Many of the leading figures in the global financial services industry who populated the IA 100 last year are still featured, although there are some striking shifts
in its composition.
A standout difference in 2019 is the increased number of women who have come into prominence from a wide array of businesses, including financial planning, wealth management, an international life company, a family office, multi-jurisdictional trustee and top financial regulator.
Take heavy hitter Lilllian Boyle, a lawyer by background, chairman of the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority (IOMFSA) and a fellow of both the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and the Chartered Insurance Institute.
“The wide variety of roles I have had over a number of years means it is never dull and often challenging. I have had the chance to work with a lot of really good teams,” she says.
Most recently she faced the not-inconsiderable task of working on the merger of the previous two financial services regulators in the Isle of Man to form the IOMFSA, which she says was successfully done “in the face of some resistance and scepticism from parts of the industry and some of the staff”.
Another new entrant is Michelle Andrews, chief marketing officer at Quilter and a member of its executive committee. She also sits on the board of Old Mutual International.
She has been tackling the challenge of separating the group from its South African parent, Old Mutual, and developing Quilter’s new brand identity.
“I try to learn something from everyone I have worked for. From my very first sales manager who taught me smart women could succeed in what was then a predominantly male environment, to a more recent leader who taught me when to shut up!”
From marketing to financial planning, an area in which Sheila Dickinson has made a name for herself in Hong Kong. She arrived in the region in 2006 and two years later was named Best Financial Planner of the Year by the Institute of Financial Planning (HK).
Dickinson believes that being a more mature female had a positive impact on her career, particularly in the special administrative region where the typical adviser when she arrived was male, young and seemingly constantly on the move.
“I am the chair of the Women in Business committee for the British Chamber and am actively involved in running events and seminars to raise awareness of the importance of financial planning for women and to highlight their role in the financial sector.”
In the international family office space, highly qualified LGT Vestra partner Jenny Tozer cites a special interest in developing family-friendly governance policies as part of her overarching role in managing money for residential and non-domiciled families and entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, seasoned director of complex trust structures, Sheila Dean, global chief executive officer of Equiom, highlights how entering the Asia market in 2015 after buying a fiduciary services provider in Hong Kong “marked the beginning of our journey to becoming a truly global business”.
Guiding light
Many of the industry’s most influencial cite a mentor as being their biggest influence. Dean points out that back in 1990, when she joined the company that was then Ernst & Young as a trainee accountant, she worked under managing partner Larry Kearns. “He later became, and is still to this day, my mentor, and I’ll always be grateful for his influence and guidance.”
In a similar vein, Caroline Naylor-Renn, chief operating officer of the digital offshore Inn8 Platform, notes how important senior executives at Selestia and Old Mutual were in shaping her career. “I learnt so much about technology and leadership from them. To name a few: John Tomlins, Bill Vasilieff, Brett Williams, Jim Sutcliffe, Peter Mann and Michelle Cracknell.
“How they grew a business from a start-up to a success was inspirational and their approach to creating a culture of fun and accountability I have taken into my own style of leadership.”
One other new female entrant to the IA 100 who needs little introduction is Gina Miller, founding partner of online wealth manager SCM Direct. She successfully challenged the UK government in 2016 over its authority to implement Brexit. Earlier this year, she also administered a legal slapdown to prime minister Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament for an extended period.
hybrid advice
Moving on to another developing theme is the inclusion this year of two leading Dubai-based financial advisers who are focusing, although
not exclusively, on non-resident Indians.
Dhruba Jyoti Sengupta, co-founder of Capstone Insurance, spent 16 years in senior roles with Citibank before setting up his financial advice business, which also includes online platform Bankonus.com.
He identifies massive changes in client expectation driven by social changes. “Information will be traded over social media, and trust will get built and destroyed over the same social media. “The greatest challenge will be to build a business that delivers digitally led hybrid advice, customised for individual investors,” says Sengupta.
While his business has been up and running for less than three years, another NRI-focused adviser Krishnan Ramachandran, the long-established CEO of Barjeel Geojit Financial Services, also believes advancing technology will represent a challenge in years to come.
“Intermediation and advisory models for investment, led by artificial intelligence technologies, will see a huge disruption in the next five years. It will also throw up wide-ranging investment opportunities for customers to choose from.
“Financial advisory businesses will have to adapt to this new norm by scaling up their data and investment analysis capabilities to provide value-added services to their clients.”
It is interesting to note the United Nations published data in September this year showing the number of international migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million in 2019, an increase of
51 million since 2010.
It identified India as the lead country of origin, accounting for about 18 million persons living abroad, with migrants from Mexico constituting the second largest diaspora (12 million), followed by China (11 million), the Russian Federation (10 million) and the Syrian Arab Republic (eight million).
Special measures
The need for more and more technical specialist knowledge in financial services is self-evident in the light of the growing need to look after expats and their multi-jurisdictional needs.
It is apt therefore that the IA 100 this year features three new entries who know all about the devil in the detail when it comes to financial services products.
David Denton, head of international technical sales for Old Mutual International, is well known to the financial adviser community and has spent almost three decades helping clients across four continents. “Like many of us in this industry, a career within international financial services was not my first choice. But joining the international arm of the business when it was in its
infancy in the UK 20 years ago turned out to be my good fortune.”
Nobel Prize-winning economist Harry Markowitz is Denton’s greatest influence. “His thesis on diversification led to modern portfolio theory, the principles of which are embraced by all active managers today. Without him balancing the fundamentals of risk and reward in understanding the efficient frontier would be far more challenging,” he says.
Guy Vanner, managing director of AKG Financial Analytics, has also built specialist expertise in the form of adviser-orientated company analysis, citing his greatest influence as an actuary.
“My first boss was a ferociously bright and experienced actuary called Nick Anderton (the ‘A’ in AKG). And while also highly capable in financial terms, it was Nick’s lateral thinking and constantly holistic view of things that was so inspiring. Early on in my career he showed just how interesting work in the sector can be.
