Global Banking Leaders Programme - Executive Education

OVERVIEW
METHODOLOGY
PROGRAMME OUTLINE - WEEK 1
PROGRAMME OUTLINE - WEEK 2
TRAINERS

OVERVIEW

UPDATE : Registration is now closed for this programme as we are at full capacity. However, there is a waiting list available and if you would like to register your name for that, please email helena@asianbankingschool.com

We would like to thank you and everyone from the industry for their overwhelming support of the Global Banking Leaders Programme.
The annual Global Banking Leaders Programme is a flagship programme of the Asian Banking School (ABS) and was launched in 2016. The first of its kind to be developed specifically for the banking industry in Malaysia, it is a collaboration between ABS and the Cass Business School, City, University of London. After a great first run in 2016, this will be the second year of the Programme.

Collaborating with the Cass Business School on this ground breaking programme was an ideal choice for ABS. They are ranked in the top one percent of business schools worldwide, well renowned for their world class faculty and research, strategically located in the heart of the financial district in the City of London and have an enviable network of business practitioners providing professional networking opportunities for participants of this programme.

The Global Banking Leaders programme will be delivered over two weeks. The first week will be delivered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the state-of-the-art facilities of the Asian Banking School. The second week, will be delivered in London, United Kingdom at the centrally located Cass Business School. Following successful completion of the Programme, participants will become alumni of the Cass Business School and be part of an illustrious network of executives from around the world.
WEEK 1
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
27 – 30 Nov 2017
WEEK 2
London, United Kingdom
4 – 8 Dec 2017
PROGRAMME FEE*
MALAYSIAN PARTICIPANTS
MYR
80,000
/ PAX
INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPANTS
USD
22,500
/ PAX
*inclusive of GST
Fee includes lunch and other refreshments, as well as programme materials for one participant
STAFF TRAINING FUND (STF) CLAIMS
ABS has received approval for special exemption to be made to the STF Credit Guideline to allow qualifying Malaysian banks to claim the full amount of their roundtrip airfare to and from London for the purpose of attending the 2nd week of the Global Banking Leaders programme. STF claims for accommodation of up to £200 per night are also allowed to be included for the London portion of this programme. This is in addition to the STF-claimable programme fee. It is an unprecedented decision made for the usage of STF.
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Registration is closed
METHODOLOGY

The Global Banking Leaders programme is delivered through a mixture of lectures, interactive debates, topical case studies and group-work by a balance of Cass Business School faculty members and experienced industry experts. It will be led by internationally renowned academic Professor Steve Thomas, and will draw from Cass experts in banking and leadership.

While the overall learning will be done via classroom style, it will not be the only element of the programme. The second week will see the use of a mix of interactive classroom sessions, field visits, industry talks and networking engagements to provide for a complete immersive learning experience; and what better place to do all that than in London, one of the world’s greatest cities and the world’s leading financial centre (as ranked by the Global Financial Centres Index 2017).

PROGRAMME OUTLINE - WEEK 1

27 – 30 NOVEMBER 2017, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Schedule	Mon, 27 November	Tue, 28 November	Wed, 29 November	Thu, 30 November
9:00am -12:30pm 10:30am - 10:45am (break)	Welcome Session HR and Leadership Challenges in Running a Bank (Steve Thomas) Creating scalability and sustainable profitable growth Challenges of talent management Retention and reward strategies Rebuilding the balance sheet and reputation	Behavioural Biases in Financial Institutions (Steve Thomas) Decision-making in context Rules vs Experts Enhancing Leadership Impact Authentic leaders and values- driven leadership Understanding following needs and expectations Exercising power and influence in constructive ways Leveraging political systems and processes Practising situational and transactional leadership approaches	Behavioural Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis (Steve Thomas) Evolution of risk perceptions Forgetting history Regulatory developments Developing and Managing High Performance Teams Leveraging team and group dynamics Selecting and balancing team roles How to build and maintain effective teams Highlighting and addressing common team problems and pitfalls Addressing ‘silo-ism’ and inter-team conflict and competition	Leading Strategic Change in Challenging Times (part 1) (Cliff Oswick) Why most change programmes fail Core assumptions of traditional change initiatives Developing an entrepreneurial change culture Identifying and challenging ‘stupid rules’ Emerging change imperatives
12:30pm - 1:30pm	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:30pm - 5:00pm 3:30pm - 3:45pm (break)	Building a Leadership Brand (Cliff Oswick) What does a world-class leader look like? What is my current leadership style? Developing effective contingent leadership strategies Sharpening leadership decision-making processes	Motivating Followers and Creating Engagement (Cliff Oswick) Isolating motivational variables and influences Appreciating and managing individual differences Managing intrinsic and extrinsic systems of reward and incentivization Maintaining equity and delegating effectively	Stakeholder Management and Effective Collaboration (Cliff Oswick) Stakeholder identification and prioritisation Understanding and engaging your stakeholders Managing ambiguity and competing demands Effective stakeholder negotiation Overcoming competition and promoting collaboration	Leading Strategic Change in Challenging Times(part 2) (Cliff Oswick) Review of new change techniques Integrated banking-based change case study Programme review and personal action planning
5:00pm - 6:00pm	Project Coaching - Steve Thomas	Project Coaching - Steve Thomas	Project Coaching - Steve Thomas

Note: There are no classes on Fri, 1 December as it is a public holiday (Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday) in Malaysia.

DAY 1 – 27 NOVEMBER 2017

Morning Session : HR and Leadership Challenges in Running a Bank

The programme will open with a session that will set the tone for the two-week programme and represents a broad overview of the many and varied challenges facing bank leaders today. Many of these themes will be revisited during the programme. It will start with an overview of the leadership challenges that are specific to banks with particular emphasis on building and maintaining sustainable growth, analyse the challenges around talent management, staff retention and rewards. It will continue with an analysis of banks’ balance sheets and in particular what this means in terms of “rebuilding a bank’s reputation”.

Afternoon Session : Building a Leadership Brand

The session will open with a discussion around the topic of leadership in general, focusing on key leadership attributes and exploring what a world-class leader in banking might look like. Participants will then be invited to consider in turn: a) their current leadership style; b) the type of leader they would like to become; and c) what steps they would have to take to get there. The session will conclude with each participant creating a personal “brand leadership” statement. They will be encouraged to review this after each session (including those in Week 2), as they come across components that they would want to weave into their respective leadership brands.

DAY 2 – 28 NOVEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Enhancing Leadership Impact

The morning session will start with a brief overview of behavioural biases in financial institutions. In particular, the focus will be on decision-making and the topic: rules versus experts in the banking sectors and the challenges associated with this. This will be followed by a core session on effective leadership and why this is important to the success of organisations.

In the core leadership session, participants will come to understand the complex and contingent nature of leading in an engaged and engaging way. It will provide an opportunity to develop the skills, knowledge and capabilities which are central to leading within banks. More specifically, as a result, participants will have a heightened self-awareness and greater understanding of their impact upon others to the extent that when they return to the workplace they will be able to employ a range of leadership strategies; lead in a context-sensitive way; delegate more effectively; exhibit an enhanced ability to encourage, motivate and engage subordinates; demonstrate an increased capacity for giving and receiving meaningful feedback; and, improve their repertoire of approaches for handling poor performance and constructively managing conflict.

Afternoon Session : Motivating Followers and Creating Engagement

The afternoon will be dedicated to ‘leading others’ (e.g. leading teams, motivating followers, managing conflict, delegating and engaging others). In particular, this session will address topics such as the variables and influences in managing individual differences and managing intrinsic and extrinsic systems of rewards and incentivization, maintaining and delegating effectively across teams.

DAY 3 – 29 NOVEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Developing and Managing High-Performance Teams

The morning session will start with an overview of behavioural lessons from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and lessons learned from experience. The session will touch upon key lessons learned including the evolution of risk perceptions, forgetting history and regulatory developments that have arisen as a result of the GFC.

The core morning session on developing and managing team performance comprises a situational component and begins by explaining how people can be seen through different lenses - how they prefer to behave, how they are behaving, and what behaviours others probably observe. The participants will also be asked to consider the importance of: a) the unexploited behaviours, which could be leveraged; b) over-utilised behaviours which by virtue of being overdone could become weaknesses; and c) behaviours that take a person beyond their comfort zone. Analysis of feedback and subsequent discussion would form the first part of the diagnostic in terms of establishing the self-leadership development the bank leader might require to progress. The self-awareness component of the programme will also provide an opportunity for participants to consider the adaptation in style required to deal with colleagues in different situations and with colleagues with behaviour and leadership styles that differ from their own.

The session will then move on to consider how a team is likely to behave. Where does a team have strengths to be exploited and blind-spots to be addressed? This stage of the session will also provide an opportunity to introduce the concept of the “problem-solving wheel”, where bank leaders can learn how to bring different behaviours in to play in a logical sequence to achieve the optimum result. The final part of this session will look at how a bank leader, armed with heightened self-awareness and an appreciation of how their team is likely to behave, can develop a team so that it is as efficient and effective as possible.

Afternoon Session : Stakeholder Management and Effective Collaboration

There are a wide range of stakeholders, both internal and external that are crucial for the success of a bank. Being able to manage these stakeholders so that they can help senior bank management lead their banks to a sustainable and profitable future is crucial. In this session, participants will be encouraged to appreciate that stakeholder management is a critical component to the successful delivery of any project, programme or activity. During the session, they will use a number of tools and techniques to consider in turn how to identify stakeholders; how to classify them in terms of interest and power/influence; how to understand the goals and aspirations of the stakeholders; and how to engage with them to maximize their potentially positive impact on the goals of senior bank management. Once again, the communication strategies learned on Day 2 will be applied.

DAY 4 – 30 NOVEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Leading Strategic Change in Challenging Times (Part 1)

The morning session will start with an appreciation of processes and best practice in managing strategic changes in organisation but with a particular emphasis on the banking sector taking into account recent well-known examples. Different approaches to planned organisational changes will be discussed with particular emphasis on planned as well as emerging change programmes. Whilst exploring key change management principles the programme will also tackle the challenge of “resistance to change” and overcoming “resistance to change” with a practical change intervention case study as an example for delegates to learn from and apply within their own context.

Afternoon Session : Leading Strategic Change in Challenging Times (Part 2)

The afternoon will build on the morning by considering how bank leaders can deliver change within a regulatory, ethical, and customer context, while sustaining staff engagement levels. The session will focus on a range of topics essential for successful bank leadership including the drivers for change; the levers of effective change, the management of implementation risk; how “hearts and minds” can be won; how to resolve dilemmas; and how to deal with organisational tensions. Throughout the session, opportunities will be taken to apply some of the learning from the morning session in terms of effective communication strategies.

Note : Participants are encouraged to make flight arrangements to London for Week 2 of the programme that same evening at the end of Day 4 in order to allow time for them to get well adjusted before starting classes the following Monday.

Programme Venue : Asian Banking School

The programme for Week 1 in Kuala Lumpur will be held at the Asian Banking School (ABS). It offers a modern and aesthetically pleasing learning environment with state-of-the-art facilities providing an ideal location for training. ABS is conveniently located in Nu Tower 2 in the new business hub of the city, Kuala Lumpur Sentral. Adjacent to Aloft Hotel and next to the NU Sentral Shopping Mall, ABS is only steps away from Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station, Malaysia’s largest transit hub, and 5 minutes from the Monorail Station.

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PROGRAMME OUTLINE - WEEK 2

4 – 8 DECEMBER 2017, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Schedule	Mon, 4 December	Tue, 5 December	Wed, 6 December	Thu, 7 December	Fri, 8 December
9:00am -12:30pm 10:30am - 11:00am (break)	Welcome and Registration (8:30am - 9:00am) Economic and Policy Background to the Global Financial Markets (Trevor Williams) Introduction to Financial markets Considerations and impact on the banking industry (credit, asset prices, bonds, yields)	Regulatory Initiatives in Banking and Capital Markets (Gerry Harvey: 09:00-10:30) Dark times in action Behavioural clusters Managing problems (Julian Sawyer: 11:00 -12:30) Building a new Bank in the UK Overview of proposition Outline of process to become a Bank Building the Bank: ways of working & challenges	Digital Transformation in the Banking Sector (Gianvito Lanzolla) Where does digital transformation come from? Where is it heading? The unstoppable business transformation forces and the strategic imperatives Implications for leadership and governance	The opportunities for banks from Robo investing (Andrew Clare) Rules based investing (Shaun Port) What is robo/digital wealth management? Different variants across the world Demo of the Nutmeg on-boarding process Future of digital propositions	Project presentations with panel Matthew Gardiner Bob Scanlon Gerry Harvey Andrew Pullman 12:00 – 12.30 PM Conclusion Certification and Group Photo
12:30pm - 1:30pm	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:30pm - 4:30pm 3:00pm - 3:15pm (break)	Customer Relations and Customer Centricity (Sionade Robinson) Outside-in sources of customer value Customer relationships as assets Building a customer- centric organisation	Project Work (David Mellor / Steve Thomas) Apply knowledge gained from Weeks 1 & 2 to participants’ own projects	FinTech and the Banking Sector (Matthew Gardiner) FinTech developments and impact on banking practices Challenges and opportunities Implications for banks, customers and security risks	Leveraging networks and enhancing collaborations (Santi Furnari) Leveraging networks to generate new business and leverage existing business Creating value for career and organisation The reciprocity ring simulation exercise	The Programme ends after lunch and participants are free to enjoy their time in London.
4:30pm - 5:30pm	Invited Speaker Session	Offsite visit to a FinTech company to gain insight into the developments made and affecting the financial services industry	Invited Speaker Session	Invited Speaker Session
5:30pm - 6:30pm	Project Coaching		Project work	Project work
After hours	Evening Reception & Dinner at the Reform Club 104 Pall Mall, London		Free time	Farewell Dinner

DAY 1 – 4 DECEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Economic and Policy Background to the Global Financial Markets

Arguably the uncertainties surrounding the global economy and its financial markets have become elevated recently. This session will introduce participants to the main factors driving financial markets and aim to shed light upon these uncertainties. The session will begin with a consideration of both the monetary and fiscal backdrop, before moving on to considering how this backdrop will affect the major global economies. The session will then move on to consider how the current, unique mix of policy will impact demand for credit and therefore the banking industry. We will also consider the impact of the global backdrop on asset prices, in particular the prices of bonds and the related impact on the yield curve, which is the traditional source of bank profitability. Finally, participants will be asked to look forward to consider the likely evolution of the global economy over the medium and long-term and to consider the likely impact on banking.

Afternoon Session : Customer Relations and Customer Centricity

The flattening of yield curves across the global economy, explored in the morning session, means that banks have to be acutely aware of the sources of their profitability and revenue. To enhance and protect their revenues in such a competitive market, and given the global economic backdrop, banks needs to maximise the value of their relationships with clients. In this session, we will explore the relationship between the bank and its customers because organisational profitability will be heavily influenced by the value of customers acquired; how they are served; and the success of the organisation in retaining and growing profitable relationships. We will examine outside-in sources of customer value, evaluation of customer relationships as assets and how leaders must build customer-centric organisations that can retain and develop loyal customer relationships for organisational performance and sustainability.

DAY 2 – 5 DECEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Regulatory Initiatives in Banking and Capital Markets

The Global Financial Crisis has caused financial authorities and bank regulators to reconsider the pre-crisis regulatory arrangements. These reviews have had a significant impact on all areas of financial services, but has had a particular impact on the activities of banks. In this session, we will consider the widespread impact of changes in the regulatory environment. These changes include a renewed focus on money-laundering; the adoption of macro-prudential tools by some central banks as an alternative to more traditional interest rate or exchange rate targeting; a focus on investment intermediaries that provide services to clients around shares, bonds, units in collective investment schemes and derivatives (collectively known as ‘financial instruments’); and the organised trading of financial instruments.

The regulations currently being adopted across the globe are generally aimed at improving the functioning of financial markets and strengthening investor protection. But what impact will they have on banks and their operations? This session aims to address this question.

Afternoon Session : Project Work

Delegates will have the opportunity to apply knowledge from weeks 1 and 2 to their own projects under the supervision and guidance of expert facilitators. Delegates will then have the opportunity to undertake an offsite visit to a Fintech company at the cutting edge of their industry and learn from developments in the financial Fintech sector.

DAY 3 – 6 DECEMBER 2017

Morning Session : Digital Transformation in the Banking Sector

The internet and developments in computer technology are revolutionizing many areas of our lives, from health to shopping. The banking industry is also being transformed, with the potential for much more transformation in the near term. As an example, internet and mobile banking transactions in Britain have reached £1bn per day, while banking apps for mobile devices have been downloaded at a rate of 15,000 per day since the start of last year, and internet banking services receive, on average, seven million log-ins per day. The pace of change is rapid in other geographic locations too. These rapid changes in banking practices, and the potential for far greater changes, are both a tremendous opportunity and threat to traditional banking. Are banks taking full advantage of these changes? What are the implications of this rapid digitization for traditional bank branches, for bank clients and for banking security? This session aims to address all of these questions.

Afternoon Session : FinTech and the Banking Sector

The morning session will have established the degree of digital change that some parts of the banking sector are going through. Participants will now be aware that digital technologies are not only profoundly transforming but also the source of great uncertainty. In this session, participants will explore the relationship between digital technologies and the forces that are transforming products and services, business models, innovation systems and value chains in the financial services sector. By the close of the session, participants will be able to develop a ‘digital transformation roadmap’ for their own banks to help them make the most of the on-going digital revolution. With the roadmap they will be able to begin to embrace digital transformation, something that they need to do before their competitors.

DAY 4 – 7 DECEMBER 2017

Morning Session : The Opportunities for Banks from Robo Investing

Identifying a client’s financial requirements, connecting this requirement to their risk tolerance, building an investment portfolio with appropriate proportions in each asset class and then selecting the right funds to populate this portfolio, all in one seamless process, is the holy grail of investment advisory. In this session, we show how it is possible to develop an approach to solving this problem which we believe is both theoretically and empirically robust at every stage, embodying comprehensive financial planning with sophisticated client risk profiling, a sound strategic asset allocation framework, and a fund selection technique for the major UK IMA sectors which has a 15 year proven track record of outperformance of both sector average and investment benchmark performance for many sectors. We believe that such a process will both improve a client’s experience of investment and investment advice immeasurably (which will in turn improve the experience of the adviser too!) while simultaneously addressing the major criticisms offered by the UK regulator of many of the misguided approaches prevalent in the advisory space. In addition, the process that we propose pays particular regard to transaction costs, both fiscal and organisational, that an adviser incurs in meeting client needs and which is crucial to the industry-wide acceptability of this or any other joined up investment advisory process.

Afternoon Session : Leveraging Networks and Enhancing Collaboration

The session will include a facilitated and interactive discussion of the most up-to-date academic thinking on networking-for-business issues: what are the most effective networking styles to generate new business and leverage existing business? How can you balance a giving and taking networking style? How do you create value for both your career and your organization through networking? The session will include a live demonstration of the “Reciprocity Ring”: a rigorously tested group-based simulation that allows participants to discover and practice the proven-effective principle of generalized reciprocity for enhancing collaboration across business units and breaking silos.

DAY 5 – 8 DECEMBER 2017

Afternoon Session : Project Presentations

Throughout the two weeks, the participants will be expected to work on assigned projects related to the management and leadership challenges that they are facing in their banks. The project gives participants the chance to draw on all of the leadership and banking-specific elements discussed in the programme over the two weeks. These projects will be completed in small groups, where each group will benefit from the guidance of the programme leaders over this period. The culmination of this project work will be a presentation to an expert panel – comprised of a selection of the banking and leadership programme lecturers and chaired by the programme leaders. Each group will present their project findings and will receive feedback from the expert panel.

BECOMING ALUMNI

Participants will become alumni of the Cass Business School following successful completion of the Programme and be part of an illustrious network of executives from around the world.

Programme Venue : Cass Business School

Week 2 in London will be held at Cass Business School, City, University of London. Cass is located in the City of London, one of the world's most dynamic financial and commercial centres, and is a physical expression of their fundamental belief - that business is both a practical and theoretical discipline.

The Cass Executive Education campus, where the participants of the programme will be, is at 200 Aldersgate Street. It is opposite the Museum of London and close to St. Paul’s, Barbican, Farringdon and Moorgate tube stations.

ACCOMODATION RATES ARE PROVIDED IN THE PROGRAMME BROCHURE

TRAINERS

PROFESSOR STEPHEN THOMAS
Programme Leader
The Global Banking Leaders Programme will be led by one of Cass Business School’s most experienced Faculty, Professor Stephen Thomas. He is an internationally renowned academic, and has held numerous senior posts around the world. He has held professorships in Finance at the University of Wales, in Financial Markets at the University of Southampton, and joined Cass as Professor of Finance in 2007 where he is currently Course Director for the Executive MBA. Professor Thomas was also a Visiting Professor at Queen's in Canada between 1986 and 1987, and has been a Visiting Professor at the ISMA Centre of the University of Reading since 1996. He has won numerous prestigious academic prizes including Prizes for Best Paper at the Global Finance Conference in Dublin in 2005, and Best Market Microstructure Paper at the Mid-West Finance Meetings in Chicago in 2006. In the same year, he was ranked 11th in Europe for research in finance over the previous decade.

Professor Thomas has recent experience as an investment strategist and partner for a private client firm, Firecrest Hambro, and on the Investment Management Committee of Hasley Investment Management, a multi-strategy investment fund. He founded and edits a range of publications on global credit with Interactive Data (formerly FT). He has also undertaken consultancy and teaching in risk and asset management and corporate finance at various global financial institutions. He is involved in professional exams for the investment industry, including serving on the exams and education committee for CFA UK. He established Solent Systematic Investment Strategies as a vehicle to create investment indices for global investment banks.
PROFESSOR ANDREW CLARE
Professor Andrew Clare is the Professor of Asset Management at Cass Business School and the Associate Dean responsible for Cass’s MSc programme, which is the largest in Europe. He was a Senior Research Manager in the Monetary Analysis wing of the Bank of England which supported the work of the Monetary Policy Committee. While at the Bank, Andrew was responsible for equity market and derivatives research. Andrew also spent three years working as the Financial Economist for Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), where he was responsible for the group's investment process and where he began the development of LGIM's initial Liability Driven Investment offering. He is the co-author of “The Trustee Guide to Investment”. He has also published extensively in both academic and practitioner journals on a wide range of economic and financial market issues. In a survey published in 2007, Andrew was ranked as the world's ninth most prolific finance author of the past fifty years. Andrew serves on the investment committee of the GEC Marconi pension plan, which oversees the investments and investment strategy of this £4.0bn scheme, and is a trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the £2.5bn Magnox Electric Group Pension scheme.
PROFESSOR CLIFF OSWICK
Chair in Organizational Theory, Cass Business School
Cliff joined Cass in 2011 as a Professor in Organization Theory. He also served as Head of the Faculty of Management and Deputy Dean at Cass between January 2011 and January 2016. Before going to Cass, he spent 4 years at Queen Mary, University of London as a Professor of Organization Theory in the School of Business and Management and served as Dean of the Faculty of Law & Social Sciences (2007-2011). He has also previously held posts at University of Leicester (2002-2007), King’s College, University of London (1990-2002), and Westminster University (1988-1990). Before becoming a full-time academic in 1988, Cliff worked as a HR manager in local government. Cliff’s research focuses on the application of aspects of discourse, dramaturgy, tropes, narrative and rhetoric to the study of organizations and organizing. He is particularly interested in the study of leadership processes, employee engagement, and organizational change. He has published over 120 academic articles and contributions to edited volumes, including contributions to Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management, Organization, and Organization Studies. He is the European Editor for Journal of Organizational Change Management and Associate Editor for Journal of Change Management. He is also a co-director of ICROD (the International Centre for Research on Organizational Discourse, Strategy and Change), a member of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development), a member of the National Training Laboratory, chair of the board of trustees for The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and a member of the Executive Board of the ODC (Organization Development and Change) Division of the Academy of Management. Beyond his academic responsibilities, Cliff has also undertaken a variety of consultancy projects, senior coaching activities and executive development assignments with a number of high profile corporate clients.
DR SIONADE ROBINSON
Associate Dean, Cass Business School
Dr Sionade Robinson formally re-joined the Faculty of Management at Cass in 2010 to take on the role of FTMBA Course Director. She has worked with Cass for several years as a Senior Visiting Fellow, writing case studies and designing and delivering programmes in account management, leading and creating organizational cultures that support service excellence for Cass Executive Education programmes. She is a specialist in customer experience management and now also teaches a highly rated Relationship Marketing and Management elective across all MBA programmes and a Customer Service and Relationship Marketing elective for the specialist Masters programmes.
Prior to re-starting her academic career, Sionade had worked for many years as a management consultant leading clients to improved client and customer relationships and financial performance through understanding what clients value, how to demonstrate value through key behaviours and how to effectively measure progress and impact. Sionade began her career with Boston based The Forum Corporation and was also employed by operational improvement consultancy Celerant. Latterly she founded her own firm, Cape Consulting Ltd which advised blue chip companies on implementing strategies of service excellence, loyalty and CRM. Clients of Cape Consulting included Barclays, BBC, Citroen, HP, Virgin Atlantic, Aviva, SAGA, the RAC and from the legal sector Allen and Overy, CMS and Shoosmiths. Sionade published her book Customer Loyalty: A Guide for Time Travellers in 2005.
DR SANTI FUNARI
Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Cass Business School
Dr. Santi Furnari is Senior Lecturer in Strategy at Cass Business School, City, University of London. Prior to joining Cass, he was an IRI Foundation Fellow at the University of Chicago. He does research on how new ideas, new practices, and new industries emerge, particularly in the context of creative industries and creative projects. He has also studied the performance consequences of different business models and organization designs. To address these issues, Dr. Furnari uses institutional theory, configurational approaches, qualitative methods, and fuzzy-set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA). His paper titled “A Chemistry of Organization” (with Anna Grandori) has been among the first empirical applications of the fs/QCA methodology in management studies.
His research has been published in leading academic journals, such as the Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Management, Organization Studies, and Strategic Organization (among others). His paper titled “Interstitial Spaces” has received the AMR Best Paper Award for the best paper published in the Academy of Management Review in 2014. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Organization Studies and Journal of Management Studies.
Dr. Furnari is also the Deputy Director of the school's Centre for Research in Corporate Governance, the Coordinator of the Faculty of Management's Research Workshops, and he served as member of the school's Research Committee (from 2013 to 2016). He received (in 2013) the Staff Recognition Award for the outstanding quality of his teaching.
DAVID MELLOR
Leadership expert, Cass Business School Senior Fellow
Since 2001, David has developed a portfolio of activities which derive principally from 25 years’ experience in commercial and investment banking with HSBC and Deutsche Bank. His consultancy activities embrace strategic planning and implementation, and mentoring existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. He is a recognised expert in his field, regularly speaking at conferences and running seminars and workshops. He provides one-on-one and group mentoring to aspiring entrepreneurs, many of whom are aiming to establish themselves as consultants. He published “From Crew to Captain” in 2010, written for people making the transition from working for big institutions to working for themselves. He has followed that up by launching “From Crew to Captain: A Privateer’s Tale” in 2014, which is written for people establishing consultancy practices. The third book in the trilogy – “From Crew to Captain: Commander of the Fleet” was released in November 2015. He is also co-author of FT Publishing’s “Inspirational Gamechangers” which launched in 2015.
David is an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Finance at Cass Business School, where he has run workshops on managing strategic change, entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, leadership, building high performance teams and sales. In addition, he has acted as course director and provided facilitation and mentoring support to participants in small groups and on a one-to-one basis. David is a Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs. He holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and is a member of the Institute of Directors. He is a Certified PRISM Brain Mapping Practitioner.
PROFESSOR GIANVITO LANZOLLA
Professor of Strategy, Head of the Faculty of Management and Director of the Digital Leadership Research Centre, Cass Business School
The Global Banking Leaders Programme will be led by one of Cass Business School’s most experienced Faculty, Professor Stephen Thomas. He is an internationally renowned academic, and has held numerous senior posts around the world. He has held professorships in Finance at the University of Wales, in Financial Markets at the University of Southampton, and joined Cass as Professor of Finance in 2007 where he is currently Course Director for the Executive MBA. Professor Thomas was also a Visiting Professor at Queen's in Canada between 1986 and 1987, and has been a Visiting Professor at the ISMA Centre of the University of Reading since 1996. He has won numerous prestigious academic prizes including Prizes for Best Paper at the Global Finance Conference in Dublin in 2005, and Best Market Microstructure Paper at the Mid-West Finance Meetings in Chicago in 2006. In the same year, he was ranked 11th in Europe for research in finance over the previous decade.

Professor Thomas has recent experience as an investment strategist and partner for a private client firm, Firecrest Hambro, and on the Investment Management Committee of Hasley Investment Management, a multi-strategy investment fund. He founded and edits a range of publications on global credit with Interactive Data (formerly FT). He has also undertaken consultancy and teaching in risk and asset management and corporate finance at various global financial institutions. He is involved in professional exams for the investment industry, including serving on the exams and education committee for CFA UK. He established Solent Systematic Investment Strategies as a vehicle to create investment indices for global investment banks.
PROGRAMME SPEAKERS
TREVOR WILLIAMS
Trevor Williams is the former Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, a position he held for well over 10 years. During this time, he established a highly-regarded, award-winning, team of economists analysing global and domestic data to support clients ranging from financial institutions, large corporates to SMEs with bespoke insight.
He is a visiting Professor at the University of Derby, rotating Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee (SMPC) and author of Trading Economics: A Guide to Economic Statistics for Practitioners (with Victoria Turton). Trevor also lectures at CASS Business School and Cardiff University. He is on the editorial board of Economia and the Journal of Corporate Treasury Management. He previously lectured in Economics and Business Statistics, before working in the UK Government Economic Service (GES). He sits on various charities, including as Patron of Reach Society, Chairman of Ballet Black, and Through the Looking Glass. He regularly writes articles for publications and appears in the financial press and on television to discuss and comment on economic issues. Trevor now runs a consultancy which specialises in economic analysis encompassing ‘big data’.
MATTHEW GARDINER
Matthew Gardiner is the founder of CatchLondon. He consults to banks, financial institutions, FinTechs, high growth technology businesses, corporations, ‘Scale Ups’ and VCs on blockchain, payments, compliance, risk, cyber security and data architectures. He is an incisive public speaker, up to the minute on developing emergent strategies with FinTech, Blockchain, AI, AR, VR, IoT, SaaS, DaaS, Cyber Security, Open Banking API, PSD2, MiFID II, InsurTech, EdTech and other emerging technologies including BioTech, AgriTech and PropTech.
Matthew has substantial networks in the UK, US, APAC and MENA spanning banks, FinTech companies, corporate VCs and insurers including Blockchain.com, Innovate Finance, the FCA's Regulatory Sandbox, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, State Street, Rise, Level 39, E&Y, PwC, Google Ventures, People’s Bank of China, China Life, TenCent, Alibaba, PPMG, MPesa Transfer Wise, Revolut, Braintree, VocaLink, MoFo, Union Pay, Open Banking API and WC3. He is a mentor at FinTech accelerators in London, New York and Hong Kong. He sits on the Advisory Board of Lysis Financial, a regulatory advisory firm, speaks at CSFI FinTech events and is a contributor to The FinTech Book.
Matthew is a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School Executive Education where he has led programmes for C-Suite level banking, financial services and cyber security delegates with diverse portfolios from EMEA, APAC and MENA. He is scaling engagement with NGOs and tech companies in 27+ countries at Techfugees.com.
JULIAN SAWYER
Julian Sawyer oversees Starling Bank’s payments system, operating and recruitment structure and supplier relationships, in his role as Chief Operating Officer. Julian’s career has involved extensive experience in the payments industry, working as a management consultant across the UK banking sector as well as the payment and card schemes. In 2012, Julian sold the consulting business Bluerock of which he was Founder and CEO. He is motivated by Starling’s vision of building a new kind of banking product for consumers.
GERRY HARVEY
Gerry Harvey is the Chief Executive of the FICC Markets Standards Board (FMSB). He was Group Head of Compliance for the ICAP Group from 2010 to 2015. Prior to ICAP he worked at a number of organisations including the Global Banking and Markets Division of RBS, Nikko Europe, LIFFE and NatWest Markets. He is a qualified Solicitor and worked at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy in London.
SHAUN PORT
Shaun Port is the Chief Investment Officer at Nutmeg where he is responsible for the design and implementation of the investment process. Nutmeg is the online investment manager that makes it easy to do more with your money and allows to create personalised investment funds for any goal.
ANDREW PULLMAN
Andrew Pullman is a human resources specialist focused on improving business performance by engendering high level performance from its people. Motivated by close partnerships with businesses to add value through ‘best of breed’ ideas and solutions.
ROBERT ‘BOB’ SCANLON
Bob Scanlon was former Group Chief Credit Officer at Standard Chartered Bank PLC. He is a risk professional with over 40 years of risk and business experience and has covered risk for all banking clients of large diverse Banks. He has gained experience and specialized in both emerging and mature economies with business models that range from Finance through manufacturing, natural resource including oil, gas, shale, wind and agriculture, to all forms of manufacturing from high tech to base industries. He has worked for 6 banking institutions during his 40+ years in the industry.
Bob has had global geographical roles covering all countries and has worked abroad for 4 years during his career. He has held regulatory approval from a number of regulators including the UK’s FSA, Swiss National Bank (EBK), Monetary Authority of Singapore and held a board seat for Boston Re - a reinsurance company owned by Credit Suisse. He has spoken for The Bank for International Settlements, The Bank of England, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Bank of Washington, The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, The Monetary Authority of Singapore, and The Swiss National Bank. Bob has also held a Board of Governors seat for the Global Association Risk Professionals for 12 years. He was also the UK Chairman for the RMA in the UK for 5 years.