National Employer Board Biographies
Sylvia Perrins - National Director
Sylvia was appointed Director of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services in 2006 and took up her post in January 2007.
Prior to her appointment Sylvia was Director of Business Development and Planning at Westminster Kingsway College of Further Education in London, having also held the position of Director of Strategy & Innovation at the same institution from 2001 to 2003.
From 1997 to 2001 Sylvia was Assistant Principal Finance and Information Systems at Orpington College of FE in Kent. Sylvia started her working life as a financial and business analyst, being employed at British Petroleum plc for seven years, followed by a period of self employment.
Sylvia holds an MBA, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics. She is an Associate Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA).
Sylvia is a Non Executive Director of the Queen Elizabeth Trust.
Photographs available.
Tony Vine-Lott - Chair
Tony Vine-Lott is the Chair of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services, he took up his role in September 2007.
He has spent much of the last 20 years in retail financial services, nine of which were with Barclays PLC. He set up Barclays Stockbrokers and was also Chairman of Barclays Trust Bank and Chairman of BISCO – the bank’s IFA and general insurance division. He has also been Chairman of the London Stock Exchange, Scottish Regional Practitioners Group (1993-95) and a member of the Private Shareholder Committee of the London Stock Exchange, looking at the development of wider share ownership (1995-96). As Deputy Chairman of the London Stock Exchange, Scottish Regional Practitioners Group from 1991-93, he was responsible for skills development in the region and has a keen interest in skills development. Tony is also currently Director General of the Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA) and on the Board of the Joint Money Laundering Group.
Margaret Cole
Margaret Cole is the FSA's Director of Enforcement and a member of its Executive Committee. A solicitor by profession Margaret joined the FSA in 2OO5 after 1O years as a partner in the international law firm White and Case specialising in dispute resolution in banking and commercial matters. She was previously a partner with Stephenson Harwood and is a qualified mediator. A graduate of Cambridge University, Margaret is also on the Advisory Board of the Financial Services Lawyers Association.
Mark Collender
Mark Collender is currently the Head of Sales Planning & Development for Consumer Banking with responsibility for maximising the sales effectiveness of all products, propositions and campaigns.
Before joining Lloyds TSB in 2006, he was an Area Manager for Barclays for 3 years where he had the leadership responsibility for 15 Relationship Managers within the high net worth personal banking sector, and had accountability for £9.3 million of sales income within the London and Home Counties Region.
Prior to that he was a Sales Development Manager at AMP where he managed and developed a team of 12 Area Managers to achieve regulated sales of £1.2m NAP and £750k of non-regulated business. Before that he was a Training and Compliance manager providing tactical support to develop the skills and competence of Managers and Sales professionals.
Mark is a keen golfer and also enjoy reading, biographies in particular. He is married with no children.
Peter Denheen
Peter Denheen, LLM Law, BSc (Hons), Grad FCIPD, is the Director of People & Brand at Royal Liver, having formerly worked for NCR Financial Solutions Group Ltd., where he was Human Resources Director - Global Operations. He has been with Royal Liver for over three years and also sits as a Board member of the Park Row Group plc (a subsidiary of Royal Liver). Prior to this, he held senior Human Resource positions within Rolls Royce, BAA, Ernst & Young and Diageo. He is a CBI member of the Employment Tribunal system.
Peter helped NCR achieve the Top 50 Best Companies to work at status and also deliver Top 50 best practice status to the HR function in Royal Liver and assisted the Executive team of Royal Liver being awarded the daily post business of the year award in 2007.
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher is the Chief Executive of Towry Law Wealth Managers and City financier by background. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Cox Insurance Holdings Plc.
He has also been Group Chief Executive of CPP, one of the leading providers of assistance products and services in Europe and was the Group Chief Executive of Coutts Group the Wealth Management business of Royal Bank of Scotland, incorporating Coutts & Co. Coutts International, Nat West Private Bank, Nat West Stockbrokers and the RBS Private Banks.
During his earlier career Andrew was a senior advisor to one of the world’s largest private equity group, the Carlyle Group, and a Partner in the Consultancy practice of Coopers and Lybrand.
Stephen Karle
Stephen Karle is Chief Executive of West Bromich Building Society.
Gary Kildare
Gary Kildare is a Vice President of the IBM Corporation. He has over 25 years of business experience in leading and managing people. He is an internationalist having worked at country, geography and global level. He is a member of the IBM Global HR Strategy Board and a champion for Diversity and Inclusion. Furthermore he is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a non-executive board member of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Education Scotland (HMIe) and a Governor of Napier University in Edinburgh and a ‘Globalscot’.
Originally from Falkirk in Stirlingshire, he was educated in Scotland. He spent the early part of his career working in the UK and Northern Europe managing businesses units focused on recruitment and staffing, workforce management, international mobility and industrial relations. His first leadership role in 1989 was as HR Leader for IBM’s Software Research and Development Laboratory in Winchester, Hampshire.
In 2000, he became Director of Global HR Strategy where he was responsible for designing, developing and executing global people strategies across international markets. He was then appointed Director of HR for IBM’s worldwide consulting services and innovation division. In October 2002 he was appointed Vice President of HR Global Business Services for Europe. In May 2007, he was appointed as Vice President of HR for Europe, Americas, Asia Pacific - a role he currently holds.
He is particularly passionate about driving improvements in organisation culture and employee commitment, major international business transformation, acquisitions, talent and change management and securing competitive business advantage through people.
Gary is married with 3 children and lives in Edinburgh.
Clive W Leach CBE
Clive W Leach CBE, is currently a consultant to the YFM Group following his sale of the business 3 weeks ago at which time he was the controlling shareholder and Executive Chairman for the previous 12 years. The YFM Group, a fund manager and venture capital company, is the UK's largest provider of funds to the SME market. Prior to that, after 30 years in the television industry, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive of Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television plc He was also during that time, a Director of Independent Television News Ltd. He is currently the owner and Chairman of Gabriel Communications Ltd, a newspaper and magazine publisher. He is the Chairman of Durham County Cricket Club Ltd and also sits on a number of the English Cricket Board's committees.
In his public sector roles, he currently is the Chairman of the Yorkshire and Humber Region Learning and Skills Council and also Chairman of the Regions Cultural Consortium. His previous public sector roles include Chairman of the Training and Enterprise Council in Leeds and Chairman of Leeds Health Authority.
He was a key player in bringing the Financial Skills Academy to Leeds.
Anthony Whitehouse
Antony Whitehouse has been the Head of Compliance at Calyon, the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole group since 2006. He is a member of the Compliance Committee for the London Investment Banking Association. In his previous role, he set up and was the Executive Director in charge of the UK Money Laundering Prevention Department at WestLB. During this time Antony was nominated for an award as Compliance Officer of the Year by Compliance Reporter magazine, and won awards for his work from both the Compliance Register, and Complinet. Prior to his foray into the world of AML, Antony was the Head of Compliance for WestLB London, and previously worked at both the SFA, and the FSA, dealing with the larger and more complex institutions.
John Woods
John Woods founded Moneyfacts, the UK’s leading provider of bank interest rate data in 1988. Previous to that he was a Solicitor for 20 years in private practice. He is Chair for the Eastern Region Employer Board and a member of the National Board of the Financial Services Skills Academy. He was Chair of the Norwich Financial Industry Group 2001 – 2006. He was a member of the Norwich Local Strategic Partnership 2003 – 2006. John is Chair of the Judges of the National Credit Card Awards. He has recently taken on the Directorship of the Birdwatching and Wildlife Club, which promotes responsible ecotourism. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of East Anglia in 2005.
Max Wright
Max Wright is CEO at EMXCo, a mutual funds trading platform which he joined in March 2002. He turned the business around from £6 million annual losses to a successful trade sale in 2006 and a £4.7 Million profit in 2007 by putting people and training at the core of the strategy. Max joined EMXCo in April 2002 from Misys IFA Services (now Sesame) where he held a number of board positions. He was responsible for over 2700 advisers and over £180 million in annual commission flow. He joined Misys in 1998 as Sales and Marketing Director for Countrywide Independent Advisers. Prior to that he worked at Colonial and Eagle Star within their Life, Pensions and Investment distribution businesses.
Teresa Sayers
Teresa Sayers is Chief Executive of the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) and the National Skills Academy for Financial Services. She is responsible for the FSSC’s mission to provide strategic leadership for financial services education, training and skills development across the UK. She is also Chief Executive of the new National Skills Academy for Financial Services.
She joined the FSSC’s predecessor, the Financial Services National Training Organisation, as Business Development Manager in 2001. She led the team through a time of significant transition, culminating in the successful awarding, in 2004, of the FSSC’s licence from the government to become a Sector Skills Council.
Prior to her career in financial services she worked in the oil industry as a researcher. She has a BSc in plant bio-technology.
Teresa sits on the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s High-Level Group on Financial Services, which works to enhance the global competitiveness of the City and the UK-based financial sector. She is a member of the Guild of International Bankers, the Guild of Educators, UK Trade & Investment's Financial Services Sector Advisory Board and Northern Ireland’s Financial Future Skills Action Group.