Micro States in a Time of Change

Chair 

Dr Iris H-Y Chiu (UCL Faculty of Laws)

Speakers

• Mr Robert McDowall (States of Alderney)
• Professor Michael Mainelli (Z/Yen Group Limited)
• Mr Richard Stoneman (consultant, Caribbean financial industry)
• Mr David Grace (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP)

Admission 

Free

About the talk

This event will focus on the perspectives from Company and Financial Regulatory Reform and Business Development. The following topics will be addressed:

• Company Legislation in micro-states: balancing economic advantage and prosperity and international legal standards (Mr Robert McDowall, States of Alderney)
• Micro-states and financial services – lessons from the Global Financial Centres Index (Professor Michael Mainelli, Z/Yen)
• Challenges facing Caribbean micro-states in adapting to rapidly changing global financial architecture (Mr Richard Stoneman, Caribbean Financial Institute)
• Providing microstates with a competitive advantage through a KYC Utility (Mr David Grace, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP)

About the speakers

Robert McDowall is an elected member of the States of Alderney, one of the Channel Islands within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, where he serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Policy Committee. Outside Politics Robert is an adviser to a number of businesses. Robert is a frequent contributor to industry thought and comment in the international, national and the financial industry press on financial markets. Robert has over 35 years experience in the Banking and Securities and Investment business, with companies including Merrill Lynch, Pru-Bache and Singer and Friedlander. Robert has recently completed his three year term as President of the Folklore Society, an Academic Charity, of which he is also a Trustee, based at the Warburg Institute in London. He is a court member of the Tin Plate Workers Livery Company.

Professor Michael Mainelli is a qualified accountant, securities professional, computer specialist, and management consultant, educated at Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin, Michael gained his PhD at London School of Economics where he was also a Visiting Professor. After a career as a research scientist in aerospace & cartography, then accountancy-firm partner and director of Ministry of Defence research, in 1994 he co-founded Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading think-tank, to promote societal advance through better finance and technology. His clients include banks, exchanges, insurers, policy makers, governments, technology and scientific firms. He and Z/Yen created the renowned Global Financial Centres Index, as well as Taylor Wessing’s Global Intellectual Property Index and the Institute of Directors’ Good Governance Index.

Michael is Emeritus Professor & Trustee at Gresham College where he leads the Long Finance initiative exploring “when would we know our financial system is working?” He is an Alderman of the City of London, a non-executive director on listed companies, as well as the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, and trustee of several charities, including Christ’s Hospital the 16th century charitable board school. His book, “The Price of Fish: A New Approach to Wicked Economics and Better Decisions”, won the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize.

Richard Stoneman is a trained economist, business professional and strategy consultant, educated at Oxford University and London Business School, Richard spent a year as a research fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford and has also recently completed the FT’s Non-Executive Director Diploma. After spending the first part of his career as a UK Government Economist, Richard worked for several years as a strategy and marketing consultant to private companies in the UK, Australasia and the Caribbean. He then spent a dozen years mainly in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, the majority of which was in Moscow with the leading Western group of advisers to the reformist elements of the Russian Government. Having worked intermittently in the Caribbean throughout his career, he has spent most of his time since the financial crisis wrestling with some of the more obdurate strategic issues facing the region. This has included leading a team advising 14 Heads of Government on how they should reform Caricom, the Caribbean’s version of the EU. It has also included several years working with governments and the private sector on how the region’s finance sector should adjust in response to the successive waves of international regulation since the financial crisis. As part of this, Richard has recently led a team looking into the design and set up a Caribbean Finance Institute.

David Grace is PwC’s Global Leader of Financial Crime, leading and coordinating a global network of some 2000 specialists focused on preventing and detecting all aspects of financial crime. Their multi disciplinary services range from the provision of AML / KYC technical advice, to designing and implementing AML and sanctions operating models, to designing and building sophisticated anti financial crime technology solutions. David is also involved with the creation and roll out of PwC’s KYC utility offerings, working with Governments, regulators and clients, as well as with PwC’s global anti financial crime remediation practice.

David is a senior partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers UK, also being responsible for PwC’s overall relationship globally for some of our largest Financial Services clients. He has personally been responsible for  leading the delivery of a range of professional services to these and other Financial Services clients, including audit and assurance services, consulting services, transaction related due diligence and the provision of other transformational advisory solutions

He was previously the Chairman of PwC UK’s Risk Practice, as well as being responsible for litigation related issues, crisis management communications, and Internal Risk management and Human Resources within PwC’s Banking and Capital Markets Practice.