Announcement

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The FSXpert Group is pleased to announce further growth of its membership with the recent addition of Stephen Griffiths, David Jubb, Howard Trust and Simon Radford. The Group now consists of 45 Financial Services Experts, covering the full spectrum of expertise across the sector, including banking, investment banking, crypto, blockchain, investment management, property investments, and insurance broking and underwriting.

Stephen Griffiths has over 30 years’ experience with private banks specialising in credit products and underwriting. The majority of Stephen's career was with Coutts & Co, both in London and in Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich), before moving on to Union Bancaire Privee and Barclays Bank AG in Geneva. He has held senior positions both as Head of the Credit Sales Team and also as Head of a Credit Risk function sanctioning large and complex lending proposals for high net worth clients for a global client base. Stephen has specialist knowledge of mortgage finance in UK, Switzerland, Monaco and France and the regulation involved, together with full experience of lending against liquid investments.

Stephen has worked closely with auditors and regulators, both internally and externally, providing advice and guidance on treating clients fairly, lending decisions and documentation.

David Jubb has over three decades of experience in investment management. From 2006 to 2023 he played pivotal roles in building two multi-asset teams, at Standard Life Investments and Invesco. He was a lead fund manager for these funds, both of which exceeded £20bn in AUM, and has wide experience dealing with a range of clients, including IFAs, pension trustees, wealth managers and investment consultants. His background in macroeconomic research, quantitative analysis and derivatives across all major asset classes was important to his contribution to developing investment ideas and scenario planning for these funds.

The earlier years of investment experience at Standard Life were spent managing UK index linked bond funds and a portfolio of fixed income derivatives, followed by a spell in investment strategy where asset allocation model building was a strong focus.

More recently David has set up Edinburgh Financial Analytics, aiming to deliver high quality investment analytics direct to a retail audience.

He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Howard Trust is the former Group General Counsel and was a member of the Group Management Committee at Schroders until May 2023, with responsibility for the Compliance, Legal and Governance function. He joined Schroders in 2003 and was based in London. He then became General Counsel – Regulatory and Corporate Advisory until he retired from Schroders at the end of March 2024.

With an MA from Cambridge University, Howard qualified as a Solicitor at Lovells in 1983 before joining Morgan Grenfell in 1985. In 1989 he joined Barclays, holding various roles including Group General Counsel and Board Secretary.

Howard’s experience covers capital markets products, disputes and investigations and M&A.

During his career, Howard has been involved in resolving a wide range of disputes around the world, often requiring an expert view on legal, regulatory, financial, insurance and duty of care matters. He has worked with clients, counterparties, regulators, policy makers and insurers to clarify the scope of respective responsibilities and the scope for rejection or settlement.

Simon Radford has 40 years’ experience in both direct and indirect property investment. He has been a director with NatWest Investment Management and Gartmore Investment Management where he developed the core/active investment strategy to provide investors with exposure to the UK and European property markets, through the launch of Lothbury Property Trust in 2000, the European Property Fund in 2006 and the Secure Income Fund in 2011.

Thereafter, until 2023, Simon Radford was Chief Executive of Lothbury Investment Management, where he oversaw the Investment Management team and was a member of the LIM Board and the Risk Committee. Simon also had executive responsibility for all LIM funds, with each fund possessing an independent Board responsible for corporate governance and approval of the fund’s annual investment strategy plan. He was also a director of Irish Property Unit Trust (IPUT plc) 2011 – 2021.

Simon has been a member of the Governing Council of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) since September 2023. He is a past chair of the RICS London branch and a founding director of The Association of Real Estate Funds.

The expertise of these additional Experts has significantly enhanced the experience across the Group, especially in the fields of credit products, mortgage finance, investment management, macroeconomic research, quantitative analysis, derivatives, legal, regulatory, duty of care matters, property investment and property markets in the UK and Europe.

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 evidence and independence of thought, based on extensive personal experience.