Established a boutique consultancy firm to provide strategic advice to financial services firms in the UK and Europe on a selective number of engagements.Project Hilda: Supported the Chamber of Commerce and Development Corporation in the Falkland Islands to review and benchmark banking services in the Islands and to set out a go-forward strategy. Working with key stakeholders across public and private sectors including, Standard Chartered Bank to review the existing service provision against a cohort of comparable territories. The assignment included extensive archival research to diagnose how the current service provision came to be. Work was published: https://www.commerce.co.fk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Banking_Report.pdfProject Gondola: Supported a Channel Islands based trust and fund administrator to develop and pressure test their 3-year strategy. Worked closely with both the Chairman and CEO to provide actionable advice on whether they should embark on a ‘buy and build’ strategy or seek new institutional owners for the business. Retained during subsequent sales process to assist shareholders evaluate the best purchaser from the perspective of clients, colleagues and shareholders. Developed a framework to analyse each purchaser, offers received and execution risks entailed. Provided advice on communications with key stakeholders during the sales process including briefing materials for clients and colleagues. Project Leo: Responsible for provision of technical and regulatory advice on operating model changes for an offshore bank to facilitate deeper integration with Group hubs which will deliver material improvements to the customer experience and risk and financial crime control framework. Advice included detailed consideration and framing of legal advice regarding the ability to make the operating model changes whilst remaining compliant with the UK’s ring-fencing regime.

Developed, owned and executed the delivery plan to achieve a restructuring of the European activities of a major UK bank in order to comply with the latest European Capital Requirements Directive. In addition, responsible for leading a number of discrete projects supporting c-suite executives.Accountable for crafting the target operating model and detailed design of the proposed restructuring. Entailed working with C-level executives and gaining approvals from multiple legal entity managing and supervisory boards. Identified and coordinated the implementation of changes required to existing financial and regulatory reporting systems. Represented the business at the Steering Group chaired by the Group CFO.Developed regulatory business plan submissions and supporting materials. Led engagement with regulators in Luxembourg, Netherlands and the European Central Bank to secure approval of a new Financial Holding Company and Qualifying Holding procedure. Responsible for leading the communication of changes to stakeholders including colleagues, social partners and customers. In addition, provided timely updates to executives and supervisory board members.Project Shard: Led the development of technical, commercial and regulatory advice on a digital assets proof of concept project. Evaluated the rapidly evolving regulatory and legal framework for digital assets, commercial landscape and opportunity, and potential approaches to market entry.Projects Clover & Spey: Responsible for developing business plans to expand a funds governance business into Ireland by setting up a new branch of their Luxembourg credit institution and to explore entering the fund administration sector. Extensive collaboration with functional teams across finance, compliance and legal to assess the commercial opportunities, regulatory frameworks, options for entry and planned target operating models.

A transitional role working closely with the CEO and CFO on a series of discrete strategic projects including leading on two acquisition opportunities. Developed a strategic acquisitions and partnerships radar to scope out potential targets to enable senior management to have greater visibility of opportunities.Scoped and designed the merger of a regulated subsidiary including acting as the technical and regulatory advisor for a successful court sanctioned business transfer scheme. Freed up over £100m of capital which was redistributed to the shareholder and achieved annual cost savings in excess of £2m per year.Led the development of an improved ICAAP and ILAAP suite of documents to enable the executive team and board members to better comprehend the key risks to the business which was also shared with regulatory stakeholders.Worked closely with the Head of Financial Crime and Accountable Executive to develop a comprehensive ‘deep dive’ paper articulating how the firm manages its financial crime risks and meets its regulatory and legal responsibilities. Paper was endorsed by the Board of Directors and shared with the shareholder and lead regulator.Facilitated a number of sessions with the Board of Directors to pressure test and gauge scenario preparedness including a pre-mortem war game exercise.

Built from scratch and led a strategy team of five responsible for working with the Managing Directors of the client facing businesses to synthesise strategic plans to develop their businesses. Supported the CEO, CFO and CRO in stress testing these plans and shaping the overall firm-wide business plan.Designed and co-led the implementation of the RBSI strategic response to the UK’s ring-fencing programme with overall programme budget of £100 million. These changes increased client assets by >£7.5 billion and ~£100 million of annual revenues. Established RBSI as the group hub for all funds related business with a footprint in two new jurisdictions. Co- chaired with the CFO, the delivery board of the RBSI programme comprising a dozen workstreams, ~200 FTE and frequently deputised for the CEO at Group level meetings.Collaborated closely with functional stakeholders including finance, human resources, legal and compliance to lead the design of target operating models for five new regulated business units: branches in Luxembourg and London, a UK regulated mortgage book and two new subsidiaries – a Luxembourg credit institution and a UK domiciled investment firm. Led the regulatory engagement to secure the approvals for these new business units including the preparation of the regulatory business plans, policies and procedures, and associated materials including UK Senior Managers Regime applications.Co-led, with the Treasurer, securing of two investment grade credit ratings from S&P and Moody’s. Responsible for preparing the material for the agencies and ‘murder board’ collateral for senior management. Led the development of material for an investor relations deep dive on the RBSI business.

Responsible for a portfolio of high value corporate real estate clients with advances of ~£1 billion secured on investment and development assets. Managed complex transactions on an end-to-end basis from origination, transaction structuring, credit approval, documentation and closing, and ongoing portfolio monitoring. Significantly reduced reliance on wholesale funding whilst growing the asset book and continuing to support key clients through the challenging circumstances following the 2008-09 financial crisis. Led a strategically significant work-stream on behalf of the wider UK real estate business to explore capital markets distribution options which RBS could use to improve its balance sheet management.Recognised internally and externally with an award for developing the Learning Hub concept for the local RBS team including a series of high-profile speakers from industry, private equity and charitable sectors.