Sir Alan Yarrow, Chartered FCSI(Hon), Chairman

Alan Yarrow left Dresdner Kleinwort in December 2009, after 37 years with the group, latterly as Group Vice Chairman and Chairman of the UK Bank and was appointed Chairman of CISI earlier that same year.

In addition to being Chairman and Chartered Honorary Fellow of the CISI, Alan is Chairman of Turquoise Global Holdings Ltd and a Director of Institutional Protection Services Ltd, Garden Bridge Trading Ltd and Arbuthnot Banking Group. He is also Vice President of the Royal Mencap Society, Almoner of Christ’s Hospital and Independent Partnership Advisor to James Hambro Partnership.

Alan is an Alderman, Magistrate and HM Lieutenant of the City of London, a member of the Court of the Fishmongers Company, and a member of several other Livery Companies. He is a member of the Takeover Appeal Board, the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Investment & Advisory Council, a Doctor of Science Honoris Causa of City University London, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators, a Knight of Justice in the Order of St. John and in July 2015 was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle, Mexico. In January 2016, Alan received a Knighthood for services to international business, inclusion and the City of London.

Alan was formerly Lord Mayor of the City of London for the year 2014-15, Sheriff in 2011-12, Trustee of the Police Foundation, Deputy Chairman of the FSA Practitioner Panel, Chairman of LIBA (now AFME), Chairman of Complinet Ltd, a Director of Fixnetix Ltd, Chairman of Kleinwort Benson Group, Member of the Takeover Panel, the Council of the British Bankers Association and the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s High Level Stakeholder Group.

Michael Cole-Fontayn MCSI, Chairman, CISI

Michael previously spent 35 years with BNY Mellon, the last 7 years serving as Chairman of BNY Mellon Europe, Middle East and Africa. In that role Michael was responsible for BNY Mellon’s governance culture in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and led regional strategy development, execution and the delivery of enterprise initiatives in the region. Michael joined BNY Mellon over 35 years ago, starting initially as a credit and risk analyst. Michael was then appointed as a corporate finance banker to special industry clients, including Securities, Oil and Gas and Telecoms between 1986 and 1993. Michael then joined the Depositary Receipts (DR) division where he continued to work on many DR equity capital raising transactions, including numerous privatisations and equity offerings around the world. Michael ran BNY Mellon's Issuer Services Group in Hong Kong for seven years from 1993-2000, before serving as CEO of the company’s global Depositary Receipts business. He was BNY Mellon’s EMEA Chairman since 2011.

External to AFME, Michael sits on numerous financial service industry associations, a member and co-chair of the Wholesale Banking Group of the European Financial Services Chairman’s Advisory Council (EFSCAC), as well as a member of the advisory council for TheCityUK, and FICC Markets Standards Board Advisory Council. The British American Business International Advisory Board (recent past Advisory Board member), the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) Advisory Board. He is also a Board and Executive Committee Member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). He is Trustee of a mental health charity CWMT Org and director of Ranmore Strategic Advisory.

Alan Ramsay FCSI(Hon), Deputy Chairman, CISI

Alan Ramsay has spent the greater part of his career in financial services regulation. He was latterly a Senior Advisor to PricewaterhouseCoopers advising clients on a wide range of compliance and regulatory issues within their Banking & Capital Markets Practice. He was previously Global Head of Compliance for HSBC Bank Plc whom he joined from Bankers Trust International where he occupied a similar role. At an earlier stage in his career, Alan was Executive Director of Surveillance at the Securities and Futures Authority and also occupied senior positions at both The London Stock Exchange and The Securities Association.

A Chartered Accountant by training, Alan is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute, a member of its Integrity & Ethics Committee and Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee. He has served on the Board of the Futures & Options Association and is Visiting Professor in the Practice of Financial Regulation and Compliance at BPP Law School.

Claire Perryman, Chartered MCSI, Deputy Chairman, CISI

Claire is a Managing Director and the UK Head of Exchange Traded Funds at State Street Global Advisors. She is responsible for the distribution of index products to institutional investors, wealth managers, family offices and retail platforms. Prior to joining State Street, she was a Managing Director at BlackRock where she was UK Head of iShares Wealth Management and Retail Sales. She also served as Co-Head of BlackRock’s Women’s Network for EMEA. She joined iShares in 2008. She spent the first nine years of her career at UBS – in Emerging Markets institutional sales, and in business development within Wealth Management.

Claire is a graduate in Money, Banking & Finance from the University of Birmingham, holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation, and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. She is also non-executive director of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, also serving on their Investment Committee and the Editorial Panel of their quarterly journal.

Tracy Vegro OBE - Chief Executive

Tracy joined the CISI in September 2022. She was previously Executive Director, Strategy and Innovation at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), leading on delivery of the SRA’s Corporate Strategy and heading up the Innovation, Regulatory and Education Policy and Research & Analysis teams as part of her portfolio.

Prior to that, Tracy was Executive Director, Strategy and Resources at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the Regulator of accounting, audit and corporate governance. She led the Strategy and Resources, Risk, HR, Communications and Economics teams, alongside her wider Executive Committee responsibilities. She was the FRC’s Diversity Champion and led on a number of initiatives aimed at boosting diversity on FTSE boards.

She was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Year Honours list for services to Business and Diversity. Before taking Executive roles in these regulated sectors, Tracy was a Senior Civil Servant in Whitehall. She started as a new graduate, gaining wide experience of developing strategy and policy, delivering new legislation and major public policy campaigns in key economic sectors, such as Competition Policy, Company Law, Financial Services Energy and Equalities legislation.

During her time as a Civil Servant Tracy was selected for the High Potential Development Programme and was able to undertake several secondments into the private sector. Including to the Co-operative Group, working on the Co-operative Bank recapitalisation, before staying on for a further year to implement wider governance reforms at the Co-operative Group following the late Lord Myners’ review of its corporate governance.

Tracy is currently a Non-Executive Director at Salix Finance and the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), and she chairs the Regulatory Response Unit (RRU) for LawTechUK. Tracy is also a member of the Cabinet Office’s Major Project Leadership Academy (MPLA) and a member of Oxford University Said Business School and City of London Corporation’s Leaders of Tomorrow alumni groups.

Kevin Moore Chartered FCSI, Director Global Business Development

Kevin Moore is the Global Business Development Director at the CISI and responsible for business development and strategy development globally. He works closely with major CISI clients, members and stakeholders including regulators, training partners and other professional organisations. Kevin enjoys delivering the Institute’s keynote Integrity at Work seminar, and is a regular speaker at international conferences on subjects including integrity, capacity building, the changing world of wealth management and continuing professional development.

A career banker, Kevin joined the Institute in 2007 after 21 years with the Lloyds Banking Group. This included a wide variety of senior management roles in branch banking, corporate and business banking, and private banking. His wealth management roles included heading up the Lloyds Ultra High NetWorth business which included a full banking offer, as well as being responsible for the private banking network in London and the South East of England. Kevin is a Chartered Fellow (Chartered FCSI) of the CISI, is a qualified banker with what is now the IFS and a graduate of the University of Liverpool.

Edward Brunel-Cohen, Chartered MCSI - Global Director of Finance & IT

Edward joined the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment in 2010, having spent the previous ten years building an internet-based company that he co-founded in the USA and the UK.

Prior to that, and after a number of years in the accountancy profession (latterly with Neville Russell, now known as Mazars), Edward spent ten years in the Lloyd’s insurance market as the Finance Director of a group of underwriting agencies.

Edward was educated at Downside, is a Chartered Member of the CISI and a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. He is married with two children and his interests include rugby and travel.

Karen Ashcroft

Prior to joining the CISI Karen was Head of Finance and Company Secretary with GAN PLC and before that Group Financial Controller at Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

After graduating from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Karen qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young, Christchurch.

She enjoys travelling in her spare time and has taken a career break during which she trekked in the Himalayas, through parts of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal. She also enjoys running and watching rugby.

John Preston - Chief Operating Officer

John Preston joined the Institute in May 2016 and is responsible for IT & Operations. His previous role was at THB, an international insurance and reinsurance broker, where he worked for nine years as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this he spent seven years with Zurich Financial Services in a variety of strategic and operational roles. His earlier career was in management consulting.

John was educated at Stonyhurst College and the University of Oxford.

Susan Clements - Global Director of Learning

Prior to joining the CISI Susan was Head of Qualifications at the Institution of Civil Engineers, having previously been Membership Development Officer.

After graduating from Oxford University, Susan qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer with WS Atkins before moving into consulting with PWC.

Mid-way through her career Susan took some time out to bring up her family, during which she undertook extensive voluntary work in the education sector. She was Chair of Governors for a number of schools and sat on Bucks County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services.

Susan is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Royal Charter

Royal Charters are granted to bodies that work in the public interest and demonstrate pre-eminence, stability and permanence in their particular field.

The CISI has been dedicated to professionalism since it emerged from the London Stock Exchange in 1992. The award of a Royal Charter is an acknowledgement of the Institute’s work in bringing a greater measure of professionalism to financial services, encompassing both skills and ethical behaviour.

For our members, the benefits of becoming chartered are two fold; members will benefit individually through enhanced standing in the professional circles and the wider community, together with the opportunity to become individually chartered.

CISI Coat of Arms

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment was granted a ‘patent of arms’ by the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal of England on 11 March 2010. This is the design that is now registered with the College of Arms. The Arms refer to the shield and are formally described in old court French and English as:

Argent a Griffin segreant contourny vert holding in the sinister fore claws a closed book gules leaved proper on a chief embattled vert three bezants.

Which translates as:

On a silver background (Argent) a Griffin standing with one paw raised (sergeant) facing right (contourny) in green (vert) holding in its left (sinister) fore claw a red (gules) book with pages in the usual colour (leaved proper). Across the top edge of the shield a band (on a chief) in green (vert) which has its lower edge shaped like battlements (embattled) three coins (bezants).

Each of the elements, even the colours, have a particular heraldic meaning.

• Silver or white represents sincerity and gold represents elevation of the mind. Green represents hope and has also been the colour associated with the Institute.
• 23 points on the wings represent the fact that the original resolution to form the SI was taken on the 23rd floor of the Stock Exchange.
• Book represents learning. (If the book were open it would represent a university.)
• Sword represents the City of London.
• Griffins represent strength, intelligence and the protection of treasure.
• Bezants represent the original sixpence charged for a days trading in the coffee houses. The fact that they are gold suggests ‘worthy of trust’.
• Scales represents Justice and through that Integrity and Ethical Behaviour.
• Scroll suggests achievement and is intended to portray the Institute’s examinations.
• The Ship represents the international aspects of the Institutes work.
• Mural Crowns represents the ‘Royal’ nature of the Charter whilst also alluding to our work abroad. Mural crowns represent cities but also the seven blocks represent the continents. (Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Antarctica)
• Motto ‘My Word is My Bond’ the English translation of the Stock Exchange’s motto ‘Dictum Meam Pactum’ – showing our shared history and some common values.