Laura Ahto is the Global Chief Operating Officer for BNY Mellon’s Asset Servicing Business. Prior to being named to this position in January 2018, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of BNY Mellon’s European Bank, The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV, and as Chief Operating Officer of Investment Services, German Speaking and CEE Region, at BNY Mellon in Frankfurt, Germany.

Laura is a member of the Asset Servicing Executive Team, and the Asset Servicing Leadership Team.

Laura has held various Executive Leadership positions in Operations, Technology, Change Management and Provider Management in the Investment Services (including global custody, global fund services, offshore fund administration, performance analytics) and Asset Management (including trading, operations, funds and compliance) business segments.

Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2012, Laura was Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Head of Operations and Technology at Baring Asset Management in London. She joined Barings following seven years with PIMCO Europe in London, where she was Senior Vice President, Head of Operations and Administration and European Funds. Prior to joining PIMCO, Laura was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust Company and responsible for various Operations and Client functions in New York, Asia, Australia, the UK and Europe.

Laura holds a BA in Economics from Ursinus College and an MBA from Cornell University.

Georgina started her working life as a researcher in a major accountancy firm before moving on to become an investment analyst for an institutional client stock broker and then a major investment bank.

Georgina’s career in financial services regulation began in 1992 when she joined the Securities and Investments Board (one of the FCA’s predecessor organisations) specialising in investigations, particularly of unauthorised business. She rose to FCA Acting Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight in 2014 and she has extensive enforcement experience across all areas of financial services, including dispute resolution through settlement and mediation, involving a range of financial services firms.

Georgina chaired the International Organisation of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) Committee on Enforcement and the Exchange of Information and its Screening Group, which assesses applications to sign the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) between 2008 and 2016. Her committees delivered IOSCO’s Credible Deterrence report and the new Enhanced MMoU.

Georgina became the FCA’s Chief Operating Officer in November 2015 and held the position for about five years. As COO Georgina chaired the FCA’s Executive Diversity Committee, its Executive Operations Committee and the Public Sector Equality Duty working group. She led the organisation’s move to cloud based technology and the operational response to the covid pandemic.

Georgina became the FCA’s Senior Adviser on the Public Sector Equality Duty in January 2021 and helped drive the FCA’s proposals for greater DEI across the financial services industry. During this time, she was a member of the City of London Social Mobility Task Force and helped with the creation of Progress Together, the new financial services social mobility membership body.

Georgina retired from regulation in 2022, after almost exactly thirty years. Georgina became a member of the Financial Reporting Council’s independent Tribunal in January 2023 and is now building a portfolio career.

Georgina is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. Georgina is passionate about the arts and she chaired the Stratford Arts Trust, which delivered an inclusive and accessible arts programme to East London and beyond, between 2019 and 2021.

Emma Prophet is Group Head of Operations at TP ICAP and their EMEA Business Sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion Network groups.  Emma joined TP ICAP following 15 years at Morgan Stanley, where she was a Managing Director and held various leadership roles across Clearing, Data and Securities Operations based in London, Glasgow, Singapore and New York.

 Prior to her time at Morgan Stanley, Emma started as a consultant working with various Financial Services firms and then spent 5 years as Project Manager delivering cross-functional change at Barclays Capital.

Maurice has over 25 years’ experience in financial services within advisory, executive search and as an industry speaker. He is CEO and owner-manager of Armstrong Wolfe, established in 2012 to support the Chief Operating Officer and business management communities.

In response to the COVID19 pandemic, in 2020 he established the International COO Community (iCOOC), and in 2021 it provided over 150 on-line forums to support the COOs of Markets, Banking and Asset Management as they sought to navigate their businesses through the pandemic. This confirmed Armstrong Wolfe as the focal point for the worldwide COO community.

Maurice is passionate about supporting the underrepresented and under-privileged, with his company supporting the global effort to address inequalities and racial injustice through Ad Centrum (Latin, to the centre) and Women in the COO Community (WCOOC).

An avid writer, he is the principal contributor to the quarterly COO Magazine and has published 2 books about the COO: in 2017, No Place to Hide The role of the banking COO in the new regular era and in 2021, To Catch a Thief The evolution of the Chief Control Officer.

Maurice is further committed to his charitable foundation (www.gcfbosnia.org) and in 2018, sponsored by the global COO community, published his 3rd book, Donkey Mail and Bully Beef (The art of survival). This book captures the memories of the soldiers and fellow officers he served with on UN service with the British Army as a Captain in the former Yugoslavia in 1994 – 1995. All proceeds from Maurice’s books are donated to his charity, funds going to the rebuilding of the primary school in the town of Gorazde in memory of 4 comrades lost from his battalion on their operational tour to central Bosnia. In 2023 the charitable funds raised from the COO community to support his charity had exceeded GBP£100,000.

He is married to Joanna, with 4 boys, living in a homestead full of animals in Gloucestershire, England, U.K.