SOCIETY

BOARD AND COMMITTEES

SHAPE OUR SOCIETY

Learn more about our board and committees, and the work they’re doing to improve our industry.

A STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS

The CFA UK board is comprised of diverse, experienced volunteers, nominated by our members. Together, they use their expertise and knowledge to help us set our strategy and meet our mission. As they’re elected by members for our membership, they represent the interests of all our community. They’re supported by our committees, and all members are welcome to get involved! 

MEET OUR BOARD

Find out more about the CFA UK board.

HILARY EASTMAN, CFA, CHAIR

Hilary Eastman CFA

Hilary is a partner at KPMG UK, leading the ESG reporting practice. She advises companies on the implementation of voluntary and mandatory sustainability reporting. In that role she is responsible for building KPMG’s brand and voice in the market for sustainability reporting and shaping the direction of the firm’s vision for the future of reporting, with an emphasis on meeting investors’ information needs.  

Hilary is the Chair of the CFA UK Board. She has volunteered with CFA UK since 2013, having served on the Professionalism Steering Committee and Financial Reporting and Analysis Committee. She has also been involved in the value of the investment profession work, focusing on capital allocation. Hilary was appointed as treasurer from 2021, before being elected Chair in 2023. 

Hilary previously was PwC’s head of global investor engagement, managing the firm’s relationships with the investment community. Before that, she worked at the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), where she led their investor engagement programme and the fair value measurement project. She has a background in business and asset valuation. 

SYLVIA SOLOMON, ASIP

Sylvia Solomon ASIP

Sylvia is Chief Operating Officer at Kimura Capital LLP and Chief Investment Officer at Dhow Advisory Ltd. FZCO.

Sylvia has over 30 years of investment industry experience on the buy-side, in equities and sustainable investing. She spent 25 years managing a wide range of funds, including pensions, life funds, endowments, unit trusts and hedge funds at firms such as Baring Asset Management, Hermes Investment Management, Ennismore Fund Management and Equitile Investments. Sylvia has also enjoyed C-Suite roles at Alternative Investments boutiques and been responsible for the design and implementation of ESG integrated investment processes in a wide range of asset classes including Private Markets and Trade Finance. Sylvia is recipient of the 2022 CFA Inspirational Leader Award for Education and is a regular contributor to several investment industry stakeholder consultations and publications on regulatory standards and disclosures in Sustainability, ESG and Impact Investing. In addition to serving as a CFA Society of the UK Board Director, Sylvia Chairs the Society’s Examinations and Education Committee, and is a member of the Sustainability Committee. As inaugural Chair of the CFA UK Certificate in ESG Investing Panel, Sylvia was instrumental in leading practitioners in the design, development and launch of the Certificate in ESG Investing. This qualification is now under the auspices of the CFA Institute’s ESG Advisory Panel, of which Sylvia is a member. Sylvia also serves as a member of the PRI Global Policy Reference Group and is a member of the Alternative Investment Management Association’s Global Responsible Investment Committee, where she contributed to the AIMA ESG Handbook 2023. 

 

GILLIAN ELCOCK

Gillian Elcock

Gillian is the Founder and former Managing Director of Denny Ellison, an independent investment research and training company. Prior to this, she worked as an equity research analyst for several years at Putnam Investments and Insight Investment. She started her career as a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director of Melrose Industries plc and International Biotechnology Trust plc. 

Gillian has extensive volunteering experience with the CFA UK. Her previous roles include Chair of the Networks Steering Committee, member of the Nominating Committee, Chair of the SIG Council, and Co-Chair of the Research Analysts Special Interest Group. She was awarded the CFA UK Volunteer of the Year Award in 2017. 

Gillian holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and MEng and BSc degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an award-winning author. 

ELENA KOYCHEVA, CFA

Elena Koycheva CFA

Elena is the Head of ESG Client Experience at BlueBay Asset Management, focusing on effectively articulating the firm’s ESG proposition with investors and working with investment teams to communicate their ESG integration and engagement efforts. Elena is a co-chair of RBC BlueBay’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum and a member of the Corporate Responsibility Committee and the Charity Forum.  

She joined BlueBay in 2016 and has previously held roles at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Candriam Investors Group. Elena’s academic qualifications include Masters degrees in Portfolio Management, Corporate Finance and Banking, Finance and Risk Management. Elena is a CFA charterholder, a CAIA charterholder, a CIPM designation holder and has obtained the IMC Certificate and the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing. 

KATERINA KOSMOPOULOU, CFA, VICE-CHAIR

Katerina Kosmopoulou CFA

Katerina is a partner at J Stern & Co, an independent private investment office. Her role encompasses wide ranging responsibilities that include managing client assets and leading the firm’s ESG strategy. Prior to joining J Stern & Co she was a Senior Global Equities Fund Manager at Allianz Global Investors. Katerina has two decades of professional experience within the industry, with an international career that has spanned the UK, Germany as well as the US.  

Katerina has volunteered for the society since 2012 and is a founding member of the CFA UK’s Diversity & Inclusion Network. She is a CFA Charterholder and holds an MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking from the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading and a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Bath. 

KIERAN FERGUSON, CFA

Kieran Ferguson CFA

Kieran Ferguson is Chief Financial Officer at The King's Foundation. Prior to this, Kieran worked at Virgin Money and spent eight years in management roles across risk, the CEO’s office, finance and treasury. Latterly, he held the role of Head of Credit Portfolio Management and was responsible for determining credit portfolio strategy for the bank's liquid asset portfolio. Kieran was also appointed to the Virgin Stakeholder Pension Independent Governance Committee (IGC) and served on the Committee for four years overseeing fund performance and value for money for members.

Kieran started his career at Accenture where he worked with banking clients on business transformation and technology projects. 

Kieran was appointed to the CFA UK board in 2020 and is currently Chair of the Business Transition Committee. He was previously a member of the Nominating Committee. He holds a first class honours degree in law and business (LLB Hons) from the University of Edinburgh. Kieran has been a CFA charterholder since 2018.

 

PHILIPPE LENOBLE, CFA

Philippe Lenoble CFA

Philippe is currently an Operating Partner of Nature Infrastructure Capital, an Operating Advisor of I Squared Capital and a Venture Partner of Planet First Partners.

Until the end of 2022, Philippe was Head of European Infrastructure investments at AustralianSuper. Prior experience has been in Managing Director roles within the infrastructure investment groups of CDPQ and Goldman Sachs, as well as holding a Vice President role with Citigroup European Structured Finance team. As part of his infrastructure investing roles, he sat on the Board or equivalent corporate bodies of various renewable developers, airports, ports and toll roads. 

Philippe holds a Master’s degree in engineering and finance from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Philippe has been a CFA Charterholder since 2004.  He is the current chair of the Membership Experience Steering committee, has served on the society’s Examinations and Education Committee for eight years and has been active in various other areas of work of the society.

 

ALISTAIR BYRNE, CFA

Alistair Byrne CFA

Alistair is Head of Retirement Strategy and UK Institutional Distribution at State Street Global Advisors. He leads the firm's UK Institutional Distribution Team and is also responsible for thought leadership and the investment proposition for major pensions markets in Europe. Prior to joining State Street in 2014, Alistair was a Senior DC Investment Consultant at Towers Watson, where he advised a number of large DC plans and led a team of consultants and analysts. He has over 25 years’ investment experience, including as a consultant advising financial services firms, a business school academic (teaching on a CFA partner MSc program) and in a number of senior investment management roles at AEGON UK.  

Alistair is a long-standing volunteer with CFA UK and the CFA Institute. He is a member of the Professionalism Steering Committee and the Pensions Expert Panel, and was previously a member of the Exams and Education Committee. He has co-authored a number of CFA Curriculum Readings and published academic research in the Financial Analysts Journal and other CFA publications. Alistair is a CFA charterholder and has a PhD in finance from the University of Strathclyde. 

WEIYEN HUNG, CFA, CIPM, TREASURER

Weiyen Hung CFA CIPM

Weiyen is currently a Manager at the Bank of England. He focuses on resolution to minimise the impact on depositors, the financial system and public finances when a financial institution fails. Prior to his current role, he supervised several global systemically important banks as a banking regulator in the PRA. He started his career as a European Residential Mortgage-backed Securities surveillance analyst at Fitch Ratings in London. 

Weiyen is passionate about professional learning and financial education. He was the Chair of the T Level Finance Panel at the Department for Education and currently sits on the IfATE’s Legal, Finance and Accounting Route Panel. Weiyen holds the CFA, CIPM, IMC, CAIA, FRM, and MAAT designations and earned his MSc Finance from Bayes Business School. Weiyen was co-opted to the board in 2019 to fill a vacancy which had arisen. 

SUZANNE HSU, CFA, CIPM

Suzanne Hsu CFA CIPM

Suzanne is a board member and Chief Risk Officer at Project Imagine, a fintech startup that previously offered a B2C e-money and investing app and currently offers a B2B Banking as a Service platform. She previously worked for Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and HSBC as an equity derivatives trader and structurer and for Bloomberg developing and selling their equity and currency derivatives products.

Suzanne earned her CFA charter in 2008 and her CIPM in 2019.  She has been a member of the Professional Steering Committee since 2019 and has chaired it since 2021.  She has a JD from Stanford Law School and an MBA from Wharton. She also has a medical degree from Albany Medical College in Albany, NY and worked as a surgeon in the US from 1984 to 1997.

She is especially interested in AI governance and hopes to increase CFA UK’s influence in this area.

CFA UK BOARD TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Board works to ensure that CFA UK meets its objectives as defined in the Memorandum of Association. 50% of our board must be CFA charterholders. 

The Board’s responsibilities include: 

  • To assist and provide direction to the Chairman on the general supervision and control of our affairs 
  • To ensure that we meet all our legal, financial and other statutory requirements 
  • To monitor our operations, including the setting of membership fees, the approval of budgets and the maintenance of reserves 
  • To appoint a Management Committee to be responsible for our day-to-day management

  • To approve policies in areas related to the achievement of our objectives 
  • To establish committees and panels to oversee our activities and implementing policy in relevant areas, advising our Board on these issues
  • To note the minutes of the Examinations and Education Committee
  • To meet as required - 50% of the Directors need to be present at a meeting to form a quorum.  A resolution can be passed by a majority of Directors present.
  • The term of the Chairman shall be no more than two years and should be subject to reaffirmation after one year.

The CFA UK Articles of Association outline the purpose of CFA UK and the rights and responsibilities of its members and directors.

JOIN A COMMITTEE

CFA UK is supported by several member-led committees. Dedicated to specialist subjects, they work to promote and enhance our membership offering, and support our board. It’s easy to get involved in a committee – and it gives you the chance to shape the society! Make your voice heard and meet like-minded members who care about what you care about.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

ALL OUR COMMITTEES

DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE

The Disciplinary Committee is responsible for the application of CFA Institute’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct across CFA UK’s local members.

EXAMINATIONS AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE

The Exams and Education Committee ensures that the Society’s exams remain relevant and up to date and it oversees the development and administration of any new exams. It also reviews all policy issues relating to exams and education and proposes any necessary changes to the CFA UK Board.

FINANCE COMMITTEE

The Finance Committee's main purpose is to help ensure the long-term financial stability of the Society by overseeing the management of the Society’s finances.

INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

The Investment Committee seeks to implement the reserves policy as defined by the Finance Committee and approved by CFA UK's Board.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

The Nominating Committee reports its nominations for Directors in writing to the Board in sufficient time to allow the Board to recommend selected candidates to the annual general meeting of the Society.

SCOTTISH COMMITTEE

The Scottish Committee helps to build a stronger network of members in Scotland and increase the participation rate among Scottish members.

ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM STEERING COMMITTEE

The Ethics and Professionalism Steering Committee envisions an investment profession where strong ethical standards are a benchmark requirement for all industry participants and ethical considerations are at the heart of all decisions made by firms.

FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE

The Fellowship Committee recommends candidates for fellowships to the CFA UK Board. A Fellow is a designation that can be awarded by the Board to any member of the society.

DEI COMMITTEE

The DEI Committee seeks to improve the investment management profession by promoting inclusion, diversity and equity balance within the industry to serve the best interests of our increasingly diverse society.

IT COMMITTEE

The IT Committee oversees the management of IT systems, future projects and best practise implementation.

REMUNERATION COMMITTEE

The Remuneration Committee ensures that remuneration arrangements support the strategic aims of CFA UK and enable the recruitment, motivation and retention of senior executives while also complying with the requirements of regulation.

MEMBERSHIP EXPERIENCE STEERING COMMITTEE

The Member Experience Steering Committee ensures that we give our members and volunteers meaningful and helpful opportunities that make them feel proud, motivated, and connected to their profession.

COMMUNITIES STEERING COMMITTEE

The Communities Steering Committee ensures that CFA UK delivers a seamless experience to customers that helps them feel connected and supported, whilst sharing in the Society’s values.

COME ON IN

Advance your career, grow your talent, find where you belong. Become a CFA UK member today.

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