Speakers

Penny Mallory

Rally Driver, TV Presenter, Performance Coach

From a homeless runaway to the first and only woman to drive a World Rally Car for Ford, Penny Mallory’s journey is a masterclass in resilience and determination.

As a Qualified Psychological Performance Coach, she specialises in Mental Toughness, helping individuals and teams thrive under pressure, and is currently training to row across the Atlantic Ocean.

In her keynote speech, you’ll learn how her expertise can boost adaptability and resilience – essential insights to help you overcome professional challenges.

Jamil Qureshi

Performance Coach, Psychologist, Author

As the first-ever official psychologist to work with the European Ryder Cup team, Jamil Qureshi played a key role in helping them secure a record equalling victory in 2006. He also has worked with Premier League football clubs, F1 racing drivers, and England’s 2009 Ashes-winning cricket team.

Beyond sport, Jamil has delivered leadership programmes at board level for Coca-Cola, HP, Emirates, Serco, Marks & Spencer and RBS, and has led teams responsible for high-profile change management projects such as Lloyds Banking Group’s integration strategy.

Drawing on fascinating insights such as the psychology of astronauts, Jamil will share his expertise in performance psychology, as well as insights into leadership and driving cultural change and team performance.

Lisa Ardley-Price

Managing Legal Counsel, NatWest

Lisa Ardley-Price specialised in Trade Finance at Dentons and Norton Rose Fulbright before moving to the in-house legal team at NatWest in 2015 where she has firmly established herself as an expert in Trade and Supply Chain Finance and a passionate advocate for DEI and wellbeing. Working as a professional coach alongside her role as a lawyer, she empowers others to aim high, dismantle limiting beliefs and adopt a growth mindset for business and personal success. Lisa has set up training programmes and workshops for her team and businesses to upskill and she is heavily involved in the bank’s employee-led networks and wellbeing initiatives. Lisa co-chairs the bank’s Gender Network, she is a coach and mentor to peers and junior colleagues and is a Lean In Circle and #IamRemarkable workshop facilitator. Lisa has helped to deliver a new learning curriculum and wellbeing strategy to the bank’s Legal, Governance & Reg Affairs function as well as co-leading the annual Gender Network Development Programme which equips junior female colleagues with the skills and confidence they need to step into managerial positions. Lisa is Women in Business accredited and externally mentors students and entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups through organisations such as The University of Law, Digital Boost, Hatch and Dechomai. She has supported social mobility through the Bank’s CareerSense programme and partnership with Migrant Leaders, volunteering for Future Leaders and running awareness events and fundraisers for Princes Trust. Lisa was recognised in Brummell Magazine’s One to Watch 2022 list, In-House Lawyer of the Year in the Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2023 and has been shortlisted as Mentor of the Year in Women in Banking and Finance Awards 2023, Women of the Future Awards 2023, Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024, Women, Power & Influence in Law Awards 2024 and as DE&I Champion of the Year in the inaugural Legal 500 ESG UK Awards 2024.

Harry Borovick

General Counsel and AI Governance Office, Luminance

Harry is the General Counsel at Luminance, where he oversees the global legal function. In addition to managing Luminance’s own legal and compliance requirements, he also works alongside the product and technical teams to advise on development and user experience. Harry trained in private practice at Mishcon de Reya, before working in a range of regulated technology businesses with a particular focus on the US and UK markets. Harry is the author of “AI and the law”, and is a keen user and advocate of AI. Harry has spoken at major industry conferences, including the Economist General Counsel Summit and Legal Geek. Harry is an external lecturer on Legal Technology and AI at Queen Mary University of London and at Kings College London.

Jayne Bowie

General Counsel , Amey

Jayne Bowie joined Amey’s Legal and Corporate Services team in October 2012 and was appointed to the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary of the Amey Group board in April 2017.

Jayne qualified as a solicitor in 2003, specialising in project finance. Jayne then worked at Eversheds and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer where she worked on complex infrastructure projects and leveraged finance transactions.

During her early years at Amey, Jayne focussed on the origination of a number of Amey’s waste treatment and highways infrastructure projects. She advised on the leveraging of Amey’s investment portfolio in addition to a number of finance and M&A projects. In her role as General Counsel, Jayne leads the Legal and Corporate Services team, advising the business on all legal and corporate governance matters. Jayne has led the team on complex litigation and key M&A opportunities. She has also facilitated a closer relationship between the commercial, risk and legal functions.

Jayne is passionate about continuous improvement, learning from prior experiences and improving Amey’s risk and contract management. She is also a keen advocate of personal development, always looking for opportunities to enable others to reach their maximum potential.

Evelyn Bueno

Global Regulatory Counsel, SumUp

With over a decade of experience in the payments, commodities, and financial services sectors, Evelyn is one of the senior leaders at the legal department at fintech company SumUp, based in London. Her role is focused on ensuring that operations are aligned with current regulations, contributing to the company’s continuous growth and innovation. She is also a board member of ABIPAG in Brazil, collaborating with the Central Bank of Brazil and policymakers, promoting strategic dialogues and advocating for the sector’s interests.

Charlotte Clayson

Partner, Trowers & Hamlins

Charlotte is a Partner in our Dispute Resolution and Litigation department, focusing on complex and high value commercial and public law disputes. Charlotte is also a specialist in Information Law.

Charlotte has significant experience dealing with the full range of contractual and commercial disputes, sensitive investigatory work, judicial review and contentious procurement and planning. Her expertise in Information Law includes advising upon a wide range of Data Protection and freedom of information matters, navigating regulatory issues and working closely with clients to prepare for and deal with data privacy breaches.

Charlotte acts for and advises clients across a range of industry sectors in the context of both High Court and Court of Appeal litigation, arbitration, urgent injunctive relief and dispute avoidance and resolution.

James Crayton

Commercial Partner, Walker Morris

James is a Partner and Head of Commercial here at Walker Morris. He is a leading commercial contracts lawyer, drafting and negotiating the contracts that underpin his clients’ most important commercial relationships.

James is trusted by clients across a wide range of sectors to get key deals right, and make complicated agreements work and he has built a team capable of dealing with the full gamut of commercial contracts work. This ranges from business-as-usual documents like terms and conditions of sale or purchase, through to the agreements that get products and services to markets like distribution, agency and logistics contracts. James also works on the most complicated and important commercial deals that may only come around once or twice a decade.

James believes his clients benefit from his broad practice (both in the UK and internationally) and the experience he draws from acting across a wide range of sectors. He has worked extensively for clients in the Food & Drink, Pharma, Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics sectors, and he leads the Walker Morris Manufacturing sector group.

Known as a skilled and dogged negotiator, James can cut through complexity and distil difficult legal concepts into user-friendly language.

James says, “I love the mental challenge of commercial contracts. Getting under the skin of a client’s business, their commercial drivers and vulnerabilities, and getting to the heart of what will make the deal work (or not) is almost always a challenge and almost always fascinating. There is a competitive element of pitting your wits against the other party during a deal which can be genuinely exciting”.

Jamie De Souza

Partner, Trowers & Hamlins

Jamie is a Partner in Trowers & Hamlins’ Dispute Resolution and Litigation department specialising in high value corporate and commercial disputes and fraud investigations.

He has substantial experience of advising clients in a wide range of corporate and commercial disputes and fraud related investigations. His practice includes advising clients in relation to high value and complex shareholder disputes with considerable recent experience in unfair prejudice claims, contractual disputes, warranty disputes as well as fraud claims and investigations.

Clients include businesses of all sizes, from start-ups and SMEs through to PLCs, as well as individuals. In particular, Jamie has interest in the manufacturing and engineering sector and in advising family owned and owner managed businesses. Jamie is recommended for his outcome focussed approach to disputes. He takes time to understand clients’ needs to provide clear strategic advice and is well-versed in advising on dispute-avoidance.

Dana Denis-Smith

Founder, Obelisk Support

Dana Denis-Smith is the CEO of Obelisk Support and the founder of the First 100 Years campaign. A TedX speaker, Dana regularly speaks at industry events and in the media on gender equality, culture in the legal profession, and the future of legal work.
In 2020, she was recognised for her work as a women’s advocate and champion of gender equality with the Special Contribution Award at the Women in Law Awards.

In 2019, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Legal Services by the Legal 500 and, in 2018, she was voted Legal Personality of the Year.

Most recently Dana has been shortlisted in the 2022 FT Innovative Lawyers Europe awards, was awarded her second honorary doctorate in laws from the University of Glasgow in recognition for her contribution, achievements and positive impact on the legal profession in June 2022.

In 2010, she founded Obelisk Support to provide flexible legal solutions to legal teams and law firms by working with lawyers that needed to work remotely and more flexibly around their family or other caring commitments.

Obelisk Support was highly commended at the 2022 Lawyer Awards for ‘Law Company of the Year’ and is again ranked in Chambers and Partners 2022 as a leading firm – praised by clients for being “commercial and flexible”.

In 2014, Dana founded the First 100 Years, a national charitable campaign to celebrate the first 100 years of women in the legal profession in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

As of 2020, the campaign is replaced by the Next 100 Years, focusing on the future of the legal profession for women.

Paul Dunn

Advisory Board Member, Fifth Day

Paul is currently a consultant with Eversheds Sutherland, a global leading law firm with over 4000 employees, operating throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. During his full time 12 years with Eversheds Sutherland, Paul has held Chief Officer responsibilities for environmental sustainability, health & safety, facilities management, property strategy, procurement and contract management, in addition to his current role focused on sustainability.

With over 50 years working experience in a variety of sectors, including law, banking, telecommunications, retail, logistics and manufacturing, Paul has a wealth of experience, holding senior executive and leading operational roles within sector-leading organisations.

Paul is both passionate and committed to sharing his expertise and experience with wider peer groups and the supply chain, in order to both identify and deliver ambitious carbon reduction and sustainability strategies.

Laura Field

Managing Director , SSQ

Laura leads the UK In-House team of SSQ, a global legal search and recruitment consultancy. SSQ works with law firms and companies within commerce and industry and financial services, from scale ups to FTSE and Fortune listed companies, to build their legal, company secretarial and compliance teams. Laura and her team provide advice to senior lawyers on their career strategy and clients market intelligence on all matters involving recruitment, retention and salary benchmarking.

Meghan Foreman-Purves

, CIBC

An experienced and transformational European General Counsel with extensive expertise in banking and financial services, Meghan is a proven senior legal advisor to Board Chairs, CEOs, and executive committees, accustomed to navigating a complex regulatory environment, including strategic leadership for new business initiatives, establishment of new minority principal investments, and managing sensitive workplace investigations.

Gideon French

Group M&A Legal Counsel, ArcelorMittal

Harriet Gallagher-Powell

General Counsel (Group Corporate) and Deputy Group Company Secretary, Legal & General

Harriet Gallagher-Powell is the General Counsel for Corporate & M&A and Deputy Group Company Secretary at Legal & General Group plc. Harriet leads a team of experts providing group-wide legal and governance advice on mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, UK listed plc matters, corporate structuring and regulatory interactions.

As General Counsel – Corporate & M&A, Harriet leads on the legal execution of high-value, strategically significant transactions for the Group. Most recently, she played a central role in Legal & General’s divestment of its US protection business to Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, and the establishment of a strategic partnership with Meiji Yasuda in US pension risk transfer, for $2.3bn – a major cross-border transaction aligned with the Group’s strategic focus on its core growth markets.

In her capacity as Deputy Group Company Secretary, Harriet leads the company secretarial team in the delivery of best-in-class corporate governance across the FTSE 100-listed financial services group. She acts as secretary to the Legal & General Group plc board and advises executive management and the PRA and FCA-regulated boards on governance, corporate structure, regulatory developments and shareholder matters.

Harriet started her legal career as a corporate M&A lawyer at Slaughter and May where she advised on complex multi-jurisdictional M&A transactions, listed corporate governance and cross-border regulatory investigations.

Chris Ghazarian

COO and General Counsel, DreamHost

As COO and general counsel for Los Angeles-based web hosting provider and domain name registrar DreamHost, Chris is lead counsel and an expert in tech law, and a trusted advisor on all company operations, including long-term strategy, international expansion, and mergers & acquisitions.

Miles Gillhespy

Assistant Director, SSQ

Miles is an Associate Director in SSQ’s In-House team, where he specialises in placing lawyers and compliance professionals into technology, consumer and professional services sectors. Having worked in legal & compliance recruitment for over 13 years, Miles regularly undertakes senior search assignments for blue-chip organisations looking to bolster their legal function, as well as supporting the growth of the compliance community within the City’s top UK & US law firms.

Jaeger Glucina

Chief of Staff, Luminance

Jaeger is the Chief of Staff at Luminance, where she is responsible for client development and management, overseeing sales to more than 700 customers in just 7 years and advising on key relationships with Global Top 100 law firms and multinational organisations. As a passionate advocate for the application of AI in the legal sector, she regularly is invited to speak at industry-leading events around the world, as well as appearing on Sky News and advocating for UK Scale-Ups at Number 10. Jaeger was included in Management Today’s ‘35 Women Under 35’ and is a qualified Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand, with extensive experience in insurance litigation.

Angela Hayes

Partner – Commercial, Technology & Regulatory, DAC Beachcroft

Angela is a financial services regulation expert with a main focus on investigations and enforcement defence but also with an advisory practice.

Angela has more than 20 years’ experience advising clients across the spectrum of financial services – banks (investment and retail), asset managers and investment funds, securities brokers, wealth advisers, insurers, and listed companies. Angela is well known for her particular expertise regarding market abuse, financial crime and regulatory issues impacting the asset management sector.

Steve Holt

Partner, Grant Thornton

I am a partner in our forensic and investigation services practice and co-lead of our global forensic practice. I have a particular focus on aiding companies facing urgent, complex, cross-border issues including fraud, bribery and corruption, misconduct and asset recovery. I have extensive experience investigating high-profile public interest matters representing governments, public companies and private individuals throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

Tariq Hussain

Head of M&A, EMEA & APAC, Jefferies

Danielle Ingham

Employment & Pensions partner, Trowers & Hamlins

Danielle has a varied client base; advising global blue chip/PLC corporations, national and regional owner managed businesses, partnerships, sole traders and senior executives – with particular expertise in the retail, leisure, technology, financial services and construction sectors.

Danielle advises on the full breadth of employment law issues, with a focus on strategic issues such as TUPE, business re-organisations and restructures, collective redundancies, outsourcing and senior/board level issues.

Danielle is also an experienced litigator, regularly handling complex unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing and other high value claims in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal. Danielle is passionate about sharing knowledge of HR and employment law issues and is a regular speaker at client seminars, as well as delivering practical training courses in-house.

Lida Khanverdi

Head of Legal UK, EG Group

Gary Kinsley

Director, CyberQ Group

Gary Kinsley is the Chief Revenue Officer of CyberQ Group. His career in cybersecurity began with network security over twenty years ago and has evolved into all elements of cybersecurity today.

He’s held senior positions at IBM, Juniper Networks, Dell and Check Point, and lived in Bermuda, Singapore and Hong Kong. He’s written one book on IT supply chain management, and two fictional novels based on actual cybersecurity scenarios.

Lisa Lischak

Divisional General Counsel, DCC Technology

Lisa leads the legal, compliance and regulatory team globally for the technology division of FTSE 100 company DCC plc. She is also sustainability lead and a member of the DCC Technology senior leadership team. She has extensive cross-border experience in the energy, health & beauty and technology distribution industries working in the UK, US and Hungary.

James Lloyd

Partner, Latham & Watkins' London Litigation & Trial Department

James Lloyd helps clients navigate a wide range of cybersecurity and privacy-related matters. He is an experienced litigator and investigations lawyer who represents and advises clients on cybersecurity and privacy-related matters, including regulatory and internal investigations, incident response and cybersecurity resiliency, commercial disputes. James leads responses to significant enforcement investigations by international and domestic regulators, including the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, law enforcement agencies, and Parliamentary Select Committees. He draws on extensive litigation experience to defend clients when data privacy issues lead to disputes. Understanding what matters to regulators and the courts is at the heart of James’ approach to helping clients understand the privacy and enforcement implications of innovative data use-cases.

Stephanie Lopes

Chief legal officer, Volt

Stephanie began her career at Bird & Bird in London, where she spent a decade advising on a broad range of commercial matters. She specialized in large-scale IT and technology transactions in heavily regulated sectors, as well as data commercialization and governance. Her expertise in these areas is underpinned by extensive in-house experience, having completed secondments at the headquarters of global corporations, including Nestlé and ABB.

Now serving as Chief Legal Officer at Volt, a high-growth open banking payments scale-up, Stephanie has built and established the legal team as a strategic business partner, driving the company’s success in a rapidly evolving industry.

Ian Lopez

Partner and head of European M&A, Fried Frank

Ian Lopez advises clients in connection with public and private mergers and acquisitions, equity capital market transactions, joint ventures, and corporate restructurings.

As head of our European Mergers and Acquisitions Practice, Ian advises companies across numerous industries, including healthcare, technology, financial services, telecoms, media and entertainment, insurance, and consumer and retail.

The Legal 500 UK recognizes Ian as a leading individual in the M&A: Upper Mid-Market and Premium Deals category, where clients describe him as “an experienced, smart, creative, friendly, collaborative, business-minded, proactive, and strong negotiator.” In addition Ian has recently been added to Legal 500’s M&A Powerlist, which showcases the UK’s top M&A lawyers covering all facets of Mergers and Acquisitions. He has also been recognised by Thompson Reuters as a leading individual in its 2024 Stand-out Lawyers list.

Oliver Middleton

Local Chair & Partner, Latham & Watkins' London Litigation & Trial Department

Oliver Middleton, Chair of the London Litigation & Trial Department, acts for clients in all manner of commercial disputes, with a particular focus on complex, high-profile commercial litigation including financial, corporate, and shareholder claims. Oliver has experience across a wide range of commercial litigation matters and regulatory investigations, including financial litigation, complex contractual claims, shareholder actions (including s.90/s.90A FSMA and unfair prejudice claims), bondholder disputes, trust litigation, economic tort claims, insurance disputes, data privacy, breaches of confidence, defamation claims, intellectual property litigation. He represents clients in the banking and financial services, insurance, private equity, media, and technology industries. Oliver is uniquely positioned to understand significant claims from both claimant and defendant perspectives. He leverages a sophisticated understanding of claimants’ goals, tactics, and issues — such as book building, working with litigation funders, shareholder class action trends, and settlement strategies. In particular, he draws on insights from his work acting in the RBS Rights Issue Litigation, one of the largest cases before the English Courts and the seminal s.90 FSMA case.

Andrea Monks

Deputy Office Managing Partner , Latham & Watkins' London Litigation & Trial Department

Andrea Monks, Deputy Managing Partner of the London office, advises leading corporates and financial institutions on their most significant disputes and contentious regulatory matters, both domestically and in a cross-border context. Drawing on more than two decades of experience, Andrea helps a range of clients navigate highly complex and sensitive disputes. Her work includes counseling clients in relation to risk management, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement. An accomplished litigator, Andrea has been at the helm of a number of test cases, group actions, and precedent-setting matters in the UK. She has taken cases (and won) all the way to the Supreme Court. Her practice encompasses complex commercial litigation, ranging from financial services issues, contractual disputes, shareholder activism, fraud and asset-tracing, joint venture disputes, supply chain disputes, and breaches of fiduciary duty. A former in-house lawyer, Andrea leverages her knowledge and experience of what makes clients tick, to help clients achieve their commercial objectives, including through settlements and other alternative forms of dispute resolution. Andrea provides thoughtful, pragmatic, commercial advice.

Sinead Murray

GC, Ofgem

Sinead, an experienced legal leader at board and executive level, is General Counsel at Ofgem, a member of the Ofgem Board and Executive Committee, head of governance function and leader of the large legal function at Ofgem advising on regulatory matters and environmental schemes.

Andrew Northage

Regulatory Partner, Walker Morris

Andrew is a Partner in our Regulatory & Compliance team. He advises clients on a wide range of regulatory and compliance issues, including financial services regulation, information law, financial crime, anti-money laundering and trade and sanctions compliance.

Andrew’s clients are likely to be regulated businesses in the investment sector, including private equity houses, stockbrokers, venture capital, corporate finance houses or wealth managers.

When asked what he finds most rewarding about his work, Andrew says, “it’s the intellectual challenge of solving a client’s problem. That might be finding out what’s gone wrong, getting them into shape to be regulated or putting together incredibly complex structures”. It’s important then he notes, to find the right balance between understanding complex structures and black letter law. And of course, it’s important not to forget to be human too.

Andrew is good at explaining complicated things in a way that people will understand and he attributes this to his days working at the Serious Fraud Office, when he had to explain “fantastically complicated things” to a jury: “I can tell people how everything fits together without sounding like a textbook or putting them to sleep”.

Chris O'Connell

Head of EMEA, Commercial Legal, Zscaler

Chris O’Connell has over 16 years of experience specializing in software and technology transactions, privacy law, and regulatory compliance. Currently serving as Head of EMEA Commercial Legal at Zscaler, Chris leads the EMEA Commercial Legal function playing a pivotal role in guiding the company’s compliance efforts with evolving cybersecurity laws.

Sam Patel

General Counsel, HANetf

Samir has over 20 years of in-house asset management experience in both retail and institutional investment management, compliance and regulation. He has worked in many leading asset management companies prior to joining HANetf including Alliance Bernstein Limited, State Street Global Advisors, FMR Investment Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Janus Capital International, AXA Investment Managers and Schroders Investment Management.

He trained and qualified as a solicitor at magic circle firm, Allen & Overy, working mainly in international capital markets and derivatives.

Nell Perks

Partner, Latham & Watkins' London Litigation & Trial Department

Nell is a partner in the London office of Latham & Watkins where she helps clients navigate a wide range of complex disputes and contentious regulatory investigations. She has acted for financial services clients on some of the most significant US and UK investigations in recent years involving regulators globally, as well as complex disputes including follow-on litigation and group actions.

Charlie Potter

Co-head of global litigation and disputes, Brunswick

Charlie co-leads Brunswick’s global Litigation and Disputes practice from the London office. He has advised on some of the most high-profile, legally contentious issues for global corporate clients across a range of sectors in recent legal proceedings, investigations and wider disputes. He is also a partner in Brunswick’s Crisis and Family Business practices.
Charlie was formerly a barrister at Blackstone Chambers where he specialized in public, regulatory and commercial law, in particular broadcasting and media regulation. Before the Bar, he spent four years at the BBC, including as a producer at the flagship television news and current affairs programme, Newsnight.

Steve Rowan

Advisory Board Member, Fifth Day

Steve Rowan is a Chartered Accountant and the founder of professional services advisory firm Mountain Ash Advisory Ltd, a business combining advising professional service firms with mentoring, coaching and NED work. Until December 2023 he was CFO and Board member at RPC LLP.

Prior to setting up his business, Steve had over 30 years in senior management roles in international law firms, based in London and over 20 years at FD/CFO/Deputy COO level. He travelled fairly extensively to Asia, the United States and the former CIS/Central Asia.

He was a mentor for the 30% Club for 4 years until 2023 and within RPC LLP was co-leader of the firm’s Gender Equality community.

Steve is married with two sons, a passionate road cyclist. He is a season ticket holder at Sheffield United FC and is also interested in history, biographies and many sports.

Harpreet Sagoo

Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, Ricardo plc

Nicki Schroeder

Group general counsel, Reach

Nicki is Group General Counsel at Reach Plc and a member of the executive committee. With more than 20 years in the legal media sector, she began her career in private practice where she had a thriving defamation and copyright defendant practice, before moving in-house. Nicki has since worked in-house in both the broadcast and print sectors, advising on compliance, intellectual property and business affairs.

She now leads an experienced legal and data protection team advising on editorial and commercial and corporate legal issues and data protection and privacy for the group.

Shiv Sibal

Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, Marshalls Plc

Shiv Sibal is Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Marshalls plc, the market leading supplier of hard landscaping products. He is an experienced corporate finance lawyer by trade with nearly 20 years’ experience in the legal sector, the last 6 of which have been in industry at FTSE businesses.

Shiv has extensive leadership and legal experience and is helping to transform the legal team’s role is supporting governance and risk management in the business.

Before moving into industry, he was a corporate partner with international law firm Womble Bond Dickinson LLP focused on supporting public companies with IPOs, equity fundraisings, mergers and acquisitions, governance and their continuing regulatory obligations. He also spent more than 8 years working for international law firm Pinsent Masons LLP in their corporate team and qualified with international law firm CMS in London.

David Speakman

Partner – Investigations: Employment, DAC Beachcroft

David specialises in all areas of employment law, with a particular interest in Investigations and Tribunal Litigation. He has almost 20 years’ experience advising clients including investment banks, insurers, professional services firms, private equity firms, asset managers, and corporates in the property retail and hotel sectors.

Sharmin Takin

Deputy GC, UK Debt Management Office

Sharmin Takin is general counsel at the UK Debt Management Office, an Executive Agency of HM Treasury. She is an experienced GC with a wealth of technical expertise and commercial judgement gained in a career spanning law firms, a corporate treasury, an investment bank and a sovereign treasury.

Isabel Terry

Director, SSQ

Isobel is a Director at SSQ and heads up its interim offering. SSQ works with law firms and companies within commerce and industry and financial services, from scale ups to FTSE and Fortune listed companies, to build their legal, company secretarial and compliance teams. Isobel’s team specialise in delivering flexible resourcing solutions across in-house, placing into every sector, from roofing to retail. We focus on interim General Counsel, Heads of Legal, and senior specialist lawyers for projects, parental/sickness cover, transaction support, and complex litigation matters.

Thomas Townson

Partner, Head of Financial Crime, Grant Thornton

Tom Townson has 20 years’ experience as a practitioner and as a consultant to financial services firms in the crime arena covering fraud, anti-money laundering, sanctions and conduct issues. He has spent a lot of time working for different types of financial services firms but his heritage lies in the insurance sector, having worked for two life assurance firms and a large insurance intermediary services provider. He has led a number of globally significant programmes that have advised on building, reviewing or improving financial crime frameworks. These programmes were primarily at firms subject to intensive regulatory scrutiny involving multiple jurisdictions and regulators.

Lesley Wan

Founder & CEO, The Eagle Club

Steven Webb

Chair of Ahead Partnership and ESG Consultant, Ahead Partnership

Steven’s legal career encompassed time in private practice with Norton Rose and Walker Morris and nearly 30 years as General Counsel and Company Secretary of a number of publicly-listed companies in a variety of industries. In addition to his responsibility for legal and regulatory matters, he took the lead on ESG and CSR for the last 20 years.

During his time at Premier Farnell plc, the company achieved Platinum Plus status in the Business in the Community CR index, was a member of the FTSE 4 Good and Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and listed by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies.

At Sumo Group plc, Steven led on setting and implementing its ESG strategy, both while he was employed with the Group and as a consultant after leaving. Sumo is on the path to significantly reducing its carbon footprint and achieved 3 Star “world class” accreditation for three consecutive years in the Best Companies survey.

Steven was a non-executive member and Deputy Chair of the Board of Leeds Beckett University for six years and now chairs the Board of Ahead Partnership, a social enterprise that works with employers and education to deliver positive social impact.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability and is currently studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Simon White

Deputy GC, IQVIA

Simon White is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at IQVIA, where he leads the legal team supporting the company’s businesss across Europe, Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia. IQVIA is a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 multinational company serving the combined industries of health information technology and clinical research.

Daniel Winterfeldt

Managing Director and General Counsel EMEA & Asia, Jefferies

Daniel Winterfeldt is the General Counsel for EMEA and Asia at Jefferies. He is a senior corporate and securities lawyer with over 25 years of experience in London and New York.

Daniel founded the Forum for US Securities Lawyers in London in 2006 to address US securities issues in the London market across law firms, banks, and intermediaries.

In 2008, Daniel founded the InterLaw Diversity Forum to promote meritocracy and inclusion for all diverse, under-represented, and socially disadvantaged groups in the legal sector. Since its founding in 2008 the InterLaw Diversity Forum has expanded its scope beyond LGBT+ to encompass all strands of diversity and inclusion, including Race & Ethnicity, Disability, Gender, and social mobility, with a particular focus on cultural change in the workplace and ‘multiple identities’/intersectionality. The InterLaw Diversity Forum currently has more than 9,000 members and supporters from over 300 law firms and chambers, and over 500 corporates and financial institutions.

In 2020 Daniel was appointed Queen’s Counsel Honoris Causa (Honorary QC) for his contributions to capital markets in England & Wales through the Forum for US Securities Lawyers in London and for his contributions to diversity, inclusion, and culture in the legal sector through the InterLaw Diversity Forum; and was awarded The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for “Services to Capital Markets, to Equality and to Diversity in the Legal Profession”.

Tristan Yelland

Partner, Grant Thornton

Tristan Yelland is a director in the forensic and investigations practice. He specialises in dealing with high-profile and complex issues, including fraud, asset misappropriation, false accounting, and corruption. He also leads the ESG Investigations practice and has recently completed several high-profile and sensitive engagements in that area.

Emma Young

Director, Grant Thornton

Emma has over 17 years’ experience providing risk, internal audit and advisory services to FTSE100, FTSE250 and equivalent privately held groups. She supports clients in their management of risk, generating insights and providing value-adding assurance.

Her experience covers a range of sectors including retail, FMCG, technology, energy, engineering and hospitality. She leads several key client relationships, working closely with senior stakeholders and executive/board committees. She supports clients providing integrated assurance services, leveraging technical specialists and international teams and regularly sharing targeted insights to ensure continuous improvement. Sha also has the perspective of working in industry, spending time on secondments as a head of audit.