Meet the WCBI Contributors
From the Institute
Paul Denton has over 35 years 'experience in financial services. He has held a number of senior roles at RBS, NatWest and Co-operative Bank and has been the Chief Executive of Scottish Building Society since 2019.
He joined the Institute as a member in 1988 completing the professional qualifications of the time (Associate / Members).
Paul is proud to have been a Chartered Banker since its launch in 2000, a Fellow since 2004 and a Trustee since 2021.
He also has an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and a BA (Hons) from Abertay University.
Paul is a member of the FCA Small Business Practitioner Panel, a member of UK Finance Mortgage Board and a Pension Trustee for the Building Societies Association.
With over 38 years of experience in financial services, John Last has dedicated his career to driving organizational excellence and shaping leadership cultures across global markets. Throughout his tenure, he has held senior executive positions at some of the world’s most prominent financial institutions, including Coutts & Co, NatWest, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and HSBC.
Currently serving as the Group Head of Leadership at HSBC, John focuses on cultivating high-performance environments and developing the next generation of strategic leaders for an AI era. His approach blends deep industry expertise with a commitment to continuous learning and evidence-based organizational development.
Beyond his corporate responsibilities, John is deeply engaged in the professional advancement of the industry. He currently serves as the Vice Chair and Chair-Designate of the Chartered Banker Institute. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (FCIPD), a Fellow and Chartered Banker (FCBI), and a Chartered Manager (CMgr CCMI). As a Certified Bank Board Director and an Executive Coach (MSc, PCC), he leverages his academic background - which includes a Master’s degree from Henley Business School in Coaching & Behavioural Change - to guide boards and executives through complex transformations. He is currently pursuing a professional doctorate with a focus on how leaders can create sustainable organisational value that transcends individual performance.
Matt Rawlings is an experienced leader in membership and engagement, currently serving as Director of Education and Membership Engagement, with over 30 years of experience in the banking sector. His career spans delivering high-impact transformation programmes and developing a deep understanding of customer relationships, value delivery, and organisational growth, expertise he now brings to the membership environment.
With a strong focus on education and professional development, Matthew leads the strategic design and delivery of programmes that support lifelong learning across the banking profession. He is passionate about ensuring education remains relevant, accessible, and aligned to evolving industry needs, helping individuals build capability, confidence, and ethical practice throughout their careers.
Specialising in creating data-informed strategies that drive retention, engagement, and long-term value. He has a particular interest in the full membership lifecycle, from acquisition and onboarding through to engagement and reactivation, and in aligning organisational purpose with member needs.
Known for combining strategic thinking with practical delivery, Matthew helps organisations turn insight into action. At this conference, he brings a fresh perspective on how education, engagement, and community can come together to build sustainable, member-focused organisations
Tanya Retter is the Chief Executive of the Chartered Banker Institute. Joining the Institute in 2023, Tanya has played a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the Institute’s current strategic vision. Tanya now leads the Institute’s efforts to raise professional standards across the banking sector, ensuring that education, ethics, and lifelong learning remain at the heart of a responsible and future-ready profession.
With over two decades of experience in financial services, Tanya brings deep expertise in leadership development, digital transformation, and customer and employee experience – skills developed during her time in senior roles at NatWest and RBS. She is instrumental in driving the Institute’s global education strategy, overseeing the design and delivery of qualifications and professional development programmes that support the evolving needs of banks, regulators, and individuals.
Tanya represents the Institute on the Chartered Body Alliance, which she represents on the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), where she is contributing to the national policy discussions on skills. Tanya also chairs sector roundtables, championing innovation and inclusion in banking and is a prominent voice in the sector through her podcasts, seminars, and keynote speaking engagements.
A certified SAFe 5 Agilist and Executive Coach, Tanya is committed to embedding agile thinking and ethical leadership across the profession.
From our Global Network
Dr. Segun Aina
The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria | Past President | CIBN and Board Advisor | GBESTb
Dr. Segun Aina is a globally respected banking professional, internationally acclaimed fintech and digital thought leader, ecosystem architect, policy influencer, angel investor, author and futurist. He enjoyed a distinguished banking career spanning three decades across three major institutions, culminating in a six-year tenure as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer.
On the global stage, Dr. Aina was the inaugural Chairman of the Global Banking Education Standards Board from 2017 to 2023 and previously served as President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria from 2012 to 2014. He is the Founding President of the Fintech Association of Nigeria and currently serves as Chairman of its Board of Trustees. He is also the Initiator and Founding President of the Africa Fintech Network, Founder and Chairman of The Fintech Institute, and Founder and Chairman of Opolo Global Innovation Limited.
Widely regarded as Nigeria’s Fintech Envoy and Africa’s Fintech Grandmaster, Dr. Aina has played a pivotal role in incubating and scaling innovation-driven startups. He serves on boards across banking, insurance, agribusiness and technology, and has held notable positions including Chairman of Odua Investment Company Limited, Accion Microfinance Bank and MultiTrex Food Industries plc, as well as Director roles at Ecobank, First Atlantic Bank Ghana, FSDH Limited, NIBSS, FITC and Capital Express Assurance Limited.
He is an alumnus of the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan, with executive education from INSEAD, Harvard Business School, IMD and Lagos Business School. His academic and innovation contributions include advancement board roles at leading Nigerian universities and the promotion of research commercialisation through Opolo Global Innovation.
Dr. Aina is a Fellow of several leading professional institutes, a recipient of Nigeria’s Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic honour, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from four universities.
Dr. Dele Alabi is a distinguished banking executive, chartered finance professional and strategic leader with over three decades of experience across audit, corporate finance, enterprise risk management, treasury, governance and banking leadership in Africa. He is currently Managing Director/CEO of ETI Specialized Resolution Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Dr. Alabi previously held senior leadership roles at Ecobank, including pioneer Managing Director/CEO of Ecobank Uganda and Executive Director for Finance and Risk at Ecobank Nigeria.
He holds a First Class Honours degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, an MBA in Finance from the University of Lagos and a PhD in Finance from Babcock University. A Fellow of CIBN, ICAN and CIS, he is also First Vice President of CIBN, Chairman of its Board of Fellows and Practice Licence, and President of the West African Bankers’ Association.
Uldis Cerps is a senior financial risk professional with over 30 years of experience in leadership, executive, and non-executive roles across central banking, regulation, and financial market infrastructure. He currently serves as CEO of Finance Latvia Association, the leading financial sector advocacy organisation in Latvia, and is a member of the European Banking Federation’s Executive Committee.
Previously, Uldis was the first Chair of Latvia’s Financial and Capital Market Commission, where he contributed to Latvia’s EU accession process and financial market regulatory alignment. He has also served as Executive Director for Banking Supervision at the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, representing it at the Basel Committee and the European Banking Authority. More recently, he advised the Governor of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates on financial stability, supervision and regulatory policy.
Dr Giles Cuthbert is currently Head of Education at UNEP FI. He was formerly the Managing Director at the UK’s Chartered Banker Institute, where he has had over 30 years’ experience developing and delivering international education strategies. He has successfully deployed education and training to domestic and international banks, building societies, credit unions, microfinance institutions and a wide range of public and private sector education bodies on subjects including responsible banking, green and sustainable finance, professional ethics, responsible lending and bank strategy, management and leadership across the globe.
Giles has worked in all areas of professional education design and delivery, having developed face to face training, online courses, university executive courses and blended delivery approaches. He has developed these for all types of audiences, from executive and Board training in major banks to volunteers in credit unions, alongside all other levels of employees in banking and allied professions, including financial and residential lending advice and insurance.
Giles has a depth of experience in working with financial regulators in developing education programmes that supported regulatory objectives and has additionally been closely engaged with a range of governmental initiatives concerned with apprenticeships and sector skills development.
Giles has substantial experience developing and delivering learning at scale. He has developed programmes for over 1,000 organisations across 120 countries, in several cases developing programmes to support diverse audiences of over 100k learners.
In addition to building education strategy and solutions, has led the innovation aspects of organisations and has built mutually beneficial propositions for a wide range of partners in banking, academia and professional education. He has worked in partnership with a broad range of bodies, including top ranked universities, such as Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities to deliver undergraduate, postgraduate and executive courses.
Giles’ first degree is in Law, he also holds a Masters in Education, a Masters in Professional Ethics and a Doctorate in Artificial Intelligence ethics.
Fatma Dirkes is Vice President and Head of Executive & Professional Education at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. She leads global initiatives in executive learning, leadership development, and professional education, with a strong focus on lifelong learning, sustainable finance, and digital innovation.
Since joining Frankfurt School in 2003, she has held several senior leadership positions and has overseen international education and advisory projects in more than 90 countries in collaboration with institutions including the EU, EIB, EBRD, ADB, AfDB, and KfW.
Fatma Dirkes served as President of the European Banking and Financial Training Association (EBTN) from 2020 to 2024 and continues to support the network as an active member. Prior to joining Frankfurt School, she worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG.
Robert Dzato is a purpose-led, values-driven and impact-oriented leader. He is passionate about solving Africa’s human capital needs with trusted professionals from African perspective leveraging global best practice.
Robert is, currently, the CEO of Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana, where he leads the strategic direction and transformation of the Institute. He is focused on ethical leadership, digital learning and policy influence. He has over 20 years of multicultural experience in banking, consulting, education across markets in in Africa and Europe. Robert is a thought leader, chartered banker, chartered accountant, management consultant and an educator.
He was the lead for Financial Services Strategy and Operations practice in the Management Consulting in KPMG Ghana; Senior Accountant at Group Finance at Lloyds Banking Group; Business Bank Manager at Bank of Scotland; and Associated Director at Standard Chartered Bank. He has facilitated many board and management strategy sessions in Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Serria Leone. Robert worked in cross-cultural environments in London, Reading, Edinburgh, Lagos, Accra.
He holds MSc, International Consulting and Accounting from University of Reading UK, Bachelor of Management Studies from University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Certificate in Introduction to Sustainable Finance from University of Oxford, UK. He is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana; Member of Chartered Banker Institute, UK and Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana.
Robert has research interest in Banking Sector Crises and Trust Restoration in Emerging Markets; Knowledge Management; Privatisation of State-owned Enterprises in Ghana and Monetary Policy.
Robert is an observer and presenter at Bank of Ghana Monetary Policy Committee meetings. He has led many publications including the GH Bankers’ Voice Magazine (1st and 2nd Editions; The Ghanaian Banker Magazine; KMPG Banking Industry Customer Satisfaction Surveys.
Robert is passionate about ethics, financial literacy and he enjoys teaching across Ghana in secondary schools.
She has served the organization in various capacities, including committee chairperson, member of the board of trustees, and member of the Executive Committee. In these roles, she has contributed significantly to BAIPHIL’s programs, initiatives, and governance.
As President, she provides strategic direction in advancing BAIPHIL’s mission of supporting the banking industry through advocacy for good governance and the enhancement of institutional capability via continuing education, research, and information exchange.
Under her helm, BAIPHIL champions the pillars of R.I.S.E., promoting resilience in institutions, inclusivity across the broader banking community and the general public, sustainability in both learning and advocacy, and continuing partnership and stakeholder engagement.
Beyond her leadership in BAIPHIL, Ms. Felix serves as Vice President for the Loans Management Group at the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), the government agency mandated to insure bank deposits. She brings valuable practical insights in leading BAIPHIL, drawn from her more than 30 years in government service under PDIC.
Through her dual roles at BAIPHIL and PDIC, Ms. Felix exemplifies a strong commitment to public service and professional excellence.
Stuart Haire is currently Group Chief Executive of the Skipton Group. He is working to modernise the business and make it even more relevant for existing and new members as they consider their longer-term financial needs and housing aspirations. He is striving to lead the conversation in tackling the housing crisis, using his voice to influence housing policy and create greater access to financial support.
Stuart originally graduated from The University of Glasgow with a First Class Degree in Physics and Electronic Engineering. He is married with two sons, enjoys playing sports in his spare time and lives in Scotland.
Alison is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and qualified as a Chartered Banker early in her career in financial services. She has held a range of senior roles across retail and commercial banking, building broad expertise across the industry. Most recently, she spent five years as Global Head of Professional Capability at NatWest Group, where she led initiatives to strengthen capability and professional standards at scale. Over the past 12 months, Alison has also advised the Financial Services Skills Commission on skills policy for the UK financial services sector. Her experience combines financial services sector knowledge with a strong focus on professional development and the future skills needed to support a resilient, competitive industry.
where she has served for almost 25 years, advancing the professional development of
Jamaica’s financial services sector. She has led significant organisational transformation,
introduced international certification programmes across the Caribbean, and strengthened
strategic partnerships locally and internationally. She is a John Maxwell Leadership Team
member and was named Human Resource Management Association of Jamaica (HRMAJ)
Member of the Year in 2007. Darlene currently serves on the Board of the Tax Administration
of Jamaica.. She is Deputy Chair of New Generation Ministries and a member of Choose Life
International’s special projects team, where she co-chairs the World Suicide Prevention Day
Seminar Planning Committee. Her career reflects a passion for human resource development,
leadership, and service, guided by her mission to positively impact lives. She is married with
four daughters and two granddaughters.
Mr. Deepak Kumar Lalla, a highly accomplished banking professional, embarked on his career with State Bank of India (SBI) in 1985, amassing a wealth of experience that now spans over 40 years, covering a multitude of domains within the banking and financial sector. He has served as Deputy Managing Director at State Bank of India and concurrently serves as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SBICAP Securities Ltd, an arrangement that underscores his enduring leadership and profound expertise in the financial arena. He currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance.
Throughout his illustrious tenure, Mr. Lalla has seamlessly transitioned through a diverse array of critical roles, consistently showcasing his exceptional competence and unwavering dedication. His portfolio includes distinguished positions such as Chief General Manager (Wealth Management) at Corporate Centre, Chief General Manager at Mumbai Metro & Maharashtra Circle, General Manager of Network at Mumbai Metro, General Manager with oversight of Transaction Banking, and Deputy General Manager overseeing Mobility Initiatives at the Corporate Centre of the State Bank of India in Mumbai. Additionally, he has held the role of Deputy General Manager specializing in e-Commerce at the Corporate Centre of the State Bank of India.
Mr. Lalla's academic credentials are equally impressive, boasting a master’s degree in commerce, a Postgraduate Diploma in Banking & Finance, Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers and Group-1 of Indian Cost and Works Accountants (ICWA). His current leadership roles are a testament to his enduring commitment to shaping the future landscape of the financial industry.
Dr. Paul C. D. Lei is a seasoned banking executive and economist with a distinguished record of leadership in Taiwan and significant engagement in the international financial community. He has chaired major financial institutions, including Mega Financial Holdings, Mega International Commercial Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Holdings, and Taiwan Cooperative Bank, where his guidance strengthened governance, risk management, and sustainable growth.
Beyond corporate leadership, Dr. Lei has shaped national financial policy and industry development as Executive Director of the Central Bank of the R.O.C., Chairman of the Bankers Association of Taiwan, Trust Association of Taiwan, and Central Deposit Insurance Corporation. His international experience includes serving as Executive Director of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, advancing regional cooperation and financial stability.
Renowned for his strategic insight, pragmatic leadership, and collaborative approach, Dr. Lei has consistently promoted innovation, knowledge sharing, and capacity building across the financial sector. He also became an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute in 2025. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University, and both a Master’s and Bachelor’s in International Trade from National Chengchi University, Taiwan, combining rigorous academic training with decades of practical experience.
Ms Carrie LEUNG MH, is the Chief Executive Officer of The Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB), where she leads the advancement of professional standards and competency development for the banking industry in Hong Kong. She plays an active role in shaping the Hong Kong Banking Qualifications Framework (HKQF), contributing to the establishment of industry-wide professional standards for banking practitioners.
In addition, Ms LEUNG holds various public service roles and has been invited to serve as a member of government committees, councils, and professional organisations, including Chairman of the Sub-committee on Support Measures of Self-financing Post-secondary Education (CSPE) under the Education Bureau, and as a Council Member and Honorary Treasurer of Lingnan University.
Ms LEUNG was named one of the Most Extraordinary Women in Finance by Benchmark Magazine in 2009 and was awarded the Medal of Honour (MH) by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2018.
Peter has worked in the financial services industry since 1981, initially as a banker, then a City lawyer, and for the past twenty-six years has focussed on leading review work for regulators covering governance, strategy, business models, risk management, capital adequacy, liquidity adequacy, recovery and resolution.
During the latter part of his career, interspersed with commercial roles, he has worked with the Financial Services Authority, the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Financial Reporting Council. He is currently an Interim Technical Specialist in the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Resilience Department.
Peter has acquired extensive university and industry related education in support of his regulatory review work. He is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and has also completed extensive executive (including AI) and board education. He is a Chartered Banker and Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute, a Chartered Secretary and a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute, and a Chartered Director and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Peter will be participating in his capacity as a Trustee and Chair of the Education Committee and is not representing his employer. His opinions will be his own.
With over 30 years of leadership experience within the financial services sector, Gavin specializes in creating measurable business impact, championing learning innovation and driving transformational change. Under his leadership, learning at NatWest has transformed learning into a commercially focused digitally enabled strategic partner that powers growth for the bank, it’s customers an colleagues. NatWest were ranked 3rd in the recently published UK Learning Power 100.
Gavin is a Fellow of the Chartered Banker Institute and frequently collaborates with different organisations and partners on we continue to develop L&D.
Dr. Abdel Aziz Nossier is the Executive Director of the Egyptian Banking Institute, the training arm of the Central Bank of Egypt, where he leads initiatives focused on leadership development, governance, future skills, and capability building across the banking sector in Egypt and Africa.
Under his leadership, EBI significantly expanded its regional footprint from 8 to 44 African countries and now serves more than 200,000 beneficiaries annually. Dr. Nossier is a Board Member of Industrial Development Bank and Chairman of its Strategy Committee.
He also serves on the Board of EBTN – The European Banking & Financial Services Training Association. He holds a DBA, an MA from the The American University in Cairo, and completed executive education at Harvard Business School.
Professor Dr. Manivanan Saman is the Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Banking School (ABS), a premier institution affiliated with Bank Negara Malaysia and dedicated to advancing talent and leadership development for the banking and financial services industry across Asia. With more than 28 years of international leadership experience spanning higher education, executive education, banking capability development, and institutional transformation, he is widely recognised for driving strategic innovation, digital learning ecosystems, and future-ready workforce initiatives.
Under his leadership, ABS is spearheading major regional initiatives in AI-enabled learning, digital credentialing, sustainability leadership, and banking transformation through its next-generation digital platform, ABSNEXLEARN. Professor Dr. Manivanan actively collaborates with global banking institutes, regulators, universities, and industry leaders across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East to strengthen professional standards, leadership capability, and talent resilience in the age of digital transformation and AI.
Dr Sladjana Andrian Sredojević is an Economist with extensive experience in international affairs, leadership, mentoring, advocacy, strategy and policy level, both in public and private sector. Sladjana has been working for the Association of Serbian Banks (ASB) as the Specialist for International Cooperation, IFIs and Head of Bank Training Centre. In advocacy for the Serbian banking industry, she contributes both to the bilateral and multilateral collaboration with various international institutions and associations, supporting development of various initiatives in banking and sustainable finance; she currently holds a position of the Vice President in the European Association for Training in Banking and Financial Services EBTN, Brussels and coordinator for European Banking Federation initiatives. She promotes education, professional qualifications and financial education as the Head of Bank Training Center, and coordinator of the Committee for the Education and Human Resources of the ASB, and the Chair of the Financial Literacy Committee of the EBTN.
Her assignments have been within government public administration (Advisor for International Cooperation in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Advisor in the Ministry for International Economic Relations), as well as international organizations such as World Bank, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, United Nations, International Finance Corporation. Some of her specializations in economics and finance were held by the EIB in Luxembourg, Tokyo International Centre in Japan, Frankfurt Scholl for Finance and Management, International Monetary Fund, World Bank.
She holds a PhD in Economics from University of Belgrade and Scientific Degree from Ministry of Science of the Republic of Serbia. As the researcher, lecturer and mentor, she is supporting various educational programs at local and international universities and schools such as International Master Program in Public Procurement Management supported by the EBRD, University of Rome Tor Vergata, and University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. Today, she is an Editor of the Scientific journal Bankarstvo (issued by the Association of Serbian Banks since 1971), author of several books (Public Private Partnership, coauthor of Handbook on How to implement PPP at the local level), Analyst for Serbia for Economist Intelligence Unit (on Infrascope Enabling Environment Studies for 2011 and 2017).
Ken is the Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute of Banking (A Recognised College of UCD), President of The European Banking & Financial Services Training Association (EBTN), a Member of the National Implementation Committee for the Future Skills for International Financial Service and a Council Member of The Global Banking Education Standards Board.
Ken is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, Fellow of the Institute of Banking and completed his chartered accounting training with PwC. He graduated from University College Cork with a BComm Degree and from University College Dublin with an MBS in Financial Services Degree. Ken lectures in UCD at postgraduate and executive education levels as an associate member of the faculty. Ken has extensive international financial reporting and financial management teaching and examining experience at undergraduate, postgraduate, executive education levels and on various international professional accounting education programmes (CAI, ACCA, CPA, CIMA) for over 30 years. He is an external examiner with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and is a former accounting and finance lecturer at the University of Limerick.
Ken was the former General Manager for business banking, corporate banking and institutional banking with Danske Bank for Ireland, National Australia Bank for Ireland and was a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. Ken was the Head of the business credit team at the Central Bank of Ireland and led the CBI credit and asset quality interaction with the Troika during 2010 -2012 and was responsible for the delivery of the credit-related projects.
Olga Ushakova is Head of Customer Experience at PUMB Bank (Ukraine), with more than 20 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector, including over 6 years specialising in customer experience, customer operations, and service transformation.
Her professional expertise includes developing customer experience as a mature and systematically managed function within a financial organisation, customer research, customer journey analysis, service design, management of CX metrics, and the implementation of customer-centric transformation initiatives.
In recent years, her professional focus has centred on customer trust, ethical AI, responsible use of customer data, and the impact of unstable and high-stress environments in Ukraine on customer behaviour and financial decision-making.
Currently based in Scotland, she is actively exploring how global instability, accelerating change, and evolving customer expectations are reshaping customer-centric and responsible banking within the modern financial sector.
Sophia Ziakou is Head of the Hellenic Banking Institute & Financial Literacy of the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) in Athens, Greece. She is being working in the Association since 2006 in various posts in the General Secretariat, as Special Advisor, and since 2021 as Head of the training department and financial literacy of the Association.
In this capacity she also serves as Chairwoman of the Financial Education Project Group of the European Banking Federation (EBF), Member of the Board of Directors of European Banking and Financial Services Training Association (EBTN), Chairwoman of the Accreditation Committee of EBTN and Secretary General at IEPAS/ Greek Institute of Vocational Guidance and Career.
Sophia Ziakou holds a PhD on European Integration Policies from Panteion University of Social and Political Studies of Athens-Greece with an MA on European Policy and Administration. Among others, Sophia participates in various European research programs and her current research areas are: financial literacy, banking and finance, economic governance, European law, and lifelong learning.
From the University
Brad is the Deputy Principal and Vice-Principal for International Strategy and External Relations, working closely with the Principal and other members of the senior management team shaping the University strategy and is responsible for developing and managing strategic relationships locally, nationally and internationally. Brad MacKay is Professor of Strategy in the University of St Andrews Business School.
Dr Eleonora Sfrappini is a Lecturer in Finance at the University of St Andrews Business School and a member of the Centre for Responsible Banking and Finance. She received her PhD from the University of Magdeburg and the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) in Halle, Germany. Her research was awarded grants by the French Social Investment Forum, the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Lamfalussy Fellowship by the European Central Bank and was recently nominated as one of the finalists for the ECB Young Economist Prize. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of banking, climate finance and financial regulation.
Professor John Wilson leads the Department of Finance at the University of St Andrews Business School. He is also Director of the Centre for Responsible Banking & Finance. He holds influential editorial roles across major finance journals and shapes academic standards through his work with the Chartered Association of Business Schools and Research Evaluation Framework. Professor Wilson's expertise in banking and finance informs his advisory work with international financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and governments, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, South African Reserve Bank, and various European banking organisations.
Professor O’Brien has a particular interest in the interrelationship of politics and grand strategy, and how these help shape both peacetime and wartime strategic policy. Professor O’Brien has spent much of his career looking at how individuals at the top of decision-making structures both try to make decisions and are at the same time influenced by the structures that they are trying to control. Though much of his earlier research has focused on grand strategy making in the Second World War, he has become increasingly interested in how these processes work during 21st century warfare. Professor O’Brien also has an interdisciplinary interest in how strategic studies and management studies discuss strategy, and what the disciplines can learn from each other.
Marcel is the Vice Dean Executive Education and Senior Lecturer in Banking and Finance at the University of St Andrews. Marcel’s research explores consumer financial decision-making, financial technology, and financial education, with particular emphasis on behavioural aspects of spending and saving. A policy advisor to government bodies and financial regulators, Dr Lukas shapes financial education initiatives and serves as a Fellow at the Office for National Statistics.
He leads executive education programmes on AI applications in business and finance, bringing valuable industry experience from his previous roles at Volkswagen and IBM to his academic and advisory work.