Our Team
Ben Blackett-Ord (Chief Executive)
E: BBlackett-Ord@bovill.com
Ben is an experienced financial services regulatory practitioner having served as a regulator, compliance officer and consultant for over twenty years. He established Bovill in 1999.
Ben started his regulatory career with The Securities Association (TSA) in 1988 where he gained extensive experience in the supervision of investment firms. Following the merger of the TSA with the Association of Futures Brokers and Dealers (AFBD) to form the Securities and Futures Authority (SFA) he assumed responsibility for the supervision of a range of derivatives firms. Having left the SFA Ben spent six years as an in-house Compliance Officer, first with IBJ International and then with Standard Bank.
Ben is a qualified barrister and is regularly invited to speak on regulatory issues at conferences throughout the UK. He is highly respected for his thorough and client focused approach. He is a director of the EIS Association and sits on the legal and technical committee of the British Business Angels Association.
John Whitlock (Principal)
E: JWhitlock@bovill.com
John has over 20 years experience in government and regulation, having held senior positions at both the Department of Trade and Industry and the FSA, where he was a Head of Department, dealing mainly with general insurance. His DTI experience included implementing legislation on Financial Markets and Insolvency, as well as four years as Head of Corporate Services at the National Physical Laboratory.
John is expert in policy analysis and implementation, and advises on the development of practical solutions to clients' problems in the interpretation or application of regulatory requirements, including perimeter questions. While John's main sector focus is insurance, his wider knowledge and skills are deployed to support client projects across the board.
His senior-level experience at the FSA has given John a broad insight into its wider policies and processes, which is invaluable in advising clients on how best to deal with the FSA to achieve constructive outcomes.
Caroline Gibbs (Principal)
E: CGibbs@bovill.com
Caroline Gibbs has worked within the financial services industry for over 14 years and prior to joining Bovill worked at the Financial Services Authority for 4½ years within their Supervision Department. At FSA Caroline was responsible for supervising a wide variety of investment firms as well as American investment banks and gained a thorough understanding of both the supervisory processes and the FSA rules. Caroline led numerous FSA supervision visits, including ARROW visits, and was a key participant in a variety of projects including the N2 grandfathering project and the Skilled Persons Review.
At Bovill, Caroline provides FSA compliance support to a wide range of investment firms including private equity/venture capital firms, fund managers, brokers and derivatives firms. Caroline is well respected by her clients because of her thorough knowledge of the FSA rules and her ability to communicate information in a straightforward and concise manner. Caroline has in depth knowledge in the FSA's prudential and reporting rules and has been instrumental in the implementation of the Capital Requirements Directive and Integrated Regulatory Reporting for Bovill's clients. Caroline also has in depth knowledge of the Conduct of Business rules.
After graduating with a BSc in Mathematics with Management, Caroline joined Neilson Cobbold Stockbrokers and gained her registered representative examination as well as her Securities Institute Diploma. She then spent 2 years running the Investment Administration Qualification programme for the Securities Institute prior to joining FSA in 2000. Caroline also holds the derivatives paper of the registered representative examination.
Alex Ellerton (Principal)
E: AEllerton@bovill.com
Alex Ellerton specialises in FSA regulation of retail financial services firms. He has worked on a wide variety of engagements for major life companies, banks, product providers and general insurance and home finance intermediaries.
Previous work has included assisting firms respond to FSA enforcement action, past business reviews, regulated complaints handling and FSA authorisation applications. He also has management experience of co-ordination of compliance arrangements at major retail banks, preparation for the FSA general insurance and mortgage intermediary regimes, provision of training (including senior management coaching) relating to FSA regulatory requirements, in addition to on-going compliance support to a wide range of clients. Over recent years Alex has developed a specialisation in general insurance and mortgage regulation, having assisted a number of clients with their preparations for the new regimes.
After graduating with a LLB (hons) degree, and having completed a post-graduate diploma in Legal Practice, Alex joined KPMG's Private Clients Tax department. He then spent 6 years in Deloitte's Financial Services Regulatory Practice before taking up his current position with Bovill where he leads the retail team. Alex is also FPC qualified.
Rebecca Thorpe (Principal)
E: RThorpe@bovill.com
Rebecca joined Bovill in April 2006 after spending five years with Deloitte, where she gained broad financial services and consulting experience working in their regulatory consulting practice. During her time there, Rebecca was involved in assisting a wide range of firms, including blue chip retail banks, insurance companies and product providers.
Rebecca has written for several publications and spoken at seminars on FSA regulatory themes, in particular the FSA's Treating Customers Fairly initiative. In terms of client work, she has been involved in a number of technical investigations, ranging from pension reviews to past business reviews, implementation of the Government's Post Office banking service for the financially excluded, and money laundering investigations. Rebecca was also involved in several projects with the FSA, including a substantial nine month s166 assignment and the FSA's "Cost of Regulation" research study.
Since joining Bovill, Rebecca has provided FSA compliance support for niche market players ranging from investment property firms to corporate finance boutiques. Along with her experience of planning and implementing compliance projects in areas such as TCF and MiFID, she has spent time on secondment as a compliance officer in larger investment firms.
Rebecca has a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and also holds a number of industry qualifications including the FPC, AFPC and IMC and Mortgage Advice Qualification. Rebecca became a PRINCE 2 qualified project manager in May 2005.
Marc Ireland (Principal)
E: MIreland@bovill.com
Marc is the Principal leading Bovill's Northern Practice.
Marc has a background in law and has 10 years FSA regulatory compliance related experience within the banking, insurance and investment business industries and the professional services environment.
Within professional services, Marc has worked on a variety of engagements across all sectors of the financial services industry.
This includes FSA authorisation and variation of permission applications, mock FSA ARROW and Thematic visits, regulatory due diligences, Section 166 (Skilled Person) Reviews and Enforcement cases.
After starting his career as a Compliance Adviser with Co-operative Financial Services, Marc spent five and a half years working for Deloitte's Northern Financial Service's Regulatory Team before moving to Bovill in June 2010.
Susan Puddephatt (Consultant)
E: SPuddephatt@bovill.com
Susan is a risk and compliance professional with over 20 years financial services experience gained as a banking regulator, regulatory consultant with a 'Big 4' consultancy, and in Group Risk & Compliance Director roles in insurance and consumer lending. She joined Bovill in April 2010.
Susan has extensive experience in FSA liaison, particularly on challenging or complex regulatory matters. She has developed and also re-shaped firms' governance, risk and compliance arrangements and structures to meet changing business and/or regulatory needs.
As a regulator, Susan developed prudential regulatory policy in areas such as capital adequacy and large exposures requirements and has maintained a keen interest in developing prudential regulation in the UK and Europe, including as a former member of the FSA's Insurance Standing Group which assists the FSA on prudential policy areas such as EU Solvency 2.
Susan has assisted firms in becoming authorised by the FSA and prepared firms for FSA ARROW reviews and thematic reviews. She has also assisted Non-Executive Directors and Senior Managers in understanding their regulatory responsibilities, particularly as Approved Persons, and in preparations for Significant Influence Function (SIF) interviews with the FSA.
Mar Alvarez (Financial Controller/HR Manager)
E: MAlvarez@bovill.com
Mar's role is to ensure the smooth running of the back office. As financial controller she is responsible for the financial management of the company including the preparation of management accounts, budgets and forecasts. She ensures that the books are kept balanced, bills are paid and debtors chased. Mar is also CIPD qualified with employment law knowledge and is responsible for the operational delivery of the HR service, providing support, advice and practical guidance to senior managers and staff.
Katherine Davidge (Manager)
E: KDavidge@bovill.com
Katherine Davidge is a Manager at Bovill and has over eight years of regulatory experience. Her area of specialisation is FSA regulation of Investment Firms and she has worked extensively on a variety of engagements for stockbrokers, corporate finance firms, hedge fund managers, multidiscipline firms and other providers of various wealth management services. Her particular areas of focus are corporate governance arrangements, systems and controls and the requirements set out in SYSC and COBS sections of the FSA Handbook.
Previous work has included Skilled Person appointments, covering systems and controls reviews and past business reviews, FSA authorisation applications, reviews of corporate governance arrangements, provision of training relating to FSA regulatory requirements, in addition to on-going compliance support to a wide range of clients.
After graduating with a BSc (hons) (Chemistry) degree in 2000, Katherine spent 3 years in Deloitte's Financial Services Regulatory Practice. She then moved to FSA as a supervisor in the Retail Firms Division where she spent over two years supervising medium to large stockbrokers and IFAs. Katherine then spent some time in a policy role at FSA before moving to the compliance department at JP Morgan Chase. Katherine joined Bovill in September 2007 where her focus has been assisting our Investment Business clients, in particular retail stockbrokers and corporate finance advisory firms.
David Auger (Senior Associate)
E: DAuger@bovill.com
David is a Senior Associate at Bovill, joining the team from law firm SJ Berwin LLP where he spent eight years as a compliance consultant working in their financial services practice. He was responsible for assisting Berwin's clients to obtain FSA authorisation and providing ongoing support to them.
As well as advising clients, David dealt with Berwin's own anti-money laundering processes being the reference point there for non-routine decisions and – when necessary – preparing suitable notifications to SOCA. He also worked on related risk and reputational aspects, in particular those involving conflict checks and insider lists.
David's clients at Berwin included investment advisors, stockbrokers, hedge funds and also private equity/venture capital firms. In addition to FPC and Securities Institute compliance qualifications, David passed both parts of the Chartered Institute of Bankers exams during his earlier career as a branch manager with NatWest - which he joined after graduating with a BA (hons) degree in Economics.
Emma Croft (Senior Associate)
E: ECroft@bovill.com
Emma joined Bovill in January 2008 as a Senior Associate. Her experience to date has included working on a number of different regulatory areas including applications, training preparation and delivery for AML, financial promotions and high level systems and controls reviews.
Emma has worked in financial services compliance for over 10 years and brings with her extensive experience from both an industry and regulator perspective. During her time in the industry, Emma has worked for a number of mortgage providers ranging from large banks and building societies to sub prime lenders, and has real experience of managing the compliance issues which firms face both on a day to day basis, and through large scale initiatives.
Emma also spent two years working in the financial promotions team at the FSA, during which time she was responsible for reviewing and monitoring financial promotions issued by a wide variety of investment firms. Whilst working at the regulator, Emma gained a real insight into the move to more principles based regulation and how this can be applied in practice.
Emma has worked in a variety of different areas within retail mortgages including broker relationships, financial promotions, documentation (including KFI and mortgage offer development and review), compliance monitoring, responsible lending, product development, treating customers fairly, and training & competence. Other areas of expertise include the Consumer Credit Act and the Data Protection Act.
Billie-Jo Dixon (Senior Associate)
E: BDixon@bovill.com
Billie-Jo is a Senior Associate at Bovill. Her key focus is FSA regulation of investment firms, both in the retail and the wholesale markets. She has worked extensively with fund managers, brokers, private equity / venture capital firms, and firms undertaking investment business in relation to derivatives, particularly those operating in the Shipping sector.
Her previous experience was in-house at leading global asset management firms where she provided compliance support to Senior Management and to front and middle office teams in relation to high level systems and controls, fund launches, sales and marketing, complaints handling and dealing errors. She also provided compliance training to employees at all levels, undertook detailed compliance monitoring and helped ensure day-to-day adherence with FSA requirements such as Client Order Handling, Approved Persons and Training & Competence.
More recently, Billie-Jo has gained considerable experience in helping firms to prepare for MiFID and the implementation of Integrated Regulatory Reporting, as well as assisting firms in determining whether they are subject to consolidated supervision.
After graduating with a BA (hons) in Economics and Politics, Billie-Jo travelled extensively and then joined Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' Group Compliance Department. She subsequently spent three years working in Compliance Advisory at ABN AMRO Asset Management before joining Bovill in 2007. Billie-Jo holds the Investment Management Certificate.
Nicola Green (Senior Associate)
E: NGreen@bovill.com
Nicola is a Senior Associate at Bovill, where she works with a wide variety of clients including investment firms, stockbrokers and insurance intermediaries. She has extensive knowledge of the regulations applying to financial crime and has been involved in financial crime systems and controls reviews. She has also been involved in Section 166 Skilled Persons Review project work.
Nicola has 8 years in-house regulatory experience gained with life & pensions companies providing ongoing compliance support and technical guidance. She has worked in the compliance department of Royal & Sun Alliance Life & Pensions where she carried out quality of advice reviews and provided technical guidance to the business. She then worked at Unisys Insurance Services Limited (UISL) where she was particularly involved in anti-money laundering and financial crime controls. She was also responsible for providing advice to the business on all aspects of FSA regulations as well as creating risk-based audit specifications for the compliance monitoring team. Whilst at UISL Nicola spent time working with the risk team identifying and analysing breaches of the FSA rules and assisting the business to ensure appropriate remedial action was taken.
Nicola has a BSc (hons) in Business Studies (Quantitative Business Management) and is FPC qualified. She holds the CII Certificate of Insurance and the regulatory module of the SII certificate, and is currently studying for the CII Diploma of Insurance.
Sue Mallender (Senior Associate)
E: SMallender@bovill.com
Sue Mallender is a Senior Associate at Bovill, specialising in FSA regulation of retail financial services firms. Sue has over 12 years' experience in financial services, having undertaken a wide variety of engagements during her time in Deloitte's Financial Services Regulatory Practice for insurers, life and pensions providers and intermediaries, third party mortgage administrators, debt management firms, IFAs, building societies, asset managers and loans and insurance intermediaries.
Sue's range of previous work has included secondments as Director of Risk and Compliance, helping to develop and implement robust compliance framework and governance arrangements, establishing controls self-assessment regimes, helping firms prepare for FSA ARROW reviews, providing advice and guidance through FSA enforcement processes, and undertaking Skilled Persons reviews. In addition, Sue has led and conducted a variety of regulatory audits across a range of firm types covering subjects including TCF arrangements, complaints handling activities, key controls, corporate governance, sales process reviews (PPI, mortgages, pension switching), Anti-Money Laundering, Approved Persons arrangements, mortgage arrears procedures and training & competence schemes.
After graduating with a BA (hons) English Literature degree, Sue joined Friends Provident, undertaking various training and management roles, along with 3 years as a regulatory consultant implementing compliant sales processes and monitoring arrangements for the AR channel. Prior to her current role, Sue spent 3 years at Deloitte. Sue is a Chartered Insurer, is fully ACII and FPC qualified and also holds the Mortgage Advice Qualification. She is a former tutor and exam assessor for the ACII/Advanced Diploma.
Pat Mulligan (Senior Associate)
E: PMulligan@bovill.com
Pat is a qualified accountant and brings with him a number of years of regulatory experience covering a range of sectors from time spent in industry and at the FSA.
Most recently Pat has worked within FSA Supervision where he looked after retail asset management and stock broking firms and was prominent in helping to categorise these firms correctly under the Capital Requirements Directive.
His time at the FSA has also included work with general insurance regulation and with corporate finance, fund management and personal finance firms.
Prior to working at the regulator, Pat had 20 years experience of accounting work in the banking industry and was chief accountant at a Finnish bank.
Since joining Bovill, Pat has provided clients with support in a variety of topics including the provision of general and technical advice on a broad range of prudential and routine compliance matters.
Kate Robinson (Senior Associate)
E: KRobinson@bovill.com
Kate Robinson is a Senior Associate at Bovill, where her area of specialisation is FSA regulation of retail financial service firms. Kate has worked in financial services for over 8 years and brings with her extensive experience from an industry perspective. She has great awareness of the practicalities of managing the compliance issues which firms face both on a day to day basis and through large scale initiatives.
Having worked for a large intermediary firm her previous experience includes FSA Arrow preparation, Consumer Credit Act interpretation, training and competence reviews, regulated complaints handling and Financial Promotion review. She has sound knowledge of the general insurance and mortgage intermediary regimes, and has provided training (including senior management coaching) relating to FSA regulatory requirements, in addition to on-going compliance support to a wide range of third party clients.
She has considerable experience of the PPI market and the implementation of the FSA's "Treating Customers Fairly" principles-based initiative. This has included working with senior management teams, appointed representatives and intermediaries to define and practically apply appropriate arrangements that fit their wide-ranging business models.
After graduating with a BSc (hons) Science degree, Kate joined Freedom Finance Plc where she spent five years establishing and running the compliance department. Prior to joining Bovill Kate worked as a consultant for Santander on their PPI business. Kate is also CeMap and Prince 2 qualified.
Amelie Snape (Senior Associate)
E: ASnape@bovill.com
Amelie is a Senior Associate at Bovill, having recently joined the team from AIG Investments in London, where she spent two years as a Compliance Associate. Amelie's in-house experience for this global institutional asset manager spanned fixed income, equities, emerging markets, private equity and real estate businesses. She was responsible for portfolio and transaction monitoring, designing and leading reviews of back office operations, developing internal policies and procedures and review and approval of Financial Promotions. Amelie was also responsible for breach resolution across diverse business units, providing ongoing support to the business on trade compliance, and advising the business on training and competence and approved persons regimes.
Prior to joining AIG Investments, Amelie spent two and a half years working as a Compliance Analyst for Quilter (prev. Citi Quilter and Morgan Stanley Quilter). Amelie worked extensively with the business in her role for this private client investment management firm, gaining compliance experience in financial promotions, anti-money laundering and KYC issues. She also led front office compliance reviews of Guernsey and Dublin offices, delivered training and conducted detailed compliance monitoring.
Whilst studying for her First Class BSc (hons) in Neuroscience from the University of Manchester, Amelie spent one year on a professional placement in Basel. Amelie then worked at EFG Private Bank in London before moving to Quilter. Amelie is a member of the Securities and Investments Institute, and holds the SII Diploma in Investment Compliance.
Fahad Ahmad (Associate)
E: FAhmad@bovill.com
Fahad joined Bovill having completed his training contract and qualifying as a Solicitor with SJ Berwin LLP.
During his time at SJ Berwin Fahad worked in the highly regarded Financial Services regulatory team where he worked with a range of clients such as investment banks, private equity and hedge fund managers, and corporate finance advisers and helped advise them on a range of compliance and regulatory matters.
Fahad worked with the specialist financial markets team in the litigation department in matters that involved regulated firms, fraud and FSA investigations such as market abuse and insider dealing. He also assisted company directors with informal negotiations with regulators.
During his time at Bovill Fahad has helped clients establish their business in the UK and assisted them to obtain regulatory approval from the Financial Services Authority by advising how far authorisation was required and drafting all relevant FSA application forms.
Fahad graduated from King's College London in 2006 with a Law LLB (Hons) Degree and completed his Legal Practice Course at BPP, London in 2007.
Abena Lewis (Associate)
E: ALewis@bovill.com
Abena joined Bovill following work experience at Clifford Chance and Macfarlanes. She has extensive knowledge of domestic and international financial services regulation, particularly with regards to monitoring and reporting on legal and regulatory developments in the finance industry.
Abena has an LLB (Hons) Law Degree from King's College London, and passed her Legal Practice Course with Distinction in 2007. Abena also passed the New York Bar Exam in February 2009.
Ramya Puttanna (Associate)
E: RPuttanna@bovill.com
Ramya joined Bovill after completing an MSc in Economics at the University of Warwick. While studying, she also gained considerable experience in client-focused roles by providing both practical and legal advice at her local Citizens Advice Bureau.
Ramya works with a variety of clients, but mainly those in wholesale investment business. Her clients range from large global companies in the property sector to small corporate finance boutiques and fund managers. She has completed a number of FSA authorisations for clients, including development of regulatory business plans, financial projections and liaison with FSA Authorisations Team. In addition, Ramya provides ongoing compliance support, assisting with FSA financial returns, variation of permission applications, compliance health checks and guidance on anti money laundering. Ramya has also been involved in developing online modules for compliance training providers.
Ramya has developed relationships with a number of ongoing support clients, such that they regularly call on her specialist knowledge of financial returns and regulatory reporting.
Emma Cooper (Office Assistant)
E: ECooper@bovill.com
Emma works alongside the Financial Controller/HR Manager, assisting her in general administrative duties as well as ad-hoc office related tasks. She also helps coordinate recruitment, assists with marketing events and generally supports the team.