Our People

George Robb
Chairman

George Robb is Chairman of European Wealth Management Group and a founder and former Chairman of Aberdeen Asset Management plc, a FTSE 100 company with £174bn under management employing some 1,800 people in 23 countries, and was also CIO of Asset Management Investment Company plc. George is the Chairman of ECU and sits on its Remuneration Committee.

Antony John
Chief Executive Officer

Antony John is ECU’s Chief Executive Officer. Antony left Lombard Odier in 2003 to form a team that built Investment Manager Selection Ltd. which become the largest independent institutional manager selection firm in the UK, with £5.3bn of assets. In 2008, IMS was acquired by BNP Paribas and merged into its multi-manager business, FundQuest, with Antony being appointed CEO in the UK.

Michael Petley
Chief Investment Officer
Chairman of the Investment Committee

Michael Petley founded ECU in 1988 was CEO & Chief Investment Officer for 19 years. He has 25 years of experience in managing FX mandates and presided over the highly successful management of all ECU's core currency products until Nov '07. He returned to ECU in 2011 and was appointed interim CEO in Feb 2012. Michael is ECU's Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of its Investment Committee.

Jan Pilkington-Miksa
Director of Corporate Development & Compliance

Jan Pilkington-Miksa has spent his working life in financial services, having been a founder of a research-oriented US/UK stockbroking firm (David Allsopp Group, established 1974, sold 1986) and Ferghana Partners Group, an investment banking/advisory business that he co-founded in London in 1990 and which is now headquartered in New York. Jan serves as an Executive Director of ECU with responsibility for Corporate Development and Compliance Oversight.

Rona Delves Broughton
Non-Executive Director

Rona Delves Broughton was appointed as a non-executive director in 2009. She has been a Lloyds Underwriter since 1976 and a director of Kensington Underwriting since 1997. Rona has served on the Council of Lloyds for two periods, has been a member of Lloyds Investment Board since 1999, a member of Lloyds Capital Transfer Committee since 2003 and Chairman of the High Premium Group since 1995. She was also formerly a Trustee of Lloyds Charities Trust. Rona also serves on ECU's Remuneration Committee.

Oliver Hemsley
Non-Executive Director

Oliver Hemsley is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Numis, a listed investment banking and stockbroking business based in London and New York, and is responsible for Numis’ strategic development as well as the day to day management of the main trading entity, Numis Securities Limited. Numis is a significant advisor to UK companies with circa 150 corporate clients, of which 30 are in the FTSE250. Oliver is a non-executive director of ECU and sits on its Remuneration Committee.

David Robinson
Non-Executive Director

David Robinson was appointed as a non-executive director in February 2011. David is a qualified chartered accountant. He began his career at Touche Ross and has held senior financial positions at a number of different companies, most recently at ED&F Man Holdings Ltd (formally Man Group plc). David retired in 2004 and serves on the board of several charities. He also chairs ECU's Audit & Risk Committee and serves on its Remuneration Committee.

Francisco Soler
Non-Executive Director

Francisco Soler was appointed a non-executive director in December 2012. Francisco is an active investor in a number of companies around the world and has sat on several company boards including Triton Securities Inc, Tristel plc , United States Can Company (US Can) and The Bank of Miami N.A. Francisco serves on ECU's Remuneration Committee and Audit & Risk Committee.

Michael Diebel FCA
Chief Financial Officer

Michael Diebel is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of experience, working with a number of institutions both in Europe and North America. Michael was the Audit Partner for ECU from 1996 to 2001 and subsequently joined ECU's Finance Department in 2005. Michael is ECU's Chief Financial Officer and Anti-Money Laundering Officer.

Neil Staines
Investment Committee
Head of Trading

Neil Staines is ECU's Head of Trading. He was formerly co-founder & Head of Investment at 3D Currency Management. Previously, Neil worked at RBS Global Banking & Markets, latterly as Head of FX Proprietary Trading. Neil and his team are responsible for the monitoring, execution and risk management of all ECU's trading programmes.

Professor Charles Goodhart
Investment Committee

Professor Charles Goodhart CBE worked at the Bank of England for 17 years as a monetary adviser, becoming a Chief Adviser in 1980. A former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, Charles is Emeritus Professor of Banking & Finance at the London School of Economics and a Senior Economic Consultant for Morgan Stanley. Charles is an independent member of ECU's Investment Committee.

George Magnus
Investment Committee

George Magnus is Senior Economic Adviser at UBS Investment Bank, where he was previously Chief Economist for seven years. His former roles include Chief International Economist at UBS and Head of Fixed Income Research and Chief Economist at S.G.Warburg. George is a long standing independent member of ECU's Investment Committee since 2004.

Stephen Jen
Investment Committee
Global Macro and FX Overlay

Stephen Jen is managing partner of SLJ Macro where he and his team are responsible for fulfilling ECU’s Active FX Overlay capability. From 2009 to 2011, Stephen was MD of Macroeconomics and Currencies at Bluegold Capital. Previously, Stephen was with Morgan Stanley for 12 years, latterly as Global Head of Currency Research, having spent 4 years as an economist with the IMF.

Kit Juckes
Investment Committee

Kit Juckes is Head of FX Strategy at Société Générale. Kit has over 25 years experience having commenced his career in 1985 with MMS. His former roles include Chief Economist at ECU, Global Head of Research at RBS Global Banking & Markets and Head of Bond and FX Strategy at NatWest Markets. Kit is an independent member of ECU's Investment Committee.

Robin Griffiths
Investment Committee

Robin Griffiths is Chief Technical Strategist at Cazenove Capital, a role he previously performed at HSBC Securities for 20 years before becoming Head of Global Asset Allocation at Rathbones. Prior to this, Robin was a Partner of WI Carr and Head of Technical Analysis at Grieveson Grant. Robin has been an independent member of ECU's Investment Committee for twenty years.

Simon Hunt
Investment Committee

Simon Hunt is widely respected by the financial community, specialising in China and some of the major commodity markets, notably copper. Simon has spent 2-3 months a year for the past 17 years visiting factories across China and has an office in Beijing. Simon is an independent member of ECU's Investment Committee.

Maria Chapman
Head of Private Banking Services

Maria Chapman had 12 years experience at a senior level within the private banking divisions of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Bank Boston and Boston Safe Deposit & Trust before she joined ECU in 1998 as the company's Director of Private Banking Services, responsible for developing and maintaining ECU's core banking relationships.

Matthew Lindfield
Head of Private Clients

Matthew Lindfield was Head of ECU's Introducing Broker network for nine years in which time he was responsible for marketing ECU's products and services to intermediaries, generating over £500m of FX mandates for ECU. Matthew started his career as a private client stockbroker at Fimatex before joining ECU under ED&F Man's ownership in 2000.

Yee Har Miller
Head of Client Services

Yee Har Miller is Head of Client Services at ECU. Yee Har has over 17 years of experience working in the UK financial services industry. She previously worked at FundQuest UK Limited (formerly IMS Ltd) for over 12 years, with varied responsibilities during that period including fund analysis, operations, portfolio analysis and client relationship management.

Ryan Arpe
Head of Trade Support and Settlement

Ryan Arpe is Head of Client Administration and Settlements at ECU. Ryan has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Financial Management from the University of South Africa and started his career as an Internal Auditor of ISO 9001:2008 for a manufacturing company in Durban. Having moved to the UK in 2009, Ryan held trade settlement positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital.

Linda Witcombe
Executive Assistant

Linda Witcombe is Executive Assistant to the senior executives within ECU and has nearly 20 years’ experience working in the Financial Services industry. Her previous roles included working in the retail division of Hill Samuel Asset Management, Lombard Odier & Cie, and BNP Paribas FundQuest.