The FS Expert Group is pleased to announce further growth of its membership with the recent addition of Michael Tripp, Scott Evans, Rick Seehra and Rod Martenstyn. The Group now consists of nearly 60 Financial Services Experts, covering the full spectrum of expertise across the sector, including insurance, banking, investment banking, investment management, fund management, valuation, capital raising, risk management and compliance.
Michael Tripp has worked in the insurance and actuarial industry for over 40 years. His experience has covered strategic and operational leadership as well as marketing, underwriting, pricing, planning, financial/risk management, and operational responsibilities. In addition he has had international responsibilities including Europe, Asia, Australia & Canada. His most recent position was with Mazars LLP where he was the partner leading the UK Insurance Sector and Actuarial Team.
Michael has experience of general insurance from specialist covers to personal areas. As Group CEO at Ecclesiastical Insurance he has initiated culture change and performance management. He also has life assurance and audit support experience (where he provided actuarial input) including being the Chair of Ecclesiastical Life Ltd and actuarial lead for an audit of AXA UK.
He has previously been an expert witness, looking at consumer value, portfolio transfers, governance effectiveness and regulatory risk management.
Michael has been the Chair of a range of Insurance Brokers; a Council member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries; and is currently on several insurance company boards, including SID and Audit Committee Chair of Fidelis Underwriting Ltd.
Scott Evans is a former investment banker and academic focused on equity research and financial analysis. Following twenty years working at a senior level at a number of global investment banks, Scott founded SEAL Advisors, a specialist consultancy providing research and valuation advisory to corporates, law firms, and institutional investors.
Scott has held lectureships at the University of Oxford, the University of Birmingham and research positions at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the former Institute of Economics and Statistics, Oxford.
More recently he has been a visiting lecturer in economics and finance at Brunel University London and currently has a research role at London Business School and is a consultant to Deutsche Bank Index Quant (DBIQ) on the production of UK equity indices.
Rick Seehra is an experienced financial services professional specialising in prudential risk management and compliance. This was expertise he developed during his time at Standard Chartered Bank, BDO, and the FCA/PRA.
Rick built the Prudential Risk and Compliance Practice at Bovill Newgate Ltd. As an expert in MIFIDPRU, he delivered IFPR compliance, risk management frameworks, ICARAs, and wind-down plans to hundreds of investment firms. Rick currently serves as Director at Tesaka Ltd. a boutique consulting firm.
Rick held a senior role in Group Treasury at Standard Chartered Bank for four years, where he developed the group’s recovery plan, including recovery options, crisis MI, and scenario analysis. He conducted live crisis management simulations to test and improve Group ExCo’s decision-making in that situation.
At BDO, he drafted capital and liquidity documents (ICAAP and ILAAP), risk management frameworks, risk appetite statements, and recovery plans for a variety of banks. He led an assurance review for a UK challenger bank, covering governance processes, risk management and compliance.
Rick has supported senior managers of mid-tier banks, investment firms, and payments firms by providing training on prudential risk and regulation. He has provided coaching on the PRA’s interview process to incoming Senior Management Functions including CEO, CFO, and Audit Committee Chair, resulting in successful appointments to UK banks.
Rod Martenstyn is an accountant with over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. He has held leadership positions within both Retail and Institutional Investment Brokerages, as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Compliance Director and MLRO. He has also been a prudential regulation advisor to the Board of a Retail Bank.
During this time, he sat on numerous committees including Board, Executive, Compliance, Audit and Risk, Client Money, and Remuneration.
He has extensive experience in conduct compliance and prudential regulation such as the Capital Requirements Regulation and Investment Firms Prudential Regime, as well as the Client Assets (CASS) regime. His specialist area is prudential regulation, including preparing and reviewing ICAAPs, ICARAs, Risk Management Frameworks (including Capital and Liquidity) and Client Assets Frameworks.
He is currently an independent Non-Executive Director of a global investment brokerage firm and sits on their Board.
The expertise of these additional Experts has significantly enhanced the experience across the Group, especially in the fields of insurance, actuarial processes, investment banking, prudential risk management, compliance and prudential regulation.
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.
February 2025
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