Risk Live 2019

Christian Bluhm became a member of the GEB and was appointed Group Chief Risk Officer of UBS Group AG and UBS AG in January 2016. He joined UBS from FMS Wertmanagement, where he had been Chief Risk & Financial Officer since 2010 and Spokesman of the Executive Board from 2012 to 2015. From 2004 to 2009, he worked for Credit Suisse, where he was Managing Director responsible for Credit Risk Management in Switzerland and Private Banking worldwide. Mr. Bluhm was Head of Credit Portfolio Management until 2008 and then Head of Credit Risk Management Analytics & Instruments after the financial crisis in 2008. From 2001 to 2004, he worked for Hypovereinsbank in Munich in Group Credit Portfolio Management, heading a team that specialized in Structured Finance Analytics. Before starting his banking career with Deutsche Bank in Credit Risk Management in 1999, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University in Ithaca and as a scientific assistant at the University of Greifswald. Mr. Bluhm holds a degree in mathematics and informatics from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and received his PhD in mathematics in 1996 from the same university.

Edward Fishwick, Managing Director, Global Co-Head, Risk & Quantitative Analysis, BLACKROCK

Edward Fishwick, Managing Director, is Global Co-Head of Risk & Quantitative Analysis at BlackRock. In addition, he is a member of the European Executive and Global Operating Committees of the firm, and is a member of the Board of BlackRock Group Ltd.

Mr. Fishwick has worked in quantitative finance for over 30 years in London, New York and Boston. Previously he was Head of Risk Management and Investment Process Research at AXA Investment Managers, and Director of Research at Quantec.

Mr. Fishwick is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Asset Management, and is the Chairman of the London Quant Group.

Digital & Platform Services is a new organization comprised of the digital, technology, operations and data businesses in the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). 

Digital & Platform Services was created ensure that businesses and disciplines across the firm are aligned to deliver next-generation technologies and build the financial platform of the future. They are responsible for identifying, developing and delivering products, and services – inside and outside the bank – that will transform the way J.P. Morgan, and its clients, do business.

Andrew Hauser is the Executive Director for Markets. He is responsible for all aspects of the design and execution of the Bank of England’s operations in financial markets, which includes managing the Bank’s own balance sheet and overseeing the UK’s official foreign exchange reserves on behalf of HM Treasury. In addition to these operational duties, he is responsible for market intelligence gathering and providing the Bank’s Monetary Policy and Financial Policy Committees with analysis of global financial markets.

Andrew joined the Bank in 1992 and has worked in senior roles in most major functions.  Most recently, he was Executive Director for Banking, Payments and Financial Resilience. He oversaw the development of the Bank’s own financial risk framework, the operation and strategic development of payment systems, and wholesale and retail banking operations. He was also the executive sponsor for the Bank’s work on FinTech, including setting up of the FinTech Hub. Prior to this, he led the joint Bank/HMT/FCA Fair and Effective Markets Review.

Andrew was Private Secretary to the Governor in 2009-11. He also represented the United Kingdom as a member of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC in 2004-6, had oversight of the Bank’s Inflation Report and regional agency network, and served on the secretariat to the Monetary and Financial Policy Committees.

Andrew has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.  In addition to his role at the Bank of England, he was a Non‐Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee for NHS Resolution between 2013 and 2017.

In his role as Managing Director and Head of Data Analytics, Electronic Market Solutions at Standard Chartered Bank, Alexei is responsible for providing data analytics services to Financial Markets sales and trading.

He joined Standard Chartered Bank in 2010 from Barclays Capital where he managed a model development team within Credit Risk Analytics. Prior to joining Barclays Capital in 2004, he was a senior quantitative analyst at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt.

Alexei holds MSc in Theoretical Nuclear Physics from the University of Kiev and PhD in Mathematical Physics from the Institute for Mathematics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

He was the recipient of the 2019 Quant of the Year award from Risk magazine.

Albert Loo was appointed Deputy Head of Sales for Global Markets in January 2018. He was formerly Global Head of Sales for Fixed Income & Currencies and Co-Head of Cross Asset Sales since 2015.

Albert Loo began his career in 1991 at Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking as part of the IT team in charge of asset management accounting project. He was appointed Head of Middle Office for Interest Rate Derivatives in 1994 and took charge of the Front Office Risk Management of Europe & Asia in 1996. In 1999, he joined the interest rate derivatives sales team responsible for French corporates and in 2001, he oversaw the French sales team for corporates & local authorities. In January 2006 Albert was appointed Deputy-Head of European Sales in Interest Rate Derivatives. In 2007, he became Global Deputy-Head of Interest Rate & Foreign Exchange Derivatives then Global co-Head of Interest Rate and Forex Derivatives Sales for Issuers in 2008. He was named Co-Global Head of Sales for Fixed Income & Currencies in April 2012.

Albert has a PhD in Thermodynamics from Paris 7 University, graduated from ENSIA Engineer School (AgroParisTech) and holds a Master's degree in Financial Markets from ITM.

Nicola is Managing Director, Global COO FICC at Citadel Securities. Previously she worked for Morgan Stanley as Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income eMarkets between Sep 2015 – Jun 2016, and Managing Director, Global Head of Rates eMarkets before that.

Nicola has a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

Dr Hugh Montgomery is Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London (UCL), where he also directs the Centre for Human Health and Performance. Hugh also works in the field of Artificial Intelligence as applied to Health and works advises DeepMind Health, part of Alphabet/Google. As a clinical advisor to DeepMind Health, Hugh has provided input to research including head and neck cancer imaging, analysis of retinal scans and prediction and management of acute kidney injury.

Montgomery is also a geneticist. He discovered the first 'gene for human fitness' - one which also changes the chance of surviving critical illness by five-fold. His research looks into why one person may live and one may die when they look almost identical and suffer the same disease. Montgomery is interested in whether survivors are born, or made.

Montgomery still spends 25% of his time working in a North London Intensive Care Unit. In terms of research, he has published over 480 scientific research articles and is perhaps best known for his discovery of ‘the first gene for human fitness’.

Montgomery chaired the last two Lancet Commissions on Human Health and Climate Change, and has written and lectured extensively on the subject. He was appointed to the post of Leader by London’s Sustainable Development Commission, attended many of the international ‘COP’ negotiations, and led the children’s climate education Project Genie.

He organised the Royal College of Physicians first meeting on Climate and Health, was a founder member of the UK Climate and Health Alliance, and helped create the International Alliance on the same subject. He organised the first International Meeting on Climate, Health and Security in 2009.

Hugh Montgomery has patented a treatment for cancer wasting and prevention of injury in stroke; a new technology for patient hydration; a novel mask for the removal of pollutants; and a new asthma inhaler.

Michael Grimwade is Head of Operational Risk for ICBC Standard Bank. He has worked in Operational Risk Management for over 20 years. He has previously held senior Operational Risk management roles at MUFG Securities, RBS and Lloyds TSB, and he has also been a Director of the Institute of Operational Risk. He is the author of a number of articles on setting Op Risk appetite, scenario analysis and Op Risk modelling, and his book “Managing Operational Risk: New Insights and Lessons Learnt” was published by RiskBooks in 2016.

I joined Barclays in 2000 having previously worked for Accenture and JP Morgan Chase.

In my time at Barclays, I have worked in a number of different leadership roles, including:

·        Head of the Barclays Corporate Strategy Team

·        COO of Group Risk

·        Head of Middle Office and Lending Operations in Corporate, IB and Wealth.

·        Chief Controls Officer, BX Service Company.

My role as Group Head of Operational Risk enables me to leverage my wide experience of practical risk management in Barclays.

I have a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA. 

Shaun Kennedy is Group Treasurer at Associated British Ports, responsible for leading the group’s treasury and insurance functions. Shaun has extensive treasury experience and a strong track record working within long term UK infrastructure with previous roles at Affinity Water and Notting Hill Housing Trust amongst others. Shaun is an Associate Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and represents Associated British Ports as a member of the Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates.

Charles Bristow is a Managing Director in the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) at JP Morgan based in London. Charles is global head of Rates, Fixed Income Financing and the Credit Portfolio Trading business and has responsibility for the capital and funding strategy across the broader Markets businesses. Charles is a member of the European Management Committee and is co-chair of the EMEA Diversity Council.
Charles joined the firm in 1998 as an intern before returning upon graduation and worked in a number of derivatives trading roles across Swaps and Options. He became head of non-linear rates products and then head of rates trading in the region before taking a global management role in 2015.

Charles has been involved in a number of strategic projects for the fixed income trading businesses including the design and implementation of differential discounting, measures to reduce the GSIB footprint of the business including the formation of a dedicated compression team and derivatives FVA build out. He is a member of the CIB and EMEA capital committees.
Recent projects outside of Rates trading include Libor transition, buildout of the trader mandate framework and the formation of a collateral management and optimization front office function. Additionally, through his role on the diversity council, Charles is driving the advancement of black leadership and our gender diversity projects in the EMEA region.
Charles studied Manufacturing Engineering at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he was a college scholar and achieved a Masters degree. He is married with three children.

Prof. Rama Cont holds the Chair of Mathematical Finance at Imperial College London and is director of the CFM-Imperial Institute of Quantitative Finance since 2012, after previous appointments at Ecole Polytechnique (France), Columbia University (New York) and Sorbonne (Paris).

His research in finance has focused on modeling of extreme market risks: market discontinuities and breakdowns, liquidity risk, endogenous risk and systemic risk. His 2006 paper on ‘model risk', an early reference on the topic, was the first to propose a quantitative approach to model risk.

Cont has served as a consultant to the BIS, the European Central Bank, the New York Federal Reserve, Norges Bank, the US Commodity Futures Commission (CFTC), the US Office of Financial Research, the IMF and a dozen major CCPs in Europe, Asia, the US and Latin America.

He was awarded the Louis Bachelier Prize by the French Academy of Sciences in 2010 and the Royal Society Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Research in 2017 for his research on mathematical modeling in finance.

Duncan Wood is the London-based editor-in-chief of Risk.net. He was promoted to the role at the start of 2015, to lead the editorial reorganisation of the website and its print titles. Duncan had been editor of Risk magazine since July 2011. He rejoined Risk as European editor in October 2009, having originally worked for Risk and Asia Risk in London and Hong Kong as a writer and researcher between 1998 and 2000.
In the intervening years, Duncan was news editor for the Oliver Wyman-founded online start-up ERisk.com. He also worked freelance for six years while living in Germany, with his work appearing in Euromoney, Financial News, IFR, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as Risk magazine and its sister titles.
Duncan has written about derivatives and risk throughout his 17-year career in journalism. He is a Neal Awards finalist, and has also won Incisive Media's journalist and editor of the year awards.

Mauro Cesa, Quantitative Finance Editor, RISK.NET

Mauro Cesa is quantitative finance editor for Risk.net, based in London. He leads the team responsible for the publication of quantitative research across all brands of the division. The section of Risk.net he manages, Cutting Edge, publishes peer-reviewed papers on derivatives, asset and risk management, and commodities.

Mauro holds a degree in economics from the university of Trieste and a masters in quant finance from the University of Brescia.

Narayanan Somasundaram is the Hong Kong Bureau Chief for Risk.net. He has been a journalist for more than 15 years, with his career spanning news and features for two of the world's largest news organisations - Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg.

Narayanan led coverage of Australian financial services, regulation and the frothy real estate market with a series of features that underscored the build-up of risk in the nation's property market. He has also had stints as a mergers and acquisitions reporter both in Mumbai and Sydney and as a foreign exchange and bonds reporter in Sydney, where he kicked off coverage of global markets amid Brexit and the shock US election win for Donald Trump.

Luke Clancy is the London-based editor-at-large for Risk.net and FX Week.

FX Week is the leading, most-established news service for the global foreign exchange industry.

For 29 years, we have been dedicated to reporting on the world’s largest market, honing our reputation as the most credible publication for those who need to be in the know.

Foreign exchange is not only a huge business, but it’s also one of the most dynamic. As the industry continues to evolve, people need trusted, detailed intelligence. They also want an analysis of what the latest developments mean for their companies, careers, clients and competition.

That’s where FX Week comes in. FX Week doesn’t just provide the facts, we look at topics in detail. We speak with key players, assess the implications and bring it all together into a detailed, analytical piece.

Tom Osborn is the desk editor of Risk.net’s risk management coverage. Prior to joining Risk, he reported on the futures and foreign exchange industries for Dow Jones' Financial News and the Euromoney group of publications. Tom holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Warwick, UK.

Kris Devasabai is the New York-based editor-in chief of Risk.net. Previously, he was bureau chief and US editor of Risk magazine. He manages the editorial team. Prior to joining Risk, Kris covered hedge funds, asset management, cross-border investing and law for several publications.

Kris holds a bachelor’s degree in law and government from the University of Manchester, and he completed his legal training at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 2003.

Helen Bartholomew is Editor-at-Large for Risk.net, based in London. Prior to joining Risk, she was derivatives editor for International Financing Review, part of Thomson Reuters, where she previously reported on debt and equity capital markets. Helen holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Durham, UK.

Rob Mannix is the desk editor for investment, covering systematic investment strategies from quant funds to factor investing. He was previously responsible for Risk.net’s insurance coverage.

Based in the London office, Rob is interested in developments in the use of new types of data, the application of machine learning in investment, and research into systematic sources of return in markets. 

Rob joined Infopro Digital (then Incisive Media) in 2008, having previously worked at Euromoney Institutional Investor, covering legal and regulatory issues affecting capital markets.

Alexander Campbell is the divisional content editor for Risk.net. He was formerly the editor of Operational Risk & Regulation and news editor of Risk magazine. He is based in London.