Ben started as a corporate M&A lawyer at Simmons & Simmons after completing his Law degree at Chester College of Law. After leaving Simmons & Simmons Ben worked as Head of M&A Legal, EMEA for Lehman Brothers until 2008.

Following the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, he was appointed Head of ECM Execution for EMEA at Barclays, a position which he held for 6 years. Since then, Ben has held a number of senior roles within Investment Banking at Barclays and is currently Head of Corporate Finance Transaction Governance in which role he provides execution advice on large, complex M&A, ECM and DCM transactions.

Ben also acts as chair of a number of internal ECM and M&A transaction approval committees, the UK Sponsor Committee, the Global Equity Financing Commitment Committee and the EMEA reputational risk committee. Ben was instrumental in setting up, and now chairs, the EMEA Solutions Forum which comprises a group of Banking product experts who meet to brainstorm solutions to complex client financing needs.

As Head of ECM Execution, Ben and his team worked on many notable ECM transactions including Nomad Holdings Ltd ($485m IPO), Barclays Plc (£6.1 billion, Rights Issue), Merlin Entertainments Plc (£1.1 billion, IPO), Lloyds Bank Plc (£13.5 billion, Rights Issue) and Enel Green Power (2.5 billion euros) IPO.

Ben’s expertise makes him a valuable part of AFME’s Equity Capital Markets committee, where he serves as Chairperson.

Erik is a Managing Director and the Head of EMEA Legal for the Investment Banking and Capital Markets division of Credit Suisse. He is responsible for providing legal coverage for a range of investment banking products, including debt capital markets, equity capital markets, leveraged finance and mergers and acquisitions.

Erik joined Credit Suisse in 2009. Previously he was at Herbert Smith (London) and Skadden Arps (New York). He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) and the University of California, Berkeley (J.D.).

Gary is the Managing 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. He also heads the AFME Prime Services division, which monitors business, legal and regulatory issues affecting the prime brokerage industry, and provides advocacy for member positions.
He 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 honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (with highest honours) from Rutgers University. Following law school, he was a law clerk to the Honourable William H. Walls of the United States Federal District Court, District of New Jersey.

Helena leads on BNPP AM’S policy and stewardship activities (engagement with companies, proxy voting ) on Sustainability, including engagement with policymakers. As Deputy Global Head of Sustainability, Helena plays a critical role in the design, development and implementation of BNPP AM’s Global Sustainability Strategy. She was appointed to the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance whose role is to assist the European Commission in the development of EU taxonomy and the implementation of the EC Action Plan as well as to the AMF Comite de Climat et Finance Durable. She also represents BNPP AM in the EFAMA committee on Stewardship and ESG, is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), and a sits on a number of additional committees, including the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Green Finance Advisory Group, PRI Policy Reference Group and the Technical Advisory Group of the LSE-led Transition Pathway Initiative. She has seventeen years’ experience of working in responsible business and sustainable investment. Helena joined the firm in 2011 and led the Sustainability Research team until 2019.

Previously, Helena led Oxfam's advocacy work on responsible investment and engagement with institutional investors in support of poverty reduction. She is the author of numerous papers and articles, including a book. She earned a BA in Economics and a postgraduate in Latin American Economics from the University of Barcelona (Spain), followed by an MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

James is a corporate and equity capital markets partner based in the London office. Through his experience acting on public offerings and corporate transactions by public companies in multiple jurisdictions, and regularly providing advice to boards, senior executives and members of the investment and advisory community, he has built a wealth of knowledge and practical experience of corporate governance and an understanding of the myriad of ESG related issues that organisations face.

James is recognised by both Chambers and Legal 500 as a leading individual for ECM.

Jason is widely regarded as a leading capital markets lawyer, and is Global Co-head of the Firm’s Equities practice. He advises clients on the life cycle of their equity capital markets activities, from early stage fundraising through to IPOs and secondary market capital raisings, including Accelerated Bookbuildings (ABBs) and rights issues, as well as cross-border M&A and debt capital market transactions. He is global co-head of the firm’s Equities practice.
Jason has led the teams on many of the firm’s most complex cross-border capital markets transactions, and has developed particular expertise advising EMEA issuers, financial sponsors, family offices and investment banks in connection with listings in the UK, Benelux and MENA regions.
Jason’s experience spans many industry sectors, with particular expertise in fintech, financial services, retail and industrials.

Marta is an Executive Director in the EMEA ECM execution team at J.P. Morgan. Arteaga has been at the bank for more than 6 years and has worked in various capabilities within the equity capital markets team including both origination and execution roles. Before joining J.P. Morgan in 2014, Arteaga spent four years in the leveraged finance team at UBS.

Matt Townsend is a Partner specialising in a range of ESG compliance and trade-related issues including environmental risks; climate change; supply chain risk management; carbon trading; corporate reporting and disclosure; risk governance frameworks; anti-bribery/AML compliance; and international trade matters.
He acts for a range of cross-sector corporates and financial investors on these issues and has, for a number of years, supported clients in the implementation of their ESG programs. He is also a member of a group of Allen & Overy Partners advising on Brexit contingency planning.
He is widely recognised as one of Europe’s leading regulatory compliance lawyers.

Tonia is an Associate Director at the Policy Division of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), representing the pan-European wholesale capital markets industry. Tonia leads AFME’s work programmes in Sustainable Finance and Financial Reporting helping to bring industry insights into the development of European policy in these thematic areas.
In the past, being a Certified Public Accountant in the US, Tonia worked for large public accounting and consulting firms for more than 8 years. She managed a wide spectrum of external assurance and consulting projects across both emerging and developed markets and is specialising primarily in banking and capital markets sector.