Ruth Sturkey, IFW Chair

Compère

Ruth is Chair of the IFW Board and will compere the IFW Conference 2023. Ruth co-founded boutique financial planning firm The Red House, which merged with Paradigm Norton in 2017; she is now a Non Executive Director for the merged firm. She was the host of the podcast ‘Money Espresso; no froth conversations exploring money and life’ where her aim was to get people talking about money and explore how money and business can be a force for good. She also coaches financial planning business owners.  Ruth can be seen regularly presenting at industry events and holds considerable influence within the financial planning profession.

Professor Paul Dolan

Happiness by Design

Paul is Professor of Behavioural Science at the LSE. His main research interests are human behaviour and happiness, and the relationships between them, particularly as they apply to policy. He is author of the bestselling books Happiness by Design and Happy Ever After. He is also host of the Duck / Rabbit podcast about the polarisation problem in our society and is the founder of the Lifetime Wellbeing Cooperative™.

Nick Elston, Inspirational Speaker & Mental Health Engagement Champion

Money and Mental Health: The Chaos and the Conflict

Nick is a high profile and leading inspirational speaker on the lived experience of mental health.

Described as a ‘BIG man, BIG heart, BIG story & BRUTAL honesty!’, ‘Utterly inspirational, absolutely engaging!’ and ’10/10 – a Speaking Masterclass!’ – Nick shares his experiences of mental illness, mental ill-health & breakdown worldwide – through  powerful, inspiring, engaging & emotional talks, offering insights, tools, tips and techniques on how to manage anxiety in life and in business – to implement immediately.

For Nick, his talks are where Mental Health meets Personal Development, focusing not just on what anxiety is, but on what it does – how it stops us living life on our terms & ultimately how it affects our success – by our own definition.

Nick regularly features in the global media, the BBC, industry shows and publications – his talks are delivered to stages, events, boardrooms, businesses, factories, government organisations, schools, universities and establishments worldwide.

Chris Budd, Founder of the Institute for Financial Wellbeing

Keynote session

Chris founded the Institute for Financial Wellbeing, then called the Initiative, in 2019. He is the author of The Financial Wellbeing Book, the second edition of which will be published in Spring 2023. He is also the author of The Eternal Business, and two novels. In 2018 he sold the majority of his financial planning company Ovation Finance Ltd, the company he founded in 2000, to an Employee Ownership Trust. His consultancy, The Eternal Business, helps business owners work out if selling to an Employee Ownership Trust might be their own succession plan. Chris lives in Somerset with his family and too many guitars.

Clémence Chatelin, CCLA

Sustainability Bootcamp – Getting Real About Sustainability with Your Clients

Clémence is responsible for the integration of sustainability into the investment process at CCLA.

Having obtained a Bachelor’s in International Management (China) at SOAS, she discovered her passion for finance and sustainable business. After completing a Master’s in Finance & Investment at the University of Bristol she started her career in financial planning at Paradigm Norton where she developed her knowledge of sustainable investing, before moving into asset management.

In her free time you can find Clémence going all out in the CrossFit gym, horse riding and taking care of her Pharaoh Hound.

Dr Thomas Mathar, Aegon UK

Guiding Clients to Their Future Self

Thomas heads up Aegon UK’s Centre for Behavioural Research, supporting internal and external stakeholders with behavioural research and the application of nudge-theory to help people live their best lives, now and in the future.

Thomas has been with Aegon since 2016, having previously worked in research agencies and government, health, consumer industries and in finance.

Martha Lawton, Squanderlust

Supporting Clients in Times of Vulnerability

Martha is a financial educator and coach who has been helping people understand and use money better for over 15 years. She has facilitated hundreds of workshops on day-to-day money management as well as running awareness raising campaigns and other financial wellbeing projects. Her work has given her a deep insight into people’s emotional and psychological responses to money, which she discusses on her podcast Squanderlust.

Alex Whitson, VouchedFor

Client advocacy

Alex runs VouchedFor, the UK’s largest financial adviser review platform. He is passionate about championing the value of good advice and making it accessible to more people.

Alex’s team recently launched Elevation, a platform that uses insights from over 250,000 client reviews to help improve client experience.

Before joining VouchedFor, Alex was a Managing Director at Haymarket Media Group, overseeing the growth of the company’s global digital and event revenues.

Charlie Goodman, IFW & Employee Benefits Collective LLP

Workplace Financial Wellbeing breakout discussion

Charlie is a Board member at the Institute for Financial Wellbeing and head of the IFW’s Workplace Financial Wellbeing offering.

A partner at the Employee Benefits Collective LLP, Charlie specialises in financial wellbeing in the workplace. He is a qualified IFA, Financial Coach, and Reward Specialist.

Patrick Luong, philanthropist

Philanthropy breakout discussion

Patrick was an award-winning Chartered and Certified Financial Planner with more than ten years’ experience before he turned to the charity sector.

He now advances charitable and philanthropic goals by managing mission-led relationships with YoungMinds’ supporters. In both his professional and personal life, Patrick enjoys conversations about passion, purpose and what’s important to others and connecting people and ideas.

Outside work, Patrick is likely to be running, singing or volunteering. He is a charity trustee, run director for parkrun and has volunteered hundreds of times with community groups around London.

Kerry Seymour, Inspired To Change

Neuroscience breakout discussion

Kerry is a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist and mental health trainer with Inspired To Change.

Kerry works from her online practice in North Somerset, utilising modern neuroscientific research to help people to take control of their life so that they can go from surviving life to thriving in life. She helps her clients to understand how their brain works so that they can get it working with them and rather than against them.

Julie New

Change is forever but the pain doesn’t have to be…

Julie is an experienced personal recovery coach specialising in helping people after difficult and sometimes traumatic life change. Prior to starting her coaching Julie spent 20 years in the NHS as a senior nurse and midwife, she also worked on various pioneering NHS community projects.

Since becoming a professional coach in 2006 she has developed a unique recovery program which has helped many people to reach new fulfilling phases in their lives, which they hadn’t thought possible.

Julie is an author of popular unique personal growth gift books and is a well-known inspirational and motivational wellbeing conference speaker.

Emily Pool, Happy Planet Financial Planning

IFW Awards presenter

independent financial planner Emily Pool is the founder of Happy Planet Financial Planning.

After spending much of her career in the city, and several years working in project finance and then commercial banking, she realised she needed to “help balance people rather than balance sheets.

Emily is passionate about empowering people to invest their wealth in line with their personal values. She believes people will naturally engage more meaningfully with their financial futures by investing ethically and sustainably and will feel more empowered knowing their savings can have a positive impact on global problems. She loves to educate her clients on the difference their investments can make and wants them to truly understand that collectively investors have real power to change the world for the better.

Neil Bage, Shaping Wealth

IFW Awards presenter

Neil is the co-founder of Shaping Wealth, a learning technology platform transforming the human experience of money. He is the Chief Behavioural Officer at #humanfirst financial planning firm Murphy Wealth, and the founder and host of the Bitesize Behaviour Podcast.

Having spent the last 15 years researching human behaviour, Neil has developed a reputation for bridging complex behavioural theory with real-world understanding and application. His talks blend his knowledge of human evolution, psychology and biology with his skill for compelling storytelling, all of which combine to reveal how people make important decisions that will impact their financial health and wellbeing.