Mark Austen
Mark Austen oversees the Business Policy Units and is Managing Director of the Rates Division. Prior to joining AFME, Mr. Austen worked for MTS Group, the European trading platform for fixed income securities, where he was head of Legal and Compliance. Prior to MTS, he spent three years as head of an international environmental web portal. He is a member of the Canadian Bar and holds an LLM from the London School of Economics; an LLB from Osgoode Law School, Toronto; and a BA (Hons) from McMaster University, Ontario. Contact
Peter Beales
Peter Beales leads AFME's Policy and Advocacy section, with Compliance as his specialist area. His previous career included working for the Bank of England, 1977-1985; FCO (UKREP), 1985-1987; and the British Bankers Association, 1987-1992. He is currently a Member of the Financial Markets Law Committee, the Banking Act Banking Liaison Panel, and the Complinet Editorial Board. Contact
Lorraine Charlton
Lorraine Charlton is Managing Director of the Equity Capital Markets Division, as well as AFME's General Counsel. Previously, Ms Charlton worked for the Office of the Legal Advisor in Asmara, Eritrea, where she was Deputy Legal Advisor to the Office of the President of Eritrea. Prior to that, she practised in the London office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where she focused on international capital markets, primarily representing underwriters in high yield debt transactions and acquisition finance. Ms Charlton arrived in London in 1998 after working as an associate in the Brussels and New York offices of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from New York University School of Law in 1995. Contact
William J. Ferrari
Bill Ferrari acts 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. Contact
Werner Frey
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. Contact
Ian Harrison
Ian Harrison is the Director responsible for Tax, VAT, and Accounting. His previous experience includes a range of senior financial management positions with Courtaulds, where he was Group Financial Controller and Company Secretary, and with Unilever, and as well as periods in management consulting, in corporate planning, and as a visiting lecturer at a leading US business school. Educated at Heidelberg University and Balliol College, Oxford, he holds a BA degree and a post-graduate Diploma in Advanced Mathematics; he has also attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. Contact
Mark Hart
Mark Hart joined AFME in February 2010 and is the Managing Director covering European Policy Analysis. Prior to joining AFME Mark had a professional compliance career in London working for a number of the most successful global investment banking institutions. He was responsible for the provision of compliance services for Investment Banking, Asset Management, Private Banking and Group Products and has led regional and global Compliance organisational structures. He has experience across all aspects of the Compliance discipline and specialist knowledge in derivatives and regulatory policy. Mark is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Economics. Contact
Diane Hilleard
Diane Hilleard co-leads AFME's work on prudential regulatory issues. Her primary areas of responsibility are the credit risk related areas of the Capital Requirements Directive and Basel II - including large exposures, credit risk mitigation, securitisation, and associated Pillar 3 disclosures – regulatory reporting, and issues that impact the accounting/regulatory boundary. She is also co-leads on issues of macro-prudential supervision, including systemically important firms and counter-cyclical measures. Previously she spent seven years at the FSA and three years at the Bank of England, in their respective prudential policy divisions. As a manager at the FSA she was part of the UK's negotiation team for the revised Basel Accord and CRD and led the initial implementation work on the credit risk framework. She is also a Chartered Accountant. Contact
Rob McIvor
Rob McIvor is Director of Communications and joined AFME in February 2010. He has more than 20 years' experience in corporate communications, including six years at the Financial Services Authority, where he was Head of Media Relations. He moved to Citgroup in 2006 to become a Managing Director, Corporate Affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. After leaving Citigroup in 2008 he worked as a consultant, mainly in the financial servces sector, including a period as Interim Head of External Relations for Barclays Global Retail and Commercial Banking. Contact
Denis O'Connor
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. Contact
Val Price
Val Price joined AFME on 1 November 2009 to look after the Tax and VAT Committees. She has over 30 years experience working in what is now HM Revenue and Customs. Among many other roles, Ms Price had technical specialist responsibility for Employee Share Scheme legislation during the 1990s. Recent senior positions have included Case Director experience for major international insurance groups, and Sector Lead for the Banking Sector within the Large Business Office. Contact
John Serocold
John Serocold leads AFME's work on Equities and Prime Services business issues, including market structure, market data and exchange fees questions, and the AIF Directive. John has acted as secretary to the Committees responsible for Securities Trading and Clearing and Settlement, as well as Prime Brokerage and Corporate Finance. His Equities responsibilities included securities trading and clearing and settlement issues, as well as work on possible exchange consolidation, exchange fees, conflicts of interest, and enhanced disclosure of broking commission and market abuse questions. He also contributed to work on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). Previously, John worked on IT and regulatory issues in the fields of securities trading and settlement, both independently and as a Senior Executive at the Securities and Investments Board. During a short period at the Bank of England as an Adviser in the Financial Markets and Institutions Division, he focused on equity capital market issues, drawing on six years' experience as a corporate broker. He qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and practised company and commercial law for three years, having taken an MA degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford University. Contact
Gilbey Strub
Gilbey Strub is Managing Director of the Leveraged Finance Division. Ms. Strub is a UK- and US-qualified lawyer with 15 years of legal experience. Previously she was a partner of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she represented private equity sponsors in leveraged buyouts. She came to London in 1998 from Washington, D.C., to build Kirkland's European high yield debt practice, and joined AFME's predecessor organisation, SIFMA, in 2006. Contact
Rick Watson
Rick Watson is Chief Operating Officer of AFME and Managing Director of the Securitisation Division. Previously, Mr. Watson was Managing Director, Structured Finance, for FGIC UK Limited. Prior to joining FGIC, Watson was Head of ABS and CDOs at HSBC Bank plc, where he led a pan-European team of originators of consumer, corporate, CLO, and other structured finance products. He held a similar position at Bear Stearns in London and was previously an Executive Director at UBS Limited. Prior to that he was employed at Morgan Stanley and Freddie Mac. Watson received an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. In January 2006, he co-edited the Euromoney Books publication "Asset Securitisation and Synthetic Structures: Innovation in the European Credit Markets." Contact