Jouni Aaltonen is a director in the Prudential Regulation Division. His main focus is on the structural reform of the European banking sector, but he is also involved in prudential matters relating to shadow banking regulation and the capital and liquidity standards arising from Basel III. Jouni began his banking career in product management and financial advisory and has held various roles at Citi, RBC Dexia and JP Morgan. His main focus has been on balance sheet efficiency, liquidity and product strategies. He has also been involved with projects including new business initiative approvals, legal entity simplification and Basel III and FSA liquidity. Jouni holds a Masters degree in International Business Administration.

Mark Bearman is a director in the Prudential Regulation Division. His main focus is in relation to regulatory capital and liquidity standards arising from Basel III/CRD4 and from developments to the wider prudential framework. Mark has degrees in Economics and Financial Services and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. Prior to joining AFME in January 2011, Mark was a Manager in KPMG's Risk and Regulatory Practice. He worked primarily on Basel II proposition and its implementation, which included the provision of analysis of the post Basel II environment and its implications, the design and completion of ICAAP documents, and leading work on assessing the effectiveness of Basel II implementation. In his later years with KPMG, Mark's work expanded to include also engagements on liquidity and the preparation of ILAA documents. Before joining KPMG, Mark worked for several years in banking supervision at the Financial Services Authority where he was primarily responsible for the risk assessment and supervision of wholesale banking groups.

Stephen Burton joined AFME in January 2011 and is a director in the Post Trade division with particular responsibility for matters related to clearing, settlement and custody. Previously, Stephen was responsible for implementation of equity business strategy in the post trade arena at Deutsche Bank. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at Citi working with Operational groups to deliver pan-European market initiatives and represented the company at various market infrastructure user groups. Prior to joining AFME, Stephen was an active member of the clearing and settlement committees concentrating on post-trade cost reduction and safety.

Robert Fergusson joined AFME in May 2012 as Managing Director, Institutional and Corporate Relationships, a role in which he is responsible for developing AFME’s relationships with real economy stakeholders and their industry associations, with a view to expanding dialogue and cooperation on a wide range of issues of mutual concern. Robert has an extensive track record in corporate finance and M&A advisory work, gained at Morgan Grenfell, Flemings, where he was Head of Privatisation, and Regent Partners, which specializes in M&A for the TMT sector. Robert holds an MA in Mathematics and Law from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD. He is also qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Bill Ferrari is managing director of the Equity Capital Markets Division, as well as Secretary to the Corporate Finance Committee, which focuses on the investment banking sector in the UK and EU, including M&A, listing, IPOs, and related issues. Bill has extensive experience as an international businessman and lawyer, including a number of turn-around assignments in Europe and Asia. He has held senior leadership positions in financial services as MD International Banking (the Netherlands), Regional Operations Director (London), Executive Director (head) of International Law and Compliance, MD of the International Trust Group, General Manager of Merrill Lynch Japan, and member of the Merrill Lynch International Executive Committee. Bill has a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and a law degree (JD) from the University of Detroit.

Dr Werner Frey was nominated in June 2002 to be Chief Executive of The European Securities Forum, which is now the Post-Trade Division of AFME. Dr Frey is a Swiss national and has a Ph.D in History, Constitutional Law, and Political Sciences. He studied at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge. He has occupied senior positions in banking; until 1997, he was a member of the Executive Board of Bank Leu, and since 1990, he had been part of the Credit Suisse Group. As a result of his advisory activities from 1997 to 2002, he is well acquainted with the securities infrastructure in Europe.

Richard Hopkin is a managing director in the securitisation division. He joined AFME in June 2010 after a 20 year career in European securitisation during which he held leadership positions at J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale. He has originated, structured and distributed financings backed by a wide variety of asset classes including mortgages, credit cards, auto, consumer and SME loans, from across Europe, Australia and the US. Born and brought up in Wales, Richard read law at Cambridge University and before embarking on his banking career he qualified as a solicitor with leading international law firm Clifford Chance.

James Kotsomitis joined AFME as a managing director in the Capital Markets Division of AFME in June 2011. He is in charge of the AFME Credit Board and AFME Covered Bond Dealer Committees. James is Greek/Australian, and most recently worked in a private consulting firm on debt and equity financing for Eastern Europe. Previously, he was at Deutsche Bank as Director, Capital Markets Coverage, and previously Director/Business Manager for Credit Trading. Prior to that he worked in a number of advisory, operations, marketing and control positions.

Christian Krohn is managing director with responsibility for the AFME MiFID programme. Mr Krohn is a LLM and MBA graduate with 16 years' experience working in the financial services industry. Prior to his current position he worked in the FSA Market Policy Department focusing on the UK implementation of the Transparency Directive and the development and implementation of FSA policy relating to the clearing and settlement of securities transactions. From 2000-2002 Mr Krohn was legal consultant to the Association of National Numbering Agencies (an international entity standardising securities data and disseminating financial information), and from 1995-2000 he was in-house legal advisor to the Danish Securities Centre (an electronic securities depository and clearing house).

Stefano Mazzocchi is Director for Advocacy at AFME's Brussels Office. Stefano has spent the past two years as a Policy Advisor in the Regulatory Affairs Department at the Institute of International Finance in Washington. Prior to his work at the IIF, for six years Mr. Mazzocchi has worked for Intesa Sanpaolo’s International Regulatory and Antitrust Affairs office as a Regulatory Advisor. He spent five years at the European Parliament (1999-2004) as an Economic Advisor in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. In recent years he has also been a regular contributor for a number of Italian newspapers on key political and regulatory developments in the EU. Mr. Mazzocchi is an economist by training. He has a degree in Economics from the Università Politecnica delle Marche and a Master in Finance from Solvay Business School – Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Richard Middleton is a managing director with responsibility for the Tax division and the Accounting division. Prior to joining AFME, Richard held line roles in industry – he was an executive director at GE and a senior managing director at Bear Stearns – having started his career at Ernst & Young, where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Richard was previously a Fellow in Mathematics at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University, from which he holds an MA and a DPhil.

Oliver Moullin is a director in the Prudential Regulation Division where he works in the Resolution and Crisis Management team, focusing on issues relating to the recovery and resolution of financial institutions. Oliver is a qualified solicitor and prior to joining AFME he was a Senior Associate at international law firm Hogan Lovells where he worked in the restructuring and insolvency team. Oliver's experience includes advising on restructurings and insolvencies of large companies and financial institutions. He has advised numerous stakeholders in relation to issues arising out of many of the largest insolvencies during the financial crisis including Lehman Brothers, MF Global, the Icelandic banks and Irish banks. Oliver has a law degree from the University of Bristol.

Denis O'Connor is secretary to the Internal Audit and the Administration Boards of AFME. He also leads for AFME on Financial Crime matters. After concentrating on a financial reporting role, Denis has gained extensive experience of Conduct of Business issues in major wholesale financial services firms. Immediately prior to joining AFME in April 2010, Denis mainly focused, for a number of years, on Financial Crime issues. He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. Denis has a Masters Degree in the Sociology of Sport and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Sports Law.

Michael Percival joined AFME in July 2011 and is a director in AFME's Prudential Regulation Division where he is focused on capital and liquidity requirements. Michael has economics and law degrees, and completed a specialist financial services MBA in 2009. Prior to joining AFME Michael was Senior Manager, Capital Markets and Risk at the Irish Banking Federation. At the IBF Michael's focus was on regulatory policy and prudential issues, including capital and liquidity regulation. As well as this he dealt with issues relating to debt capital markets, including government guaranteed debt, covered bonds, and securitisation.

Pedro Pinto is Director for Advocacy at AFME's Brussels Office. Pedro has more than 12 years’ experience working in the financial services industry. Prior to his current position he worked at NYSE Euronext where he headed the Legal and Regulatory department in Lisbon for 6 years. Mr. Pinto held these responsibilities in conjunction with his position as Chief Compliance Officer for the NYSE Euronext Lisbon market. From 2002 to 2005, he was a Senior Legal and Regulatory Counsel at Euronext and Euronext Lisbon Corporate Secretary. Prior to that, Mr. Pinto was the Portuguese representative at the Federation of European Stock Exchanges’ Working Committee and Senior Counsel at the former Lisbon and Porto Exchanges. Pedro started his career as a Lawyer in a Portuguese law firm alongside a tenure as a lecturer in economics at the Law School of the University of Lisbon. Mr. Pinto is a lawyer by training with a degree in law and post graduated studies in Securities Law from the Law School of the University of Lisbon and executive management studies at the INSEAD and at the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.

Philip Read is a Director in the Compliance Policy team and is secretary to AFME's Compliance Board. He leads for AFME on European issues regarding the Dodd-Frank Act and Short Selling. Prior to joining AFME, Philip worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a regulatory focus role within the internal audit department. He has also worked in a regulatory developments role within Northen Trust's compliance department and prior to that, Philip was at the FSA in a policy role for five years where he worked on the implementation of MiFID into the FSA's handbook. Philip is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), where he sits on a number of syllabus review committee and acts as workbook author for a number of their regulatory exams.

Sander Schol is a director at AFME where he is responsible for the rates business. The rates business consists of the European Primary Dealers sub-committee and the Global Rates Board. Prior to joining AFME in 2009, Mr Schol worked at the Dutch State Treasury Agency where he held positions in trading, policy and risk management. Mr Schol obtained a masters degree in International Relations/ International Economics at the Rijks Groningen in the Netherlands.

Gary Simmons is the director of the AFME High Yield division, for which he leads AFME’s efforts to lower costs and increase efficiency in the execution of high yield transactions, and lobbies for the reform of corporate insolvency laws. Mr. Simmons is a New York-qualified lawyer and was previously a senior associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. After an initial period in New York, Gary spent several years in London, gaining extensive experience in cross border and emerging markets debt transactions, particularly high yield bond issuances and leveraged loans. Gary has a Juris Doctor from Rutgers University School of Law (with honors) and a Bachelor of Arts (with highest honors) from Rutgers University. Following law school, he was a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Walls of the United States Federal District Court, District of New Jersey.

Gilbey Strub is managing director in the Prudential division, for which she leads AFME’s work on bank recovery and resolution as well as the corporate insolvency work for AFME’s high yield division. Gilbey is a UK- and New York-qualified lawyer with 20 years experience as a lawyer including as a partner of the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis where she represented private equity sponsors in leveraged buyouts and high yield debt offerings. In 2006 Gilbey became the first managing director of the European High Yield Association (EHYA), a joint sellside-buyside trade body representing the European high yield market. The EHYA was merged into AFME in 2010 becoming the High Yield Division of AFME. Gilbey has a Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Iowa (with distinction) and a Bachelor of Arts (French) from the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts. Following law school, she was a law clerk to the Honorable Justice Linda K Newman of the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa.

Angela Teke is Managing Director, Compliance, in the AFME Policy Division. She leads AFME’s work on a wide range of conduct of business, investor protection and supervisory engagement issues. Angela represents AFME in a number of national and international industry fora and working groups and is actively engaged in the policy formation process at the domestic and EU level. Prior to joining AFME, Angela was Head of Regulatory Liaison & Horizon Risk for the Wealth and International Division of Lloyds Banking Group, where she had divisional oversight responsibility for global regulatory risk issues and acted as the key point of contact for the FSA including the coordination of the divisional ARROW programme and thematic reviews. Previously, Angela worked at UBS Investment Bank as a compliance officer for EMEA strategic and regulatory initiatives with a specific focus on project-managing the UBS Compliance MiFID 1 Implementation Project. She also spent a number of years at the British Bankers Association (BBA), where she held the position of Policy Director for Wholesale Banking and Regulation. Angela began her career at Barclays Bank. She holds an MA Joint Honours degree in Management and Economics from St. Andrews University, is Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and Fellow of the International Compliance Association.