Meet the Trainers

Michèle Allman-Ward

Michèle is the Managing Partner of Allman-Ward Associates, a company specialising in strategic planning, training, project management and market research in international treasury management. With over 20 years of banking and consulting experience, Michèle is an internationally respected expert on cash and treasury management. She has contributed to numerous publications and is the lead trainer for the ACT’s CertICM qualification.

Gary Ashworth

Gary specialises in providing training, coaching and consultancy on advanced business performance management approaches and is a regular speaker and published author on the subject. Gary led Ernst & Young’s Performance Management Service Line in the UK and has established a number of successful entrepreneurial companies. Gary is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and a Certified Management Consultant.

Gerry Bacon

Gerry currently works as Senior Advisor for Anthem Corporate Finance, a small London based corporate finance advisor, specialising in M&A advice, debt refinancing and raising capital for small to medium size ventures. Until December 2008, Gerry worked for Vodafone where he was Group Treasurer and CFO for its central services subsidiary. Previously Gerry worked for Kingfisher, Merrill Lynch and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Stoy Hayward. Gerry has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Stephen Berry

Stephen is a former CFO, current international MBA lecturer in business strategy, author, strategy consultant and company director. Stephen has trained delegates in 25 countries on 4 continents on areas as diverse as finance, strategy and performance management from top executives to middle managers. Stephen excels at making complex matters understandable with real life examples and always with practical application. Stephen's book Strategies of the Serengeti has been read by executives from many blue chip organisations, UK and global.

Anthony Birts

Anthony is a lecturer 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.

Garry Buick

Garry has had extensive experience with GlaxoSmithKline, including a number of area finance director roles in the manufacturing division. He also worked in China as a key member of the implementation team for low cost product sourcing.

Professor Andrew Chambers

Andrew runs Management Audit, specialists in audit and governance advice and has chaired several audit committees and a listed company’s remuneration committee. Andrew was a Professor of Internal Auditing and a Dean at Cass Business School and is now professor emeritus. Andrew has been a director of The Institute of Internal Auditors and is currently a member of their standards setting board. He chairs the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Committee of ACCA.

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

Mike was Deputy Head of the School of Law at the University of Wolverhampton and is now a lecturer and writer on commercial law, particularly company law and insolvency. He is the co-editor of Loose on Liquidators and Loose on the Company Director and a contributor to numerous publications. Mike is also the author of Corporate Insolvency for General Practitioners and The Insolvency of Individuals and Partnerships.

Mark Ingram

Mark is the lead tutor at FME Training Limited. A highly respected and experienced tutor in finance and financial markets, he has provided training for the Securities Institute Diploma, the CFA, tailored investment bank courses and consultancy services for NGOs and HM Treasury. He specialises in corporate finance and risk issues.

Ian Jakeways

Ian has over 20 years’ experience in designing and running financial training programmes for both bankers and treasurers. This experience covers Europe, the United States and Asia. Ian was examiner for the MCT Advanced Funding and Risk Management exam until the end of 2002. Since then he has been involved in the Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling, the Certificate in International Treasury Management and the Certificate in Risk Management. He regularly trains on ACT courses.

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 & 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 member of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Finance & Treasury Tax network and leads their team in the firm’s southern region of the UK. Working with multinational companies from all sectors, she has many years’ experience advising on the tax implications of UK and cross-border financing, global liquidity arrangements, and hedging techniques. Most recently she has been focussing on 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 progressed from the dizzy heights of being an auditor at Ernst& Young, through business planning at Hertz, into financial training – initially at BPP. He has tutored courses toward CFA, ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA exams. Until 5/09, Greg was variously Head of Professional Development at Barclays Global Investors, and head of Financial Markets Training at Barclays Capital.

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 and a trainer on the risk courses.

Pat Scott

Pat is a founder partner in Leading Edge Change, providing business improvement coaching to business owners and managers. She is also Finance Director of the Swindon & 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 How the City and Big Bosses are Consuming UK Business.

Mike Skelton

Mike is Principal Consultant at MSTC Training & Consultancy, involved in providing international trade finance training to corporate entities and banks/financial institutions worldwide. He spent thirty years of his banking career in the trade finance arena including many years of practical experience working in the import/export documentary credit and collections departments of Midland Bank.

As Course Director of a suite of Trade Finance and Treasury courses at Midland/HSBC training college Mike was specifically responsible for the design and delivery of a number of international trade related courses.

Damian Pickard

Damian is a Chartered Accountant and MCT member by Diploma and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Accountancy and Finance at the Northampton Business School in the University of Northampton. He lectures on MSc and undergraduate programmes in banking, accountancy, trade finance and corporate risk.

Before joining the University, Damian had a varied career in financial services with senior positions as an accountant with Alliance and Leicester plc and Egg Banking plc before becoming CFO for a Citibank subsidiary and then Finance Director of a medium sized Building Society.

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

David Smith

David is an associate of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre and lectures extensively on strategy and finance, making successful acquisitions and creating successful alliances and joint ventures. He is an authority on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, valuation and corporate investment decision-making.

David was recently appointed investment advisor to a major media corporation, and acts as a business consultant to a number of top FTSE100 industrial and commercial clients. He now lectures extensively on M&A and corporate finance at leading business schools and has run seminars worldwide for clients for nearly 20 years.

Will Spinney

Will has been a practising treasurer for nearly 25 years, working for several companies including Eaton Corporation and Invensys plc where his experience ranged from risk management, cash management and extensive refinancings to pension investment strategies. He has been involved in education and training programmes with the ACT for several years, both writing resources and as a member of the examination board.

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 which oversees the London Foreign Exchange Market. He is actively involved in education serving on the boards of a leading Sixth Form College, and an independent junior 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 also worked as an accountant in public practice, an interim treasurer and a chartered tax advisor.