Legal, Product Structuring, Compliance and Governance & Secretariat teams alongside Jupiter’s multi-disciplinary operations in Luxembourg and Ireland. Prior to Jupiter, Jasveer was General Counsel at Man Group plc and before that worked at Clifford Chance.