Fintech Lunch 2024 – The four ‘C’s of Fintech shaping our landscape

An award-winning marketer and entrepreneur, with 15 years’ experience in the technology, retail, mobile and banking sectors. In 2009, Kimberley co-founded international communications agency SkyParlour. Ten years on, from its base in central Manchester, the business has amassed Fintech clients around the world from Palo Alto, to Munich, to Jakarta and back again to Cheadle.

Kimberley is co-chair of the pro manchester Fintech committee and industry advisor to the University of Salford Fintech MSc programme. She is also an active member of the Founders for Schools initiative and presents the Future of Banking podcast.

Anthony has over a decade of experience in the world of Fintech spanning Payments, Fraud, AML and Crypto. He has held senior commercial roles at publicly listed and VC backed companies like ACI, Judopay and Elliptic. Through his career he has played pivotal roles in helping to grow organisations across UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Today, Anthony channels his wealth of expertise into his consultancy venture Fusion Growth which focuses on supporting Fintech and Web3 companies commercial goals.

Chris is a senior commercial leader with extensive experience starting, growing and managing digital businesses within large financial services companies, establishing strategic partnerships with FinTechs, and advising early stage FinTech entrepreneurs.

He spent 13 years in leadership roles at Barclays Wealth, including Chief Commercial Officer for the on-line, direct-to-consumer investment platform, Barclays Smart Investor (300,000 customers, £12 Bn invested assets), and led a number of initiatives to establish and grow the bank’s coverage of the UK FinTech ecosystem ex-London.

Before that, he spent 9 years at Accenture’s Strategy & Technology Consulting practice in London, New York and Doha, working with early-stage FinTech companies on their journey to seed funding, and advising large incumbents (global investment banks, UK retail banks, UK Wealth Managers) on their digital transformation agendas.

David is an authority on IT, outsourcing and technology-driven procurement,with a particular focus on clients in financial services and the technology sector. David regularly acts as lead advisor for customer and suppliers to deliver complex and strategic technology projects, collaborations and commercial contracts of all shapes and sizes. He is ranked as a leading individual in both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500, the independent guides to the legal profession.David is a published author and speaker who is regularly sought out for his industry insights. In 2018 David co-authored a ground-breaking research report on Open Banking, which is shaping the future of financial services.

Julian is a strategy consultant with over 25 years experience in financial services. Prior to joining Whitecap in 2012 he was marketing director at HML (now part of Computershare), and his career has also included roles at Boston Consulting Group, Nationwide Building Society, Mortgages plc, and Merrill Lynch. Whitecap is involved in two regional FinTech ecosystems, FinTech North and FinTech West, both of which it helped create and now manages. Via these initiatives, Julian is also involved in the FinTech National Network which was created by Innovate Finance, FinTech Scotland and FinTech North in 2019 to help link the national Fintech sector across the UK.

Luke is an experienced commercial contracts, outsourcing, and technology transactions lawyer who acts for clients across the full Financial Services, Payments, and FinTech ecosystem (including established banks and challenger banks and technology and solutions providers). He has experience advising on both domestic and cross-border matters gained at leading City and international firms.

Luke has acted for clients on strategic commercial, collaboration, technology, and supply-chain projects. He also regularly advices on critical and material cloud and outsourcing projects which are subject to the financial services regulations on procurement.

As well as his technology and sourcing work, Luke has particular experience relating to payment services and systems arrangements and FinTech (including BNPL and embedded finance).

Luke leads Shoosmiths FinTech team nationally and currently sits on the advisory board of the PIMFA (the UK industry body for financial advice and wealth management) WealthTech initiative (focused on the development and use of new technologies in the wealth management and financial advice sectors) aswell as the Pro Manchester FinTech committee. He also regularly contributes to technology and financial services focussed initiatives and groups, including FinTech North and the Finance and Leasing Association. Luke is author of the current Thompson Reuters Practical Law guide to IT Co-location services and co-authored their guide on Merchant Acquiring services.

After a successful corporate finance and technology career, co-founding, scaling and selling the UK’s first supermarket based dental network to BUPA, Natalie works with government, industry and academia to deepen and diversify the UK’s digital talent pool. Her Data, AI & Tech Programs Platforms & Publications have impacted the skills, confidence, life and work chances of 1000s of women and people from underrepresented groups. Her latest innovation, YZen AI, an inclusive writing assistant and culture building tool, detects and corrects hidden bias in every day comms and helps people and organisations to write without fear of being insensitive or excluding anyone.

Natalie’s algorithm for closing the digital skills and diversity gap ( self-efficacy + opportunity + ability – discrimination = equity)