The Financial Capability Board has oversight of the Strategy as a whole and will monitor progress in delivering the Strategy. Its members are influential figures from across all sectors. The Board will:
The Board Members:
During an extensive and successful career in the financial services sector Andy has chaired and served on the boards of a broad range of companies. His professional experience ranges from insurance and credit cards to private equity, and includes managing directorships with Centrica and The AA, as well as spells at American Express and BUPA. He is currently chairman of the Policy Shop and a trustee of his local Citizens Advice Bureau, where he also volunteers. Andy assumed the chairmanship on 27 September 2013.
Jasper Berens, Managing Director, is head of the UK Funds Business at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. An employee since 1997, previously he was head of UK Sales. Prior to that he was head of Asset Management Sales. He started his career in fund sales at Guinness Flight and Hambros in 1993. Jasper sits on the Global Funds Management Operating Committee. Jasper also sits on the UK and European Investment Management Committee. Jasper is Chair of the Gleneagles Conference Executive Committee and sits on JPMC’s UK Philanthropy Committee. He is also a Board member of the Investment Association.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles joined HSBC Holdings in October 2013 as Senior Adviser to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive. In May 2015 he was appointed to a new post as Group Head of Government Affairs, reporting to the Group Chairman and Group Chief Executive. Before HSBC Sherard worked for two and a half years as Business Development Director, International, at BAE Systems plc. Earlier he spent over 30 years in the British Diplomatic Service. Sherard is also Chairman of the Financial Inclusion Commission; a Board Member of the China- Britain Business Council; UK Chairman of the Omani-British Friendship Association (Business Council); and Chairman of the Saudi-British Society, and Chairman of Pitzhanger Manor Trust.
Elaine Kempson is Emeritus Professor of Personal Finance and Social Policy Research at the University of Bristol, and has nearly 30 years experience of policy development and research into consumer behaviour and the provision of financial services. She is an adviser to the New Zealand Commission on Financial Capability and was previously a consultant on the financial capability and financial education programmes of the World Bank (2010-2015) and the OECD (2008-2010) and a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Financial Education (2009-2011). In 2007, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the Financial Services Industry.
Guy Rigden became CEO of the financial education charity MyBnk in 2016 and has overseen the expansion of its work to include primary-aged children and young people with sensory impairments. Guy has also presided over the successful integration of the award-winning youth homelessness prevention project, The Money House. In 2011, he was appointed interim CEO of Microloan Foundation, re-locating to Kasungu, Malawi. Prior to that held a number of roles in the financial sector including Head of Emerging Markets at Credit Suisse and Head of Investment Strategy at UBS.
Louise Macdonald OBE is Chief Executive of Young Scot, the multi award-winning youth information and citizenship charity. Working in partnership across all sectors, Young Scot aims to support young people aged 11-26 to make informed decisions and choices, and connect them to their communities – contributing to Scotland’s ambition of being the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up. She has been CEO for seven years, and prior to that had a varied career in the public sector, including specialising in youth volunteering and community enterprises. Louise is a Board member of the Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations (ACOSVO); Vice Chair of the 2020 Climate Group; a committee member of the Institute of Directors in Scotland and a Board member of the Scottish Parliament Scotland’s Futures Forum.
Vaughan has extensive experience in financial technology and customer facing applications. He has held senior roles in financial services firms (Prudential, Invesco Perpetual) as well as Partner-level positions within consultancy firms (Towers-Perrin, Bluerock, PA Consulting). He has been involved in the FCA’s Project Innovate, the Regulatory Sandbox and TechSprint. He has also worked on PSD2, RegTech and regulated advice projects. Vaughan has an extensive international network of contacts in the fintech community and has been engaged in identifying fintech opportunities, running pilots and scaling up prototypes. He was a member of a Gleneagles working party looking at Simplified Advice and has developed innovative online workplace and direct to consumer financial planning services.
Amelia is Deputy Director, Communities Division in Welsh Government. The division leads on communities’ policy including Advice Services; Communities First; Communities for Work and Lift programs; Digital and Financial Inclusion and Third Sector policy and infrastructure. Amelia was SRO for the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, which came into force in April 2016. Amelia was previously a solicitor, including seven years working in Cardiff Law Centre, before joining the Disability Rights Commission in 2000. She subsequently worked as Head of Policy and Research at the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Wales from 2007 before joining the Welsh Government in 2011.
Gwyneth Nurse took up the role of Director of Financial Services in HM Treasury in April 2015. Prior to that, Gwyneth was the Deputy Director of the Banking and Credit Team in the Treasury, moving to that role after heading up the Assets, Savings and Wealth Team, also in HMT. Before joining the Treasury, Gwyneth worked for HM Revenue & Customs where she qualified as a Tax Inspector before moving on to work in tax policy.
Steve joined Shawbrook as CEO in January 2016 from Santander UK, where he was Executive Director and Head of UK Banking, with responsibility for building its SME franchise, running the bank’s Corporate, Commercial, Business and Retail Banking operations as well as Wealth Management. Prior to joining Santander in 2008, Steve spent eight years at RBS, where he was CEO of Business Banking, Retail Markets and Managing Director of Commercial Banking and Corporate Banking, Corporate Markets.
Charles was appointed as Chief Executive of the Money Advice Service in June 2017. He spent six years prior to this as Executive Director of Automatic Enrolment at the Pensions Regulator (TPR) where he was responsible for the successful UK roll-out of this programme, working alongside DWP. In his time at TPR, the automatic enrolment programme led to more than 7.5 million workers newly saving into a workplace pension from over 500,000 employers. Charles was awarded an OBE in 2017 for services to workplace pension reform. He has spent much of his career setting up and leading major change programmes in both the private and public sector in the UK and overseas. Charles is also a Trustee of South Somerset Citizens Advice.
Roger is the Director, Workplace Distribution and Industry Affairs for Lighthouse Group Plc. Lighthouse, with 430 advisers, is the exclusive provider of on-demand regulated financial advice to the 7M+ members of the nine largest trades unions and many affinity groups, arranging over 10,000 face-to-face appointments annually. He co-designed and launched the Lighthouse Pensions Trust in 2014, an unbundled multi-employer master trust for the auto-enrolment market, followed in 2015 by the Lighthouse Life Trust, providing death-in-service benefits. Roger was a non-exec director of the Financial Ombudsman Service for eight years until 2013, and is President for 2017-18 of the Insurance Institute of London, which has 24,000 members including 6,000 in financial services. He is a Freeman of the City of London and Master of the Worshipful Company of Broderers for 2017-18.
Sir Hector Sants is Vice Chairman and Partner of Oliver Wyman, and Chairman of Julius Baer International Limited. Previously he was Chief Executive of the UK Financial Services Authority from 2007 to 2012. Prior to this he held a number of roles in the financial sector including Head of Compliance, Government & Regulatory Relations at Barclays and European Chief Executive at Credit Suisse. Hector is also currently Chair of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Task Group on promoting responsible savings and credit, and Chair of StepChange. He was knighted in 2013 and has an MA from the University of Oxford.
Otto has extensive experience in pensions, insurance and consumer issues across a range of private and public sector organisations. Otto became Chair of NEST Corporation on 1 February 2015. He was Director General of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) until the end of January 2015. Previously he was chief executive of AEGON UK. He carried out the Thoresen Review of Generic Financial Advice on behalf of the Treasury, which was published in 2008 and which led to the creation of the Money Advice Service. He is a trustee of Young Enterprise, which incorporates the Personal Finance Education Group (PFEG), a charity focused on supporting the delivery of enterprise and financial education in schools and a Trustee of StepChange, a charity that provides free debt advice to consumers.
Sir Steve Webb is Director of Policy at Royal London. He was Minister of State for Pensions between 2010 and 2015, the longest-serving holder of the post. During that time he implemented major reforms to the state pension system, oversaw the successful introduction of automatic enrolment and played a key role in the new pension freedoms implemented in April 2015. Steve was a Liberal Democrat MP from 1997 to 2015. Before this he was professor of social policy at Bath University for two years, having previously worked for nine years as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Sian Williams is Head of National Services at Toynbee Hall in London’s East End, where she leads programmes on improving financial inclusion policy and practice. Her team designs and delivers innovative training, research, evaluation and strategic consultancy to support organisations seeking to improve people’s financial health, including launching the new Financial Health Exchange knowledge portal. Sian provides advice on financial inclusion to financial services providers, is a commissioner on the Financial Inclusion Commission, and is a member of advisory groups including the LINK Scheme and the British Bankers Association. Sian is also a member of the new Payment Systems Regulator’s Panel and Strategy Forum, and a trustee for the Money Advice Trust. Prior to joining Toynbee Hall, Sian had a 15 year career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Christopher Woolard is Director of Strategy and Competition, and an Executive Board Member at the Financial Conduct Authority. He is responsible for policy, strategy, competition, consumer issues, the Chief Economist’s department, communications, data and market intelligence. He is chair of the FCA’s Policy Steering Committee and a non-executive board member of the Payment Systems Regulator. Christopher joined the FCA in January 2013 as director of policy, risk and research. Prior to this Christopher was Group Director and Content Board member at Ofcom. He has spent most of his career in regulation or policy development, including working at the BBC and as a senior civil servant at the Department of Trade and Industry. Christopher is a Sloan Fellow of London Business School.
