The FS Expert Group is pleased to announce further growth of its membership with the recent addition of Tanek Amin, Richard Close-Smith, Robin Oliver and Ray Lennard. The Group now consists of nearly 40 Financial Services Experts, covering the full spectrum of expertise across the sector, including banking, investment banking, insurance and investment business.
The expertise of these additional Experts has significantly enhanced the experience across the Group, especially in the fields of insurance broking, personal investment services, private family office management, private equity and venture capital management, valuation and investment transactions.
Tanek Amin is an investment executive at a private family office where he advises on all aspects of corporate finance and capital markets for new and current investments and works with operational teams at investment entities on business strategy execution.
He works on transaction management for venture capital and private equity transactions. This includes working closely with the finance directors of portfolio investments, and their audit and tax advisors, whilst also working with business unit heads on the operational side of the portfolio investment businesses, in R & D, production, manufacturing and HR.
Tanek was previously an investment banker with Merrill Lynch and Jefferies International based in New York and London in the Mergers and Acquisitions department of both firms and executed over $20 billion in M and A transactions and associated equity and debt financings.
He began his career at the World Bank in Washington and was focused on macro-economic policy and financial sector policy for both the Africa region and the East Asia & Pacific region.
Richard Close-Smith is an exceptionally experienced Marine Insurance broker, having spent over 45 years working for Willis Towers Watson, formerly Willis Faber & Dumas, where he led the Marine Hull Broking Team and represented a wide portfolio of major international ship owner clients.
Richard is qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute; he was a member of the General Committee of Lloyd’s Register and he chaired the Marine Executive of the London Market Insurance Brokers’ Committee. He was also a trustee of WTW’s substantial DB Pension Scheme for ten years.
Richard has a deep knowledge of both the Lloyd’s Marine Insurance Market and the International Shipping Market. This is coupled with his widely respected experience of the interaction between those markets and in particular the scope (and limitations) of the role of an international insurance broker.
Ray Lennard qualified as a Personal Financial Planner in 1992 with Allied Dunbar (Zurich). He developed a successful business, with a varied mix of personal and corporate clients. Having established his clients’ needs, attitude to investment risk and capacity for loss, he then recommended solutions across all areas for retirement, protection and investment.
In 2004, Ray became a partner in St. James’s Place Wealth Management, where he continued to expand his practice, as well as gaining a Diploma in Personal Financial Services (DipPFS), providing advice in all areas of financial planning, while specialising in inheritance tax, trusts, pension transfers and retirement.
Robin Oliver has spent nearly 30 years in the financial services industry, covering a wide range of activities and services. He has headed up compliance, financial crime and risk divisions throughout that time, holding CF10 and CF11 positions and latterly SMF16 and SMF17 roles. He has worked for a wide range of companies in the investment industry, including Citi, State Street, ICAP and Standard Chartered, having started his career at Clerical Medical.
He has worked with regulators in the UK and abroad, having led teams in the EMEA and European regions for much of his career. Robin has also completed significant work in establishing effective trade and communications surveillance capabilities and is very well versed in the expectations of regulators on this topic.
Robin is a seasoned strategic leader who has led a number of significant change programmes, especially in respect of major regulatory innovations.
In welcoming these Experts to the Group, Oliver Lodge, Managing Director, said “The experience and expertise of these additions to the Group make a further contribution to what is already a group of exceptional depth and breadth across the financial services sector. The expertise that we are able to offer to litigants and others provides world-class credibility as well as highly respected independence of perspective. We know that solicitors and their clients need that credibility from Experts and that the courts require that independence. Solicitors also need to find the right Expert and do not want to spend weeks of their valuable time in the process. Our Group of Experts provides an easily and swiftly accessible resource of financial services expertise. As we continue to grow our Group, we are delighted to welcome our newly joined Experts.”
The FS Expert Group focuses entirely on the financial services sector and provides expertise to litigants and others engaged in disputes and investigations relating to this leading professional sector in the UK and globally. In court, the Group provides expert witness evidence and independence of thought, based on extensive personal experience.