08:15 Registration and Breakfast
09:00 Welcome & Conference Introduction
Jeff Scott, Board Chairman, NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services Ltd
09:10 Welcome from Event Host
Michelle Moran, Partner and Head of the UK Investment Management Practice at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
09:15 Economic Update: Resilience and Risk: Where next for the Global Economy?
Imogen Bachra CFA, Head of Economics and Markets Strategy, NatWest Markets
09:45 Panel Discussion: Is UK Divergence from AIFMD a good thing?
Moderator: Luke Speakman, Director, Head of Alternative Client Relationships, NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services
Contributors:
10:15 Panel Discussion: Direct2Fund – stage 1, now?
Moderator: John Harrison, Head of Legal, NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services Ltd
Contributors:
10:50 Coffee Break
11:10 Panel Discussion: UK Fund Tokenisation, From Concept to Reality
Moderator: Michelle Moran
Contributors:
11:45 Panel Discussion: Delivering AI Enabled Client Value with Effective Governance
Moderator: Johnathan Brennan, Head of Risk, NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services Ltd
Contributors:
12:25 Innovating with Data and AI in Elite Sport
Dave Thomas, Performance Innovation Consultant, UK Sports Institute & Team GB Performance Analyst
12:55 Closing Remarks
Mark Crathern, CEO, NatWest Trustee & Depositary Services
13:00 Networking Sandwich Lunch
Jeff has 30 years executive experience in Financial Services including 10 as Chair and CEO of Santander Asset Management. He began his NED career as chair of NatWest TDS in 2018 and has developed a portfolio career across Private Equity, not for profit and academia.
He is Chair of Lawfront, a PE backed legal services business in the UK, he is also Chair of Rewired Earth a community interest company focused on sustainability, working with Govts and industry to create an alternative funding model for regenerative finance. Jeff has a degree in economics, studied corporate finance at LBS and is a certified director in corporate governance, graduating from INSEAD in 2016 where he is now a director of the Singapore based International Directors Network, (INSEAD IDN).
Michelle is a market-leading adviser to European and American clients on the establishment, authorisation, management and distribution of retail and institutional investment funds in the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg and Jersey. Michelle is dual-qualified and has served in global leadership positions in both private practice and in-house for preeminent law firms and asset managers.
Imogen leads NatWest’s Economics & Markets Strategy team, helping to develop, package and deliver our Global Macro Economics and Markets Strategy offering and macro cross-asset strategy to our internal and external clients. She is the lead coverage for UK rates, working closely with Chief UK Economist Ross Walker to provide UK economics and market analysis. She hosts the weekly Bondcast – NatWest’s fixed income focussed podcast.
Imogen graduated from University College London in 2014 with a BSc in Economics and is a CFA charterholder.
Prior to her current role, Imogen was part of the European Rates Strategy team, Head of UK Rates Strategy and latterly Head of Non-Dollar Rates Strategy. She joined the bank on the graduate scheme in 2014.
Luke heads NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services’ UK Alternative Client Relationship team and is approaching ten years with the group.
Prior to joining NWTDS, Luke spent ten years at State Street, where he held several roles across Institutional Coverage, building deep experience in Client Relationship Management within global financial services.
Rachel joined the Investment Association in 2018 and works on the Policy, Strategy & Innovation team as a specialist in fund regulation. Her responsibilities include managing the Product Development & Regulations Committee, Fund Liquidity Management Working Group and Product Governance Forum and responding to FCA and European policy work. Prior to this, she spent 17 years working in fund and wealth management Compliance, most recently for Smith & Williamson (now Evelyn Partners) and J O Hambro Investment Management (now W1M).
Rob is the CEO for Yealand Fund Services, an independent ACD and Fund Administration business. Rob has over 30 years of financial services experience, specialising in fund administration and fiduciary oversight, his career beginning at Prolific Asset Management in 1995, before going on to hold management positions at BNP Paribas, Bank of New York Mellon, and Societe Generale. Rob joined Yealand from Maitland (now Apex FundRock) where he was Managing Director for their UK fund administration business.
John is a qualified lawyer with over 26 years’ experience in collective investment schemes and currently heads the in-house legal team for Depositary Services at NatWest Group. He has spent his entire career within Trustee and Depositary Services since joining the Group in 2000.
John leads a specialist legal team advising on all aspects of collective investment schemes across the UK and Luxembourg, including regulatory compliance, scheme structuring, documentation, and complex transactional activity. His work spans UCITS, AIFMD and related regulatory frameworks, and involves close collaboration with fund managers and internal stakeholders.
David is a Senior Associate at the Financial Conduct Authority. David is a fund tokenisation lead and part of FCA’s Funds and Asset Management Policy team. He was co-author of the FCA’s recent Progressing Fund Tokenisation Policy Statement and led work on Direct 2 Fund.
Prior to joining the FCA in 2024, David was a regulatory specialist at a depositary and fund services firm for 22 years, and a member of various UKDA committees from 2007 onwards. David graduated BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics from Royal Holloway.
Chris began his career with Bank of Scotland Unit Trust Department, which then became part of State Street. Over twenty years ago he moved to IFDS to work in regulatory analysis and has provided compliance input as the company’s service has expanded (including the corporate transitions to DST and SS&C). He assesses how regulatory obligations apply to firms – particularly focussed on propositional developments and opportunities relating to funds, ISAs, platform services, and pensions. He is also the Compliance Officer for SS&C’s ‘Depo Lite’ company.
Chris is currently the author of three CISI IOC workbooks, is a member of some industry forums relating to ISA digitalisation and CASS, and somehow finds time to be involved in local amateur dramatics (including the annual village pantomime).
Theo is an investment manager at Baillie Gifford and Chair of the Tokenisation Working Group. Theo is the architect of the firm’s tokenisation strategy, and responsible for designing and creating tokenised funds as one of the firm’s Digital Asset experts. Theo co-manages the Baillie Gifford Strategic Bond Strategy, and is chair of the Corporate Credit Macro Group. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford in 2021, Theo was a financial journalist from 2019, with roles at various news outlets including Bloomberg and Business Insider. Theo graduated BA (Hons) in Music from Durham University in 2020 and is a CFA Charterholder.
James has worked in the Financial Services industry for 40 years, including stints in Retail Banking, Consultancy and now Trustee and Depositary Services with NatWest. For 30 years, Jamie worked for BNY in various Capital Markets roles which culminated in him filling the combined positions of Manging Director, Depositary Receipts and Executive Director (SMF3) for BNY London Branch
Jonathan Brennan is Head of Depositary Risk at NatWest Trustee & Depositary Services, with responsibility for risk, governance and regulatory oversight across UK and Luxembourg fund servicing businesses. He brings over 20 years’ experience across asset management, funds and banking, and works closely with boards and regulators to support safe growth and strong client outcomes.
AI Product Owner for Risk at NatWest, with 15+ years in group wide Risk roles. He brings a broad view of risk types, business areas and how decisions get made in practice. Over recent years he has helped shape proportionate governance for custom AI assistants across the Group and encouraged safe experimentation within Risk – scaling AI value with clear accountability and credible controls.
Paul is the Head of Responsible AI and AI Strategy at one the UKs largest bank, leading a dedicated team of AI practitioners, and pioneering Responsible AI in financial services. Paul also leads the bank’s AI Strategy to ensure AI provides not only a highly personalised customer experience but is also deployed ethically to augment colleagues’ day-to-day work. Paul has a PhD in Agentic AI and was previously a university researcher and lecturer in Computer science and AI.
Dale has led the innovation & insights team at NatWest Trustee & Depositary Services for the last 5 years and has 13 years of experience in the asset and wealth management industry. Prior to joining NatWest, Dale spent 8 years at PwC as a specialist in data analytics, technology and cloud transformation, working with multinational asset & wealth managers in consulting and audit practices.
Dave has spent the last eleven years in the UK Sports Institute’s Innovation team leading and delivering a programme of data and technology-orientated innovation projects across the British Olympic and Paralympic system, ensuring performance impact through a blended approach of technical expertise, horizon scanning, and delivering effective change.
In the last Olympic cycle he was responsible for leading the “Future Technology” strand for The UK Sports Institute, pioneering work around AI, immersive, and remote sensing technologies. In addition, Dave has supported Team GB’s Olympic Games-time delivery as a Performance Analyst at the Rio, Tokyo, and Paris Olympic Summer Games, as well as the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.
Mark is Chief Executive Officer of NatWest Trustee and Depositary Services and Managing Director of RBS International Depositary Services, and a member of the RBS International Executive Committee. He is an approved SMF 1 & 3 senior manager. Mark has over 35 years’ experience in banking, securities servicing and capital markets, with a track record of transforming and scaling global financial services franchises. He has led businesses across the UK, Europe, Asia and the Americas, including senior executive roles at HSBC Securities Services, where he served as a Global ExCo member overseeing businesses with more than USD 6 trillion of assets under management. He has successfully delivered large scale digital and cloud native transformation programmes, restored sustainable growth, strengthened risk and control environments, and built high performing, diverse leadership teams across global markets.
