Speakers

Alderwoman Dame Susan Langley became Lady Mayor of London 7th November 2025, the third woman to hold the office, and the first to be styled “Lady Mayor”. The Lady Mayor is the elected head of the City of London Corporation, representing the Square Mile and serving as a powerful ambassador for the UK’s financial and professional services.

The Lady Mayor is an experienced and senior City business leader, with deep domestic and international networks in financial services, government and wider business.

As political leader of the City of London Corporation, the Policy Chairman is the principal advocate for the City as the world’s pre-eminent financial and professional services capital. Steering the work of the Policy and Resources Committee, Chris also oversees the provision of local government services for the Square Mile’s 8,600 residents and 676,000 workers.

Over four decades, Chris has led businesses across the world. A former Deputy Leader of Hertfordshire and Dorset County Councils, Chris has engaged politically at both the local and national level, and he was first elected to the Common Council of the City Corporation in March 2013.

Nik Adams was appointed as Deputy Commissioner for the City of London Police in December 2024, performing the role of National Coordinator for Economic and Cyber Crime. He transferred as a Commander to the City of London Police in March 2022 from his previous role as National Coordinator for Prevent and Safeguarding Lead within Counter Terrorism Policing.

As Deputy Commissioner, Nik is focussed on overseeing national delivery of a number of fraud functions including Report Fraud, the new national reporting service for fraud and cyber crime, the national Economic and Cyber Crime Academy and a diverse range of operational units within the City of London Police. He oversees the National Cyber Crime portfolio and is also the NPCC lead for the Financial Investigation, including money laundering asset recovery, and the NPCC lead for Electoral Malpractice.

Nik’s vision is to work with partners to disrupt the activity of criminals across the UK, and to improve the effectiveness of the policing response at a local, regional and national level, underpinned by good communication, a shared understanding of threats, risks, knowledge, information, skills and resources to develop innovative solutions. He is currently exploring some bold new approaches to our partnership response to tackling economic crime within the City of London.

Nik has been a police officer for 25 years and spent most of his service with West Yorkshire Police, working in Leeds, where he was the City Centre Commander and Neighbourhood Policing lead for South Leeds before his move into Counter Terrorism Policing. 

Esperanza is IFM Investors’ Chief Risk Officer, responsible for the management of the firm’s risk and compliance obligations globally.  

Esperanza is a member of the Executive Leadership Team, Investment and Valuation Committees. Esperanza is based in IFM Investors’ London office and is an experienced international Chief Risk Officer and Board member with a track record of successfully building risk and compliance teams, with an strategic and commercial focus, long-term horizon and culturally diverse, across US, EMEA and APAC, in private and public sectors. 

Esperanza is passionate about risk culture, social entrepreneurship, sustainability and risk management as a strategic tool. 

 Tina Daheley is an experienced broadcaster whose work spans across news, current affairs, sport, and the arts, appealing to a wide range of diverse audiences. She has presented the BBC’s longest running TV series, Points of View as well as regularly hosting BBC Breakfast and prime-time bulletins on the News at Six and News at Ten.

Tina joined the BBC after completing a first-class honours degree in Computer Science, and a Masters in Broadcast Journalism. Since then, she has been a familiar face on our TV screens hosting Crimewatch, Panorama, The Lady Mayors Show, The Woman’s Football World Cup, The Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the BBC’s Coronation coverage of King Charles III.

She has built up an extensive list of radio credits, working on The Radio 1 Breakfast shows with Chris Moyles and Nick Grimshaw; and The Radio 2 Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball and Scott Mills. Tina has also helmed Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, The Cultural Frontline on BBC World Service, Newscast on BBC Sounds, and The Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2.

Tina is passionate about making news, current affairs, and the arts accessible to everyone and is especially skilled at chairing panels and hosting debates. On TV these have included The EU Referendum, The Final Election Debates, and numerous General Election Campaigns; and on stage these have included the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Royal Foundation.

Rachel Delhaise is Chief Sustainability Officer at Convex Insurance with responsibility for developing and implementing the sustainability strategy across the group. Prior to joining Convex in April 2021, she was Chief Risk Officer of Starstone Group for six years where she developed and led the risk function across five operating entities. Rachel has 30 plus years of experience in the insurance sector, with over 20 years spent with Guy Carpenter, part of Marsh and McLennan Corp, latterly as Managing Director of the firm's capital markets arm, GC Securities.

As part of her sustainability work within the insurance sector, Rachel is Chair of Climatewise Management Committee and a member of the Operating Committee of the Insurance Development Forum, where she co-chairs the Risk Modelling Steering Group She is also currently a Non-Executive Director of Envelop Risk, a specialty cyber underwriting managing agent. Rachel has completed University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Business Sustainability Management and Sustainable Finance courses.

As Managing Director of CMA CGM UK, Natasha represents a dynamic, forward-thinking organisation and a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions. Natasha has spent over 30 years in the shipping industry having held various roles and most recently as Managing Director at ZIM Integrated Shipping Services for the past eight years before joining CMA CGM.

Responsible for establishing and executing Citi’s core technology strategy, supporting all of Citi’s businesses across Markets, Services, Banking, Wealth, US Personal Banking, Risk, Finance, and Functions.

David leads a group of engineers, architects, and strategists focussed on scalable systems development, cloud and data architecture, systems modernisation, developer productivity, emerging technology, and the use of AI at scale. Prior to this David led the Engineering and Architecture function for the Institutional Clients Group, and has a background in Markets Technology across Risk, Market Making, and Derivatives.

David has a Masters in Computer Science from Imperial College, and an undergrad in Neuroscience from UCL. David lives in London, UK with his wife and two sons.

Steve worked in the UK government for over 30 years tackling threats to national and international security such as terrorism, espionage, nuclear proliferation and cyber threats. Steve subsequently held senior executive roles at Credit Suisse including overseeing technology, cyber and third-party risk management, leading the global operational resilience program, and as Group CISO. 

Steve now leverages this extensive experience to help clients navigate complex risks in a globalised world as an independent Senior Board Adviser. Among others, he advises PwC UK, Dell Technologies, Control Risks, Halcyon and Global Citizen.  He is also an Honorary Professor at King’s College, London, and a regular Security Contributor to ABC News in the US. 

Nicola has worked on hundreds of cyber security incidents and has deep expertise in cybersecurity issues and crisis management across both the public and private sector.

Prior to joining Brunswick, she was a member of the Executive Board at GCHQ and Director of Policy at the National Cyber Security Centre, having joined the centre as one of the founding Directors in 2016. Previous to this, she was the Head of the UK Prime Minister’s Office, managing day-to-day business during a period of 2 referendums and 2 general elections. Her other government role was as Head of Government Strategic Communications for the Government Olympic Committee.

Before joining government, Nicola was Head of Communications at the business risk consultancy Control Risks Group and before this Head of Government Relations at Camelot during licence renewal.

Pravina Ladva started her career at Abbey National/Santander, gaining experience in the financial technology sector, with responsibility for various areas from strategy to delivery and financial results. She joined Barclaycard in 2008, where she held various roles including COO Digital Marketplace and CIO Barclaycard Business Solutions. During this time, she led B2B and B2B2C technology and change teams, as well as the build and launch of a digital marketplace platform in the UK.

Pravina Ladva joined Swiss Re in 2017 as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for iptiQ, and in July 2020 assumed the role of Swiss Re Group Digital Transformation Officer. She was appointed Group Chief Digital & Technology Officer and member of  the Group Executive Committee as of January 2022.

With over 20 years of experience, Vishal is globally recognized for his ground-breaking work helping industry leading organizations operationalize data and AI to improve organizational decision-making.  Most recently, Vishal was appointed to the UK Government AI Committee and recognized as the 2023 SaaS Industry CEO of the Year. Under his leadership, Quantexa continues to help shape the emerging Decision Intelligence category with the company’s platform offering, which has seen widespread adoption across financial services, healthcare, TMTE, and the public sector. 

Previously the youngest Executive Director at EY, Vishal led major programs at international banks including global Anti Financial Crime technology strategy, data-driven remediation, and end-to-end reviews of strategy and policy. Since founding Quantexa, Vishal steered the company to Centaur status, accelerated its international expansion, and helped the firm gain recognition as one of the fastest growing companies in the UK, along with being awarded  Bloomberg's 25 European Startups That Could Change the World in 2025. 

Alastair Marsh covers ESG and climate finance for Bloomberg News with a focus on the net zero journeys of major banks and investment firms, finance flows for the energy transition and the development of carbon markets. He previously reported on cryptocurrencies and credit markets. Marsh joined Bloomberg in 2012 from a Financial Times publication focused on emerging markets.

Andrew McDougall is Group Head of Geopolitical Risk for Barclays and advises Barclays Board and executive leadership on global affairs. He joined Barclays from the UK Foreign Office, where he gained extensive experience working on some of the most important global issues over the past two decades.

Andrew's particular expertise is Europe, Russia, and China, but also worked closely on Iran and South Asia (India/Pakistan/Afghanistan) earlier in his career. His final posting was in Brussels (Political Counsellor in the UK Mission to the EU and NATO) but he also served in Switzerland, India, and the Middle East. As a British Army officer, Andrew served in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, and Iraq, before joining the Foreign Office. He read Law and International Relations at university. 

Lisa's role as Marsh CEO, she will work with the UK's business CEOs to shape Marsh UK's commercial strategy. She will focus on strengthening and expanding client relationships across Marsh’s four businesses as well as developing innovative, data-driven client solutions that support organisations operating in the UK’s diverse economy.

Prior to this Lisa was appointed as Co-Head of the Government and Public Institutions Practice, Europe. In 2023, she was appointed to the additional role of Head of UK and Ireland. 

Lisa works with senior civil servants and ministers as well as executives of the UK&I’s leading institutions on topics spanning digital transformation, governance, strategy, financial planning, risk management and public policy & regulatory response.

Lisa has advised senior government leaders and policy makers on topics of industry competitiveness and stability and co-authored many articles and studies, including supporting the IBFed on BigTech entrance into Financial Services, Impact of Digitalisation of the economy on regulatory structures and  future of supervision.

Lisa is a keen advocate of inclusion and a sponsor of diversity – she sits on the firm’s inclusion council, is executive sponsor of Oliver Wyman’s Women of Oliver Wyman and was shortlisted for Mentor of the Year by Management Today Magazine and names on of the Top 100 Female Executives on the HERos list.

Lisa is also a Visiting Academic Fellow at the London School of Economics, Centre for Risk and Regulation. She holds a First Class Honours degree in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and a Masters degree in Public Administration in European Public and Economic Policy from the London School of Economics.

Max Richter is a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience at the forefront of insurance and technology transformation. As the EMEA CEO and Global Growth Leader at mea, he partners with C-level clients to navigate disruption and drive strategic change through the application of AI.​

Prior to joining mea, Max held leadership roles within Accenture’s global insurance business, where he led AI-enabled transformation initiatives and advised major insurers on digitization, automation and Underwriting & Claims transformation. His expertise in data, analytics, and AI has been instrumental in executing strategic transformations that deliver significant business impact.​

Max’s background in software engineering and deep Insurance industry expertise enables him to operate seamlessly at the intersection of technology, operations, underwriting, and claims. He is widely recognized as a thought leader in the application of AI within the insurance sector, frequently engaging with industry forums and publications to share insights on leveraging technology for competitive advantage.

Sir Richard Shirreff served as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, dealing with strategic operations involving military, allied and other governments, NGOs and international organisations. 

After university, Sir Richard was commissioned into the British Army from Sandhurst. In his 37-year career, he commanded soldiers on operations at every level from platoon (30 men) to division (20,000 men and women). This included combat in the Gulf War of 1991 as a tank squadron leader and again in Iraq as a divisional commander, together with other operations in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Bosnia. In addition, he had extensive staff experience at brigade, Army HQ and in the Ministry of Defence. He commanded NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and his final military assignment was NATO’s 4 Star Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

As NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Sir Richard worked with governments and organisations to plan and execute campaigns, harness resources and build bridges, intellectually, culturally and practically, in order to support NATO operations.

In February 2016, he co-founded Strategia Worldwide Ltd, a global risk advisory company, which has since built up a sizeable portfolio of clients across different sectors. 
 
His novel ‘War with Russia’ was published in the UK, USA and Poland. It became a Sunday-Times best seller and has been translated into eight languages. He is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

Perry was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Flood Re in March 2025. Flood Re is a joint initiative between the Government and insurers. Its aim is to make the flood cover part of household insurance policies more affordable.

He’s an actuary with 30+ years in financial services in roles including CEO, CRO and Group Chief Actuary. He’s held directorships in UK, Bermuda, Ireland, India, South Africa, Malta and Luxembourg, and been on the Council of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Fergus has 12 years’ experience in Crisis Management and is the Global Head of Terrorism & Political Violence, based in London. Fergus is responsible for a global team of over 40 colleagues delivering insurance solutions, account service, client insights, and risk analytics. 

Prior to this role, he spent over eight years in New York in various roles, including Head of Crisis Management in North America.  

Fergus specializes in providing creative risk transfer solutions, including the deployment of a captive and the development of tailored products to address the growing impacts of active assailant incidents. His achievements include creating the first demolition and rebuild policy for education clients following an active assailant event. 

Fergus is responsible for leading the development and deployment of analytical tools for assessing and quantifying client exposures to emerging risks, and has claims experience with terrorism, social unrest, war, active assailant, and trade disruption losses. 

He is regularly providing insight for insurance publications and has presented and participated on panels at both RIMS and the International Forum of Terrorism Risk (Re)Insurance Pools (IFTRIP). 

Alex Hitchcock is a Director in UK&I EY-Parthenon Strategy focussing on carbon and nature markets and investments. At EY, he has worked with investors, market infrastructure, projects developers and buyers in carbon and nature markets. Before joining EY, Alex was a Special Adviser in the UK government (2018-22), including to the COP26 President and Business and Energy Secretary, where he advised directly on domestic and international climate, energy and wider policy.   

Alistair Lester is CEO of Gallagher’s Private Equity and M&A client practice leading our teams in the UK, Europe and Middle East. The practice offers a comprehensive suite of services and solutions to businesses of all sizes engaged in acquisitions, mergers, and other transactions including tax, warranty & indemnity, litigation, structured credit, pre-M&A due diligence and post deal / portfolio services.

Prior to joining Gallagher in August 2025, Alistair worked at Aon for eight years, most recently as global co-CEO of M&A and transactional solutions. He has nearly 30 years of industry experience having also worked at WTW and has extensive experience of M&A and post deal value creation for both corporate clients as well as private equity and other alternative asset managers.

Simon Lockwood is Head of Shipowners at Willis Marine GB. With more than 35 years of experience in marine insurance, Simon has played a leading role in some of the sector’s most complex and high‑profile transactions. 

He is a former Chair of the Marine Executive at the London and International Insurance Brokers Association (LIIBA), has contributed to the London International Shipping Week conference committee, and currently serves as a Director of Maritime London. Simon is also a Court Assistant of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, reflecting his deep commitment to the maritime industry. 

Previously as IBM’s Telecom Industry Technical Leader he helped to prototype and develop many of the technologies that are now part of 5G: Edge (MEC), Telco Network Cloud (NFV), Orchestration and Open APIs.  

Zygmunt was educated at Imperial College London, is a Member of the IEEE and holds over 30 patents in computing and telecom. 

Zygmunt’s mission is to make the world’s networks quantum safe. 

He is one of the co-founders of the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Task Force (PQTN) working on the impact of Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) in telecom and is editor for its publications. He works with government and industry on PQC migration and guidance. He also researches the applications of quantum computing for telecom and national security. 

Previously as IBM’s Telecom Industry Technical Leader he helped to prototype and develop many of the technologies that are now part of 5G: Edge (MEC), Telco Network Cloud (NFV), Orchestration and Open APIs.  

Zygmunt was educated at Imperial College London, is a Member of the IEEE and holds over 30 patents in computing and telecom. 

Kay is fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a chartered insurance broker with a 1st class BA degree in Insurance Management. Kay has enjoyed a rewarding career spanning more than 30 years in insurance. Kay is responsible for driving a consistent global sales approach across WTW’s Global Specialty businesses and GB Risk and Broking, to help deliver ambitious growth plans and is now part of the CRB GB executive leadership team. 

Prior to her current position, Kay was WTW Head of Client GB, where she focused on delivering a consistently high-quality client experience, following earlier practice leader roles for the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors from 2014. Since taking on her new role, Kay has maintained her role of Strategic Client Service within the GB business. 

Andy is a partner in PwC’s Insurance practice.  Based in the UK, Andy has 29 years of experience of life and non-life insurance markets. Andy is PwC’s Lloyd’s and London Market Insurance leader and has a particular focus on Reinsurance and Specialty business.    

Andy’s experience includes:  

• as PwC’s Global and UK Leader for Insurance Risk and Regulation focussing on cross-sector Insurance Regulation.  
• as an audit partner, where he was responsible for the audits of a large number of major insurers, reinsurers and Lloyd’s syndicates.  

Andy works regularly with his clients with acquisitions and restructuring, including diligence processes and the set-up and authorisation of new businesses, including Lloyd’s syndicates and alternative capital vehicles.  Andy has worked extensively with clients on complex deals across the insurance sector.  

Andy is a member of PwC’s Global Insurance Leadership Team and is the co-author of a number of PwC’s publications on insurance matters.    

Charlie leads the Howden Carbon Advisory practice at the global insurance broker’s Capital Advisory and Placement business.  

Charlie began his career at JPMorgan where in 2006 he started the Environmental Markets desk. Originally a trading desk, the team quickly evolved into project finance of emission reduction projects. Charlie focused on the origination, structuring and sales of carbon credits and built a successful global team with a profitable carbon portfolio generating hundreds of millions in revenue. Charlie has experience of investing directly into a wide range of carbon projects, in buying carbon portfolios as well as M&A.  

Prior to Howden Charlie was CEO of Stowga, a global logistics platform, that he founded and sold to Value Chain Lab.  

Charlie was also part of the leadership team at Toucan Protocol, a pioneer of tokenised carbon credits where, as Head of Ecosystem, he was responsible for the commercial side of the business.   

Charlie currently advises the ICVCM, the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is a co-lead for the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project TRACTION.  

Chris Sawyer is Director of Insurance AI Transformation at PwC UK, where he helps insurers harness artificial intelligence to reshape operating models, products and customer outcomes. With over 20 years’ global experience, spanning government, telecoms and financial services, and more than a decade in insurance, he brings a broad, cross-industry perspective on how risk is evolving in an AI-driven world. 

Chris is known for combining strategic insight with hands-on delivery, advising global insurers on how AI is transforming underwriting, claims and customer service — and what it means for the future of risk in an increasingly intelligent, automated global market. 

Tom Sharpe is a communications consultant who specialises in enhancing and protecting reputations in complex and contested environments. His clients have included government departments, ministers, ambassadors, quasi-state entities, and private sector companies of all sizes, both in the UK and abroad.  

He co-founded Special Project Partners in 2019 and freelances for multiple other agencies. 

Tom is a leadership mentor for the Nautical Institute and an award winning defence commentator, including writing a weekly opinion column for The Daily Telegraph. He regularly speaks on maritime leadership across a range of sectors, including banks, military officers, the NHS, and superyacht companies. He has written a book on maritime leadership that is currently awaiting publication. 

Prior to this, Tom served for over 25 years in the Royal Navy, the last five of which were spent in military plans and communications. His final appointment was as the Defence Secretary’s Naval spokesman. 

The earlier years of his career were spent at sea aboard a variety of warships. He commanded four, including the UK’s Ice Patrol Vessel, for which he was appointed OBE following his role in saving her during a flood. His frigate command saw him act as anti-submarine warfare commander for two US carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf and, closer to home, in the protection of the UK’s nuclear deterrent. 

Tom holds a BA (Hons) in Defence Studies and an MA in International Relations from King’s College London. 

Simon is Head of Organizational Resilience Research at Willis Towers Watson where he leads global research and innovation initiatives at the intersection of insurance, risk analytics, and resilience strategy. His work focuses on translating complex risks, including supply chain disruption, climate‑driven volatility, and systemic business interruption, into commercial products and actionable insights for insurers, brokers, and corporate clients. 

Simon works closely with underwriters, risk carriers, and senior decision‑makers to help shape new approaches to risk quantification, risk financing, and insurance product innovation. He is particularly focused on bridging the gap between advanced analytics, academic research, and real‑world insurance applications, ensuring that innovation delivers tangible commercial and societal value. 

Alongside his role at WTW, Simon is Director of the European Center for Risk & Resilience Studies and holds a PhD in Economics. He is a frequent speaker at international industry and policy forums on the future of insurance, resilience, and risk intelligence. 

Alison Tamm is the Global Risk Director of Control Risks, based in London. Alison ensures that the Group meets the highest risk management standards by driving the process for risk identification, mitigation and management and ensuing that the risk management process is embedded in the company’s culture. Alison also works with the company’s brokers to manage risk through the arrangement of appropriate insurances.

Alison has a BSc Honours degree in International Business and French from Aston University. She has a postgraduate diploma in risk management from The Institute of Risk Management and the certificate in insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute. Alison is also a member of the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers in Industry and Commerce.  She speaks fluent French and conversational German and has lived, worked and studied in France and Germany. She is currently learning Swedish and studying for further Insurance Institute exams.

Prior to Control Risks Alison worked for Citigroup both in Germany and London.

Suraj has 18-years’ experience in the carbon market. He sits within the principal investment team in Macquarie’s Global Carbon business and is responsible for originating low carbon project development opportunities. He also leads the technical due diligence process for carbon project investments and has a deep understanding of Article 6 developments in various jurisdictions.  

Prior to joining Macquarie, Suraj designed and developed carbon reduction and avoidance projects under different standards including The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Verra across multiple regions. 

He has extensive experience across a range of project types including blue carbon, reforestation, soil carbon and REDD+, renewable energy and improved cookstoves. He is also a Technical Advisory Committee member for the Plan Vivo Standard and sits on Verra’s VCS Program Advisory Group, Forest Carbon Innovations and Blue Carbon Working Groups.