MFA UK Member Summit 2024 - Agenda
September 26, 2024
Conference
No. 4 Hamilton Place
London
Thursday, September 26
2:30pm - 3:00pm
Arrivals and Networking
3:00pm - 3:05pm
Welcome Remarks
Speaker
Jillien Flores
,
Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Head of Global Government Affairs
,
MFA
Jillien Flores serves as Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Head of Global Government Affairs at MFA.
Flores joined MFA after six years at Vanguard, one of the world’s leading asset managers. There, she advocated before Washington policymakers on a range of issues related to US capital markets, tax, and retirement policy. Leveraging policy depth, strategy, and relationships, Flores achieved policy outcomes beneficial to Vanguard’s clients on issues including equity market structure, ESG and corporate governance, and systemic risk.
Throughout her career, Flores has sought opportunities to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the financial services sector, serving in leadership roles of related efforts at Vanguard.
Prior to joining Vanguard, Flores was Director of Government Relations at Porterfield, Lowenthal, Fettig & Sears, where she represented clients before Congress and the federal financial regulators in the asset management, insurance, securities, and biotechnology sectors. She was involved in the legislative and rule-writing process for several financial services laws and regulations, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.
Flores earned a B.A. from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
3:05pm - 3:35pm
Navigating Global Markets: The Economic Outlook for Asset Management
Speaker
Janet Henry
,
Global Chief Economist
,
HSBC
Janet Henry was appointed as HSBC’s Global Chief Economist in August 2015 and is responsible for all of HSBC’s economic forecasts and thematic economic research output globally. She was previously HSBC’s Chief European Economist. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, her work has focused on the labour market implications, evolving inflation dynamics and policy challenges in a world facing geopolitical tensions, protectionism, new innovations and enormous demographic and climate challenges. Janet is a Governor of the UK’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Chief Economists Community and a Non-Executive Director of HSBC Bank UK plc. She has given evidence to the financial committees of the EU Parliament on China and UK House of Lords on Europe. Janet joined HSBC in 1996 in Hong Kong where she worked as an Asian economist in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the Asian crisis.
Sonali Punhani
,
UK Economist
,
Bank of America
Sonali Punhani is a UK economist and director in the European Economics team at Bank of America. Prior to joining Bank of America in 2024, she was a European economist at UBS. Punhani was previously the Head of UK Economics and a Director in the European Economics team at Credit Suisse, where she also worked in the Global Demographics and Pensions Research team. Punhani was awarded an MSc (Finance and Economics) with Distinction from the London School of Economics. She also has a BA (Honours) degree in Economics from the University of Delhi and is a CFA Charterholder. She is based in London.
Speaker
Nora Richardson
,
Vice President, Membership & Investor Services
,
MFA
Prior to joining MFA, Nora was at Bank of America Securities as a Director in the Prime Brokerage Business Consulting team. Prior to that, Nora worked in both the U.S. and London offices of Bank of America as a prime brokerage account manager. She has more than thirteen years of experience serving equity, multi-strategy, and quantitative hedge funds of various sizes from new launches and emerging managers to institutionalized funds.
Nora graduated with honors from Fairfield University with a B.S. in mathematics and economics.
3:35pm - 4:00pm
Pathways to Success: Decoding Policy Priorities
Speakers
Jon May
,
Partner, Group General Counsel
,
Marshall Wace
Jon May is Group General Counsel and Global Head of Legal and Compliance at Marshall Wace, with responsibility for all legal and compliance matters relating to the Marshall Wace group and its funds. Jon joined Marshall Wace in 2005 and was made a partner of the firm in 2010. He is a member of the firm’s Partnership Management Committee.
Prior to joining Marshall Wace, Jon worked at Man Investments as a Manager within the Product Structuring team. He also worked at Simmons & Simmons, qualifying as a solicitor in the Financial Services group where he specialised in the establishment of hedge funds and the provision of regulatory advice to investment managers. Jon holds a BA (Hons) in Law from St John’s College, Cambridge.
Jon is a Director and Committee Member of the Financial Markets Law Committee and is a Global Director of AIMA.
Leonard Ng
,
Partner
,
Sidley Austin LLP
LEONARD NG is a member of Sidley Austin LLP’s Executive Committee and heads the firm’s UK/EU Financial Services Regulatory Group. Based in the firm’s London office, Leonard advises a wide range of global financial institutions on complex UK/EU financial services regulatory issues. He has particular experience in advising clients on operating under the regulatory framework established after the last financial crisis, and more recently on Brexit, sustainable finance/ESG, and crypto-asset regulation. Leonard is a past member of the Board of MFA, the trade association for the global alternative asset management industry, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Leonard has received acknowledgements from numerous industry ranking guides, including Chambers UK (2012–2024). In 2022 and again in 2023, Leonard was selected by Financial News as one of Financial News’ ‘Fifty Most Influential Lawyers’. Leonard earned a LLB from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and an LLM from the University of Chicago Law School.
Tanuja Sharma
,
Chief Compliance Officer, EMEA
,
Citadel
Moderated by
Rob Hailey
,
Managing Director, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Government Affairs
,
MFA
Rob Hailey serves as Managing Director, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Government Affairs at MFA.
Based in the UK, Rob leads MFA’s London office and oversees the work of colleagues in Brussels, representing MFA’s global presence. Working in conjunction with US-based colleagues, he engages with policymakers in the region to advance MFA members’ advocacy goals.
Rob joined MFA in May 2024 from Bank of America, where he led the bank’s government affairs activities in the UK and Ireland, building the brand with policymakers and advocating on post-Brexit capital markets reform. Previously he spent a decade at the UK’s largest high street bank, Lloyds Banking Group plc, leading a team focused on a wide range of public policy issues, policy research, EU affairs, and regulatory affairs during a critical period for the bank as it successfully emerged from partial public ownership.
Rob has nearly twenty years’ experience in the financial services sector, having held government affairs roles at the Spanish bank, Banco Santander, in London and Madrid and at the British bank, HBOS plc. He combines this experience – working on retail, commercial and investment banking as well as insurance and pensions policy – with a deep understanding of the UK and EU policymaking processes. His career started with a period working in the European Parliament in Brussels, in a Westminster-based think tank and in consultancy.
Rob has a degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
4:05pm - 4:20pm
Networking Break
4:20pm - 4:40pm
The Future of UK Policy for Alternative Investments
Speaker
Alistair Strathern MP
,
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor
4:40pm - 5:15pm
Ballots and Bottom Lines: The Business Impact of Global Elections
Speakers
Hunter Landrum
,
Associate General Counsel
,
Two Sigma
Hunter Landrum serves as Associate General Counsel at Two Sigma, an investment manager specializing in trading assets in liquid global markets across a range of conditions using a disciplined, scientific approach. Hunter is responsible for the firm’s engagement with governments and regulators as well as litigation and enforcement matters. Hunter serves as Chair of the MFA’s EMEA-APAC Forum and is an active participant in the global financial regulatory community. He is currently based in London having previously practiced in New York City and Washington D.C.
Hunter joined the firm in 2015. Before joining Two Sigma, Hunter was an attorney at WilmerHale in Washington D.C. In this role, he focused on government affairs and representing international financial institutions in high-profile investigations before a variety of domestic and international regulators. Hunter holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alabama.
Philip Snape
,
Co-Founder, Director
,
Impact Social
Phillip worked in Lord William Hague’s Business Liaison Unit in the late 1990s before becoming political and policy adviser to the Chairman of Dixons Group PLC, Lord Kalms, where he helped run the successful campaign against UK entry into the Euro. He returned to the centre of the Conservative Party in 2004 as adviser to the Party Treasurer under Iain Duncan Smith.
He then spent 10 years running his own lobbying firm, PSA Communications, before co-founding Impact Social which pioneered a methodology aimed at providing a unique insight into social media conversations. Impact Social enjoys working with a variety of political and corporate clients and operates in Europe, Africa, Middle East and America.
Phillip is a member of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts and is sits on the Board of the Enterprise Forum.
John Watts
,
Managing Partner
,
Forward Global
John Watts heads Forward Global United Kingdom office. John advises governments, corporations, NGOs and high-profile individuals on campaigns, communications, digital engagement and litigation support services.
John Watts was part of Sir Keir Starmer’s 2024 election campaign team heading one of Sir Keir’s advance teams for events and visits.
John was a Special Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street as well as Director of Conferences and Events for the British Labour Party.
John has managed communication and public affairs consultancies in the United Kingdom, Middle East and East Asia for 17 years working on elections and campaigns, country branding, crisis communications, litigation communications, cultural dialogue and public diplomacy.
Moderated by
Anna Maleva-Otto
,
Partner, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
Anna Maleva-Otto concentrates her practice on a range of UK financial services regulatory matters, including the impact of EU directives and regulations. She advises on all aspects of the establishment and operation of FCA-regulated businesses in the United Kingdom, as well as trading on UK and EU markets. Anna frequently participates in industry working groups in connection with new and emerging regulatory initiatives, and has advised asset managers on several key pieces of recent EU legislation (including GDPR, Short Selling Regulation, AIFMD, MiFID II, MAR, EMIR, SFTR and Securitisation Regulation). Anna also frequently assists clients with the design of their compliance policies and procedures, internal investigations and staff training.
Anna is listed in The Legal 500 UK as a “Leading Individual” in Investment Fund Formation and Management — Hedge Funds and a “Recommended” lawyer in Financial Services: Non-Contentious Regulatory. An interviewee described her as “excellent — highly responsive, well informed and pragmatic in her advice, and a pleasure to work with.” She has also been named among the world’s “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” by The Hedge Fund Journal. Anna frequently speaks and writes on topics related to her areas of expertise. For the past three years, Anna has co-authored the UK chapter in the Chambers Alternative Funds Guide — a guide examining key industry trends and regulatory and tax matters impacting funds, managers and investors. Anna has also worked with AIMA to produce MiFID2 — A Guide for Investment Managers and authored the “Insider Trading Law in the United Kingdom” chapter in the Insider Trading Law and Compliance Answer Book (Practising Law Institute). Her recent speaking engagements have addressed topics such as market abuse, insider dealing, best practices for electronic communications and MiFID II. Anna is admitted to practice in England and Wales, and New York.
