Meet the Trainers

Michèle Allman-Ward

Michèle Allman-Ward is the Managing Partner of Allman-Ward Associates Inc., a company specialising in strategic planning, business unit development, training, project management and market research with particular emphasis on international treasury management. Michèle is an internationally respected expert on cash and treasury management. She has written numerous books on the subject of International Treasury Management and is the lead trainer for the ACT’s CertICM qualification.

Anthony Birts

Anthony is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Finance at the School of Management, University of Bath lecturing on MBA, MSc and undergraduate programmes. He is also Director of Studies for the BSc Accounting and Finance degree. Before joining the University, Anthony was with Bank of America NT&SA, starting as an Account Officer in the Energy section and moving via International Treasury Services to end as a Vice President in the Payment Services area. He is Chief Examiner for the CertICM and regular trainer for the ACT and also lectures at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

Raj Gandhi

Raj is a fellow of ACT and the ACCA, and has worked for SMEs and multinationals across the financial services, energy, and retail sectors. He has also been a practitioner member of the ACT examination board. Raj became a trainer in 2009 and has since built up a strong reputation for being commercial with proven ability to deliver effective learning with real life cases. Before this career move, Raj was CFO of London Capital Group Holdings plc, global treasury audit manager for Royal Dutch Shell plc and Man Group plc, and group treasurer of Empire Stores Group Plc.

Mike Griffiths

Until retiring, Mike spent his career as a University lecturer. He now specialises in post-qualification continuing education. He is a contributor to Gore-Browne on Companies and Charlesworth’s Business Law and is a co-editor of Loose on the Company Director, Weisberg, Griffiths and Doyle on Company Voluntary Arrangements, and Loose on Liquidators.

Harshit H. Jain

Harshit H. Jain is a seasoned banker with over 25 years of global transaction banking and technology experience and commercial success across Asia and Middle East. He is the founding CEO of InnoVention Solutions, a young and versatile firm which focuses on providing Consultancy, Training and Advisory services to Banks, Financial Institutions and Corporate customers (Institutional clients as well as SME clients) in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region. His firm specializes in the development and structuring of innovative industry-specific customized solutions to meet its customers’ holistic and evolving business needs. Harshit holds a CertICM and also an MBA from the reputed Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and a Computer Science graduate from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He is passionate about teaching and is an Adjunct Faculty at reputed Universities in UAE and India.

Ian Jakeways

Ian has over twenty years’ experience in designing and running training programmes in finance and treasury for both bankers and treasurers. This experience covers central and western Europe, the United States and Asia. Ian is Chief Examiner for the ACT’s Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling. He is also involved in tuition and material development for this Certificate and the Certificate in Risk Management. Previously he was Chief Examiner for the MCT’s Advanced Funding and Risk Management for many years until the end of 2002.

Bob Lyddon

Bob is a strategic consultant specialising in banking, payments and cash management. Bob is head of the secretariat of IBOS Association in London. He runs numerous seminars on SEPA, Payment Services Directive and international payments and cash management. In a banking career spanning over 17 years, Bob was latterly director of European Cash Management at BankBoston, where he created the Connector multibank payments network. Bob’s earlier career was spent at Manufacturers Hanover Trust/Chemical and Lloyds Bank International.

Sue Mainwaring

Sue is a Director in PricewaterhouseCooper’s Finance & Treasury Tax network and leads their south east team. Working with multi-national companies from all sectors, she has accumulated much practical experience advising on the tax implications of UK and cross-border financing, global liquidity arrangements, and tax-efficient hedging techniques. Most recently she has been working with the impact of evolving accounting standards and the implications of the UK’s new ‘debt cap’ regime. Sue has written and lectured extensively on all these topics.

Greg Mayes

Greg’s extensive financial career, began in financial accounting with Ernst & Young in London, working through corporate treasury, into investment management and investment banking. Greg was most recently Head of Financial Markets Training at Barclays Capital, before setting up is own financial training consultancy. Delivering training in accounting, financial management and analysis, corporate finance, derivative products and investment and trading strategies, Greg’s 20 years of experience of working in and around investment banks, wealth managers, corporate treasurers and institutional fund managers, gives him a broad inside knowledge of industry demands.

John McKenzie

John’s spent 21 years in the Automotive industry with Ford Motor Company and Unipart, then 12 years in IT with Armstrong Laing and SAS. He has held a variety of roles in production, operations and sales and marketing management, business development, and financial intelligence.

He has spoken at over 250 conferences and seminars worldwide and now pursues a full time career in freelance consulting, lecturing and writing. He lectured for the Finance faculty of the Management Centre of Europe and currently lectures for major accounting bodies both U.K and abroad, on ABC/M, business planning, budgeting, strategic accounting, CRM, change management, shareholder value and performance measurement. In September 2008, his first book, ABC/M to the Max was published.

Mike Northeast

Mike has held a number of senior finance roles at companies including Rover, BAE Systems, Dixons and Kuwait Petroleum International. In 2003 he set up Gairloch Consulting, an independent corporate advisory consultancy. Mike has recognised teacher status at Cranfield University and has lectured on both the MBA and MSc courses. He has been consulting on the development of blended learning Post Graduate Degrees in Finance and Risk Management with the University of the Highlands and Islands. A past chairman of the ACT, Mike is currently a senior tutor for the MCT Advanced Diploma and a trainer on the ACT risk training courses.

Adrian Rodgers

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Adrian spent a number of years with IBM, in a variety of tax, treasury and finance roles. After managing the EMEA consultancy team at Chase Manhattan (now JPMorganChase), he became a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialising in managing change in the Finance function, including re-engineering of corporate Treasury.

His current company, ARC Solutions, is an independent consultancy providing advisory, design and implementation services to corporates and banks.

Martin Russell

With over twenty years’ treasury experience in two FTSE corporates and in banking, Martin runs his own firm, providing business education to prominent public and private sector institutions and to academia. He is Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and devotes much time to the not-for-profit sector.

Pat Scott

Pat is a founding partner in Leading Edge Change, providing business improvement coaching to business owners and managers. She is also finance director of the Swinton & Cricklade Railway. Formerly group treasurer for Redland and director of tax and treasury for Thorn EMI, she consulted in corporate treasury for a number of years. Pat has also taught finance and financial management with several professional organisations including the ACT, ACCA, IoD and CCH, and is co-author of Having Their Cake and the City and Big Bosses are Consuming UK Business.

Natalie Schoon

Natalie Schoon is a principal consultant with a focus on Islamic finance, risk management, and capital adequacy. Prior to this position, she worked for Bank of London and The Middle East plc as Head of Product Research, before which she worked at Barclays Capital on the Basel II programme. Natalie has worked in international financial organisations such as ABN Amro and Gulf International Bank. She began her career in Islamic Finance whilst working in Bahrain, Kuwait and Dubai during the 1990’s, holds a PhD in financial analysis, and is an accredited trainer for the Islamic Finance Qualification.

Will Spinney

Will Spinney has been a practising treasurer for nearly 25 years, working for several companies including Johnson Matthey, Eaton Corporation and Invensys plc where his experience covered all aspects of treasury including financial risk management, cash management, extensive financings and pension investment strategies.

He has been involved with education and training with the ACT for several years – writing resources, running training courses and as a member of examination boards. He is an employee of the ACT.

Francesca Taylor

Francesca is Managing Partner of The Matrix Partnership, a Dubai based firm, specializing in strategic advisory, management services and best in class financial and commodities training. Francesca has been a major player in the international derivatives markets for over 25 years and is a risk management and derivatives specialist and author, her books include:

"Mastering the Derivatives Markets", "Mastering Foreign Exchange and Currency Options", and soon to be published her latest book, "Mastering the Commodities Markets".

Francesca has literally trained thousands of individuals worldwide, with clients including tax authorities, exchanges, regulators, information and infra structure providers, hedge funds, banks, corporations and private individuals. She has worked with CME and Bloomberg in NYC and ICE in Chicago to create TV and web based tutorials in traded options and futures markets. Her qualifications include, B.Sc (Hons) Geology, MBA and AMCT.

David Thomasson

is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant and is the Owner and Managing Director of Phoenix Financial Training in Dubai. He has a commercial and industrial background both as a consultant and manager having held positions up to Director Level in Companies before moving into training in the 1990s. Prior to moving to the UAE in 2006 David was a Senior Manager with Kaplan Financial in the UK. Phoenix in Dubai now serves many hundreds of students across a wide variety of Professional Finance Qualifications in the Gulf Region. A key element of this development has been the provision of high quality service and teaching standards to both Commercial and Audit Clients. Phoenix now enjoys established relationships with the ‘big four’ together with many other medium tier firms, commercial organisations and Government Entities within the Gulf region. David still finds time to present and specialises in Financial Management, Treasury and Business Analysis.

Richard Thornton

Richard is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He started his career with KPMG in 1987 and has worked in finance for over 25 years. He has held senior positions in many private companies from a diverse range of industry sectors including service, manufacturing and education.

Richard founded his current company Thornton Vanderplank Ltd (TVL) in 2007. TVL provides a range of corporate finance advisory services to a diverse portfolio of clients. Additionally TVL provides educational and training courses with a bias towards finance and strategy.

Brian Welch

Brian has wide experience as a corporate treasurer with a range of companies including Gulf Oil, the Willis Group and the House of Fraser, and also as a treasury consultant. He is a former non executive advisor to the Investment Committee of the London Stock Exchange and a member of the ACT Policy & Technical Committee. He represents the ACT on the Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee (FXJSC) which oversees the London Foreign Exchange Market. He is actively involved in education serving on the board of a leading Sixth Form College, and is the Chairman of an independent preparatory school. Brian has been an ACT member since 1985 and trains on a number of ACT courses.

Doug Williamson

Doug was the ACT’s Chief Examiner for the Certificate in Financial Maths & Modelling for five years. He has taught on the ACT’s training courses since 2001. Doug has over 15 years’ experience in financial education and training, specialising in financial modelling, corporate financial management and finance for non-financial directors and senior managers. He has worked as an accountant in public practice, an interim treasurer and a chartered tax advisor.