Experience-based Advisory
Strategy and Corporate Finance and Fundraising
Supporting executive C-Suite colleagues and Boards at wealth managers, asset managers, insurers, reinsurers, banks, and fintech platform operators in continuously redefining, building, and maintaining sustainable business portfolios aligned with long-term value creation with strong views on balancing of risk-reward and sustainability goals. Worked on issues like growth, portfolio mixes, strategic market/business unit reviews and resultant acquisitions or divestments all in line with local and broader global market trends and relevant developing stakeholder and governmental views. Have played successfully in influencing and balancing top down strategic approaches with more bottoms up innovation and local expertise to deliver disruptive and collaborative successes.
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Corporate advisory and capital/fundraising for insurance, fintech and insurtech projects in India, Europe and the Middle East.
Ensured independent risk assessment of all strategic reviews and plans and where relevant set up approval processes for mergers and acquisitions and divestments which included a formal independent risk assessment and risk acceptance processes to ensure full awareness of the same in the governance of approvals and ensuring follow ups where necessary to deliver success.
Worked in conjunction with other C-Suite members on portfolio strategy, major investment decisions, linking of the same with risk strategy including second line independent strategic risk assessment reviews and integration planning.
Risk Management
Over 20 years of major C-Suite Chief Risk Officer experience covering the full spectrum of financial services. Also provided C-Suite strategic risk advisory in support of a top consulting firm and family office related risk advisory. Financial service firms have unprecedented levels and types and risks produced by a diversity of new sources and have experienced the same and have preemptively and proactively managed and advised and mitigated the same in the context of an executive committee member and board support. In the broadest sent have cross industry experience in supporting the setting of risk strategies in line with overall strategy, risk appetite and limits on line with risk bearing capacities with active monitoring and mitigation and setting operational risk frameworks supporting varied business models and with a balanced three lines of defense philosophy in mind. Have strongly supported automation in the operational risk and internal control space with digital sign off process and reporting.
The global, cross-sector and cross functional views are well understood from actual practical operation. Have alway focused on strong technical underpinning, extensive industry views though exchange in industry bodies like CRO Forums, Roundtables and studies to ensure innovative analytical and pragmatic approaches help firms to go beyond managing risk to more forward looking resilience, creating value and ensuring second line assurance across the full business risk spectrum.
Strong record of full cycle implementation of three lines of defense through maturity and optimization through full assurance mapping and removal of duplicative iterations of common processes across lines. Pragmatic implementation experience in establishing risk accountability through individual limits and authority levels and individual sign offs on control environments.
Entrepreneurial ESG
Strong results achieved in various executive and non executive roles from practicing Entrepreneurial ESG, which is all built around creating a full alignment of ESG with the overall business strategy over time. It also involves full engagement of ESG as a core fundamental pillar but also embedded in the policies, people and processes with the buy in of the employees. All companies with involvement in this area and approach have achieved top decile to top quartile rankings varied ESG benchmarking indices.
Risk Strategy, Organisation and Governance
Have supported existing and evolving business models and strategic priorities and emerging risk agendas across financial services, including the recommendation of risk strategy and related tolerance and limits, organisational design in line with the chosen business models, design of risk architecture and infrastructure and development of governance processes and internal controls needed to manage risk effectively.
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Broad based experience in globally active financial institutions with complex governance set ups - subsidiaries, JVs, insurance and asset management related inherent conflicts etc., inherent conflicts requiring careful set ups and expertise. Experience in With Profits, Asset Management and other business licenses and other complex related party set ups and governance structures.
Operational and Cyber Resilience
Led multiple operational resilience diagnostics and resultant resilience improvement programs in conjunction with the business. Operational resilience of firms has been a significant issue for all stakeholders and overall resilience and was recently tested by most firms in the current Covid 19 crisis and has enhanced focus. Operational resilience includes the full operational end to end elements of a firm extending from own operations all the way through interconnected third party infrastructures and testing around the same.
Digital Risk
Digital risk is a term encompassing all digital enablements that improve risk effectiveness and efficiency - especially around process automation, decision automation and digitised monitoring and early earning. Recently implemented such a project around risk reporting to allow for daily digitised quantitative risk reporting with nested dashboards serving needs of executive and board monitoring down to detailed analytics for experts. There were three dimensions to this change - process, data and organisation/talent. Essentially, digital risk implies a concerted adjustment of processes, data, analytics and IT and also includes the overall organisational setup including soft factors like talent and cultural elements and expert advice around the same.
Regulatory Guidance, Influence and Compliance
Global experience in providing both advisory and implementation around developing regulatory topics across financial services industry reflecting the footprint of businesses and consequential and relevant regulatory and supervisory agencies. Successful projects have included de-novo set ups of regulated entities in banking, insurance, asset management environments as well as regulatory licensing changes around mergers and acquisitions. Strong practical experience in guidance, influencing and compliance implementation of micro and large scale.
Conduct Risks
Early delivery of both a conduct risk framework in the UK around the establishment of the Financial Conduct Authority and governance and reporting around the same including an annual conduct risk report for key stakeholders. Also worked on anticipatory global conduct risk framework to ensure this risk emanating from the conduct, acts or omissions of the firm or individuals within the firm, will:deliver poor or unfair outcomes for the customer/client (both retail and wholesale) or adversely affect a broader topic of market integrity. The topic is highly complex in integrated financial service companies and first hand exposure assessment and risk mitigation experience around the same.
Anti Financial Crime, Money Laundering Controls, Client Acceptance and Reviews
Distinctive understanding of regulatory expectations and industry practices around anti financial crime and practical experience around topics such as end to end client review, acceptance, monitoring and ongoing surveillance. Strong experience and insights around risk-based approaches, infrastructure build, governance, data and intelligence and coaching and training on the topic. Enhanced FATF guidelines monitoring and local regulators and supervisory authority compliance expectations as well as potential censure and fines and reputational risk from related events needs a strong focus on the same.
Risk Data, Quantitative Analytics and Reporting
Strong record of providing timely, accurate, relevant and actionable transparency to allow or pre-emptive and pro-active management of risks. In all firms have redesigned the risk reporting frameworks through effective management of digital risk referred to above. The transparency allows all stakeholders a clear view of the developing risks and the same can be discussed, mitigated or accepted. Most recently directed the build of daily online reporting for all key quantitative risks which was successfully stressed and tested in the continuing Covid 19 crisis.
Risk Modelling and Governance
The need for Boards, executives and firms to ensure strong model governance is of critical importance as use of the same in risk measurement and attribution, capital modelling, financial reporting and business decisioning has increased. The end to end model governance needs to be assured as the directional decisioning, reporting accuracy and model build and assumption setting needs independent review and assurance. Have broad based experience in implementation in banking, insurance, asset management and financial reporting across all.
Forwarding-Looking Stress Testing, Planning Reviews, Emerging Risks and Early Warning
Implemented forward looking stress testing, independent reviews of annual and multi year planning tools and models which is of more importance to provide appropriate second line assurance for key stakeholders including supervisory authorities and regulators.Such panning tools need to be appropriately linked to emerging risk assessments to ensure downside emerging risks are reflected in multi year planning when appropriate. The ongoing Covid crisis has emphasised the need for strong bespoke and specific early warning testing and strong understanding around development of such processes around key risk areas.