2023 speakers

Klaus Duellmann is Head of SSM Risk Analysis Division within Directorate General Micro-Prudential Supervision IV of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Until May 2014 he was Head of Supervisory Coordination and Risk Analysis Division and Head of Banking Supervision Research in the central office of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt. Currently his main areas of work are related to horizontal risk assessments of SSM banks, in particular supervisory stress tests. He has a PhD in Finance from the University of Mannheim.

Adrian Docherty leads the Bank Advisory team, which provides key relationship bank clients with technical sector expertise and help on strategic financial issues relating to balance sheet management and efficiency.

In practice, this means advising on capital raising alternatives, risk management and transfer frameworks, regulatory developments (especially Basel III and IV), accounting changes (especially IFRS 9), funding/liquidity strategies, credit portfolio management, solvency creation/optimisation structures and innovative ways of financing growth. In recent years, the issue of “disruption and obsolescence” (ie. new banking business models) has increasingly featured; so now too do strategies around Brexit

Adrian has 25 years’ experience in advising financial institutions, initially as a strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. After nine years at Booz Allen, Adrian was hired by one of his clients, Barclays, to help run the rapidly growing investment banking business line. Adrian spent three years as COO of Investment Banking, before moving to run the balance sheet advisory team in Barclays Capital’s Financial Institutions Group.

Adrian has a Master’s from Cambridge University. His book "Better Banking: Understanding and Addressing the Failures in Risk Management, Governance and Regulation" was published by Wiley in 2014

Jeff Simmons joined MUFG Bank in June 2014 as the head of enterprise risk, tasked with creating the function. He has been involved intensively with the enhancement of the risk management framework in MUFG Bank (Europe). This has involved him in the formation of an enterprise risk function in Amsterdam tasked with delivering the full range of regulatory submissions.  In April 2018, Simmons transitioned to MUFG Securities to become involved in the Brexit project. In this capacity he is the chief risk officer for MUFG Securities (Europe) N.V. the Dutch subsidiary of MUFG Securities (EMEA).

Prior to joining the bank, Simmons spent some 20 years specializing in best practice risk management including market risk, credit risk, risk model validation and regulatory risk consulting. As well as having line management responsibilities in various institutions he has also gained extensive experience in implementing risk management frameworks from both a technical and operating model-based perspective.

Wouter is the Chief Risk Officer of Optiver Amsterdam and has been a member of the local management team since April 2022. He also serves as a member of the EMIR Eurex Risk Committee. Wouter joined Optiver in 2013 and prior to his current role led the Trading Risk Management team at Optiver Amsterdam. He is a graduate of the University of Antwerp and holds an M.Sc. in Business Engineering.

Marco Giovanni Crotti is a policy expert at the European Banking Authority (EBA). He is responsible for the implementation of the EBA FRTB roadmap and represents the EBA at the BCBS Market Risk Group. 

Crotti holds a MSc in mathematical engineering from Politecnico di Milano and an executive master in EU studies at the centre international de formation européenne.

Joris Krijger is a Tech Ethicist working as Ethics & AI Officer at the Dutch bank de Volksbank while also holding a PhD position on the topic of Ethics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He presently works on bridging the gap between ethical principles and AI by studying the operationalization of ethics in data science contexts. Additionally, he holds positions as a.o. Founding Editorial Board Member of Springer Nature’s AI and Ethics Journal. For his contributions to the field of responsible AI he received a.o. a Graduate School Award for PhD Excellence.

Jasper is director of G7 portfolio management within the EBRD Treasury. He oversees the central risk warehouse for all hard currency risks across the Bank’s balance sheet, and is also heavily involved with IBOR transition across various RFR working groups. 

Livingsmith joined the EBRD in 2011. Previously he worked as a macro trader, and was a market maker at ABN AMRO.

Leif is Global Head of Liquidity Management & Money Markets (Group Treasury), Divisional Treasurer Wholesale Banking for ING.

 His remit includes:

• Management of short term funding access, cash and collateral positions
• Effectively securing and steering of all contingent liquidity risk metrics such as the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR)
• Ensuring sufficient funding at all times in all currencies and ING locations to safeguard and facilitate the various business activities of ING worldwide
• Act as a trusted advisor and point of contact to senior management of the Wholesale Banking division

Leif has over 20 yrs of Banking industry experience and before he joined ING worked for DekaBank (Germany, Frankfurt).

Eric Schaanning is heading the Group Banking Book team covering Interest Rate Risk in the Banking Book for the combined UBS & Credit Suisse Group. Prior to joining UBS / Credit Suisse, Eric held various positions at the European Central Bank and Norges Bank, covering Stress Testing, Macroprudential Policy, Cyber Risk and Central Clearing among others. Eric holds a PhD in Mathematics from Imperial College London and an MSc in Mathematics from ETH Zürich.

Roland is the sustainability risk manager for Mizuho in the EMEA region. He supports the Risk Management Department to improve and implement the ECB and EBA guidelines on sustainability risk and to conduct sustainability risk initiatives across the region. Roland recently joined Mizuho after working in Deloitte Netherlands' climate risk modeling team. With Deloitte, Roland supported banks in the Netherlands and across Europe with the implementation of regulations on sustainability risk including the integration in quantitative risk models. Roland has a background in sustainable innovation and quantitative finance.

 

In 2016 William Cooper became the head of risk for SEB Denmark with responsibility for protecting the banks financial results and reputation by preventing excessive risk taking and promoting a strong risk management culture. He has a key role in driving and contributing to risk related projects including the banks FRTB program. 

Cooper has worked in the past for both buy and sell side firms, in roles ranging from trading at a large hedge fund to working as a quantitative analyst at a tier 1 investment bank, always with a focus on improving financial modelling and analytics to maximize risk management and market awareness. He holds a BSc in mathematics and economics from the LSE and a MSc in mathematics from the University of Copenhagen.

Neil McLeod has over 20 years’ experience within the financial markets industry, across multiple asset classes, including Credit Trading, Money Markets, Interest Rate Trading and XVA. He is currently head of Group Treasury Markets within Erste Group Bank AG, one of the major financial groups specialising in the CEE region. Neil is a former member of the ECB Money Market Contact Group and an active member of the EUR Risk Free Rate Working Group.

In his current role as the Head of Credit Risk at Goldman Sachs Asset Management B.V. Wim van Nes leads the management of Credit Risk for all Alternative Credit strategies and holds the position of Voting Member on the Investment Committee. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Wim served as the Team Lead Alternative Credit Risk at NN Investment Partners in the Netherlands, where he was also delegated as a Voting Member of the Investment Committee. He has also held significant roles such as Senior Credit Risk Manager at NN Investment Partners, Risk Advisor at Delta Lloyd Asset Management, and Manager of Distressed Assets at Delta Lloyd Asset Management. Wim's expertise extends to his earlier positions, including Derivatives, Valuation and Collateral Management Specialist at Delta Lloyd Asset Management from and his initial experience gained through a Finance Traineeship at Delta Lloyd. With a rich and diverse background, Wim van Nes brings a wealth of experience and strategic insight to the world of risk management.

David van Bragt, PhD, is a consultant investment solutions in the fixed income, LDI and investment solutions team of Aegon AM. David is mainly active in the fields of asset & liability modelling (ALM), liability-driven investment (LDI) and risk management for institutional investors. He also monitors regulatory developments for Aegon AM and is involved in product development. Prior to joining the firm, he was an ALM consultant for insurance companies at Ortec Finance. David has been in the industry since 2004 and joined the firm in 2011. He holds a PhD (cum laude) in applied physics from Delft University of Technology, an MSc in applied physics from Eindhoven University of Technology and an MA in philosophy from University of Amsterdam. He is a Certified Financial Analyst EFFAS, Dutch RBA (CFA Society VBA Netherlands).

Max Verheijen has held several positions at Cardano, most recently as Director advising clients on the implementation of risk management solutions. From 2010 to 2020 as Managing Director and member of the management team, Max was responsible for the Financial Markets division including trading. He has thorough knowledge of risk management, financial markets instruments and regulations, treasury, finance, hedging market- and counterparty risk. Max started his career at ING Bank most notably as Vice President at the Interest Rate Derivatives Department. In 2000 he joined IMC Financial Products as a Senior buy-side trader, and then finally to Cardano in the role of Head of Trading as part of a merger between Cardano and IMC Financial Products.

Max has a M.Sc. in Economics from Tilburg University, and is registered Treasurer following the completion of the postgraduate program on Treasury Management and Corporate Finance at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Corinna Schempp is developing and implementing the organization’s political and regulatory engagement strategy with elected officials, regulatory agencies and other key policymakers, in each case in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, in close coordination with the FIA policy staff and the Head of Europe.

Leading the Brussels office, she is also involved in evaluating pending legislation; surveys legislations’ impact on the organization; develops the organization’s response to legislation.

She joined the organisation in September 2014 from LCH.Clearnet Limited where she was a Senior Regulatory Advisor in the Compliance & Regulation team. Previously, her responsibilities covered regulatory compliance in relation to LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear business, including liaison with the Bank of England, CFTC, Ontario Securities Commission, AMF Quebec, BaFin and other international regulators. During her time at the clearing house, she also worked closely with the legal team to provide support on European and US regulatory issues, including the implementation of Dodd-Frank and associated CFTC regulations across LCH.Clearnet impacted business units.

Prior to joining LCH.Clearnet in May 2011, Corinna, a dual qualified lawyer, was Legal and Regulation Manager at London Stock Exchange’s equity derivatives business, formerly known as EDX London.

Corinna also holds a post-graduate diploma in European Union law from Kings College, London, as well as law degrees from Germany.

Fabio is an experienced risk manager with a strong focus on ESG risks, market risk, credit risk and risk integration. Well versed in recovery plannning, RAF, ICAAP, European Stress tests. Extensive experience, both in banking and academic environment (Bocconi and adjunct professor in Luiss, Sole24). Participant in working groups (EBF, AFME, ABI) as expert of risk management processes.

Deputy head of Prometeia's Climate Change & ESG Risks competence line, Luca is experienced both in Retail Business Banking and in Corporate Investment Banking. He has been working since 2019 on Climate Change Risk frameworks dedicated to Risk Management, Planning and Credit functions of EU-wide Banks, also leading Prometeia’s task force dedicated to supporting SSM Banks in defining their ECB Climate Change Action Plans and facing ECB Climate Risk Stress Tests.

David Bailey is executive director for prudential policy, responsible for the development, negotiation and implementation of prudential policy that supports the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)'s objectives and broader financial stability. He also represents the PRA on the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision.

Bailey joined the Bank of England in 2014 as director of financial market infrastructure and has held roles as executive director of authorisations, RegTech and international supervision, and executive director of financial markets infrastructure. His most recent role was executive director of UK deposit takers supervision which he held until February 2024.

Prior to working at the BoE, Bailey was head of markets infrastructure and policy at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and at its predecessor, the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

He graduated from Durham University and began his career at JP Morgan.

Daniel Mankowitz is a staff research scientist at Google Deepmind, working on solving the key challenges that will unlock reinforcement learning algorithms to work on real-world applications at scale. This includes a focus on reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) in the context of large language models (LLMs) such as Gemini. 

He has worked on: code optimization, code generation, chip design, video compression, recommender systems, and controlling physical systems such as heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), with publications in Nature and Science. 
 

Rory Stewart is a diplomat, author, explorer, academic, and politician – serving in successive Conservative governments as minister of state for international development, minister for environment, minister of state for Africa, and minister of state for prisons. He is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches politics and international relations.

Stewart is an acclaimed author and co-host of the successful podcast, The Rest is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell. He has been described by the New York Times as “living one of the most remarkable lives on record.”. Stewart was the first man to walk across Afghanistan after the US-UK invasion, and served as deputy governor of two Iraqi provinces at the age of 29. He advised the US President and British Prime Minister on their Afghanistan and Middle East policy. Stewart is proficient in 11 languages.

Kanwardeep Ahluwalia is co-head of global markets risk for Bank of America. He joined Bank of America from Swiss Re where he was the group head of financial risk management, which included the role of chief risk officer for asset management, as well as serving as the reinsurance chief risk officer for Emea. Prior to that, Ahluwalia worked at Bear Stearns where he had a number of positions leading to the roles of chief risk officer for Europe & Asia and global head of market risk. This was preceded by a period working in regulation for the UK’s former Securities & Futures Authority.

Chris Knight took the role of group chief risk officer in May 2021. For the previous three years he had been the chief executive of Legal and General’s retail retirement business, where he led the expansion of annuity propositions, developed one of the leading providers of lifetime mortgages and launched their financial advice and care businesses. Knight also serves as Legal and General’s customer champion, representing retail customers’ interests across the whole product range, a perspective he brings to his chief risk officer role. 

He has previously held positions at Legal and General of finance director of the international division, and chief financial officer of Legal & General Assurance Society. Knight has a first-class economics degree from King’s College, Cambridge and has worked on four continents in a career spanning more than three decades. He is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Marco Giovanni Crotti is a policy expert at the European Banking Authority (EBA). He is responsible for the implementation of the EBA FRTB roadmap and represents the EBA at the BCBS Market Risk Group. 

Crotti holds a MSc in mathematical engineering from Politecnico di Milano and an executive master in EU studies at the centre international de formation européenne.

In 2016 William Cooper became the head of risk for SEB Denmark with responsibility for protecting the banks financial results and reputation by preventing excessive risk taking and promoting a strong risk management culture. He has a key role in driving and contributing to risk related projects including the banks FRTB program. 

Cooper has worked in the past for both buy and sell side firms, in roles ranging from trading at a large hedge fund to working as a quantitative analyst at a tier 1 investment bank, always with a focus on improving financial modelling and analytics to maximize risk management and market awareness. He holds a BSc in mathematics and economics from the LSE and a MSc in mathematics from the University of Copenhagen.

David Semmens is Cadro's chief investment officer, overseeing the investment department and chairing all investment related committees. He is a non-executive director of RiskSave Technologies, a leading provider of technological and regulatory support to asset managers and leading fintechs. Semmens continues to sit on Wealthify's investment committee as an external advisor where he helped develop and oversee the firm’s ethical investment proposition. He also volunteers on the investment committee for one of Scotland's largest education charities and is an adjunct-lecturer delivering a postgraduate finance and investment course at Heriot Watt University. 

Since completing an MSc in economics at the University of Warwick, Semmens has worked in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, New York, and Paris, running the gauntlet in fintech, banking, insurance, and asset management for Wealthify (part of the Aviva Group), HSBC Asset Management, Euler Hermes, and Standard Chartered Bank. He is also a CFA Charterholder with an executive MBA from the University of Cambridge. In his spare time, Semmens enjoys playing cards, crime novels, and walking with his wife in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Jeevan Perera is currently the risk manager for the Orion space vehicle. The Orion is NASA's new spacecraft which will replace the Space Shuttle, service the International Space Station, and then return astronauts to the moon and eventually mount expeditions to Mars.  Perera has been with NASA for 20 years. In his current capacity, he is responsible for risk management policies, processes and analytical tools that ensure the successful deployment and operations of this new spacecraft. Perera oversees both quantitative and qualitative risk analysis processes and provides technical direction to a team of risk analysts. Formerly as the International Space Station risk manager, he designed, developed, implemented and improved the program's risk management processes through a phased, systematic approach setting the standard for NASA’s risk practice. Prior to his work in risk management, Perera has worked in different technical fields in support of many NASA programs and projects. These duties have included management responsibility for versions of the primary and back-up flight software for the Space Shuttle and development responsibility for other software used aboard Space Shuttle and International Space Station missions. 

Perera has been a member of the board of trustees for a local homeowners association, has provided legal advice to the United Space School, a foundation for international space education that brings student from around the world for focused classes on space related disciplines. He often presents on space topics at schools, universities, public events and international conferences. Perera has both a Jurisprudence Doctorate (law) and a PhD in Industrial Engineering.