Women in the COO Community

WCOOC

Supporting, empowering & inspiring the female leadership of tomorrow

Armstrong Wolfe’s Women in the COO Community (WCOOC) initiative was established in 2016, and is now globally recognised across New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.  Its purpose is to champion the cause for advancement of women within financial services, focused on the leadership of tomorrow, those that will take the industry forward into the coming age.

Members of our global COO network come together to provide and present on subjects directly related to career management and advancement. We provide this through podcasts, articles, interviews, and events for which we recruit engaging speakers from within and outside the industry. We welcome people of any level of seniority to engage with our agenda.

WCOOC is led by industry professionals and regional steering groups working together to provide timely and forward-thinking content and thought leadership.

Our Mission:

To inspire tomorrow’s female leaders in Financial Services to have no limit to their ambitions.

To educate our peers on-business management and the COO role as career destinations.

To provide a platform for cross-industry debate seeking to address common challenges.

WCOOC Leadership Team

Emma Prophet

Emma Prophet

Global Co-Chair

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.

Piers Murray

Piers Murray

Global Co-Chair

Piers Murray is a Partner at Armstrong Wolfe Advisory with 35 years of financial industry experience in derivatives trading, clearing services, credit risk management and large program change management. Piers is currently providing 1st line risk management consulting services to a leading European bank. Most recently, as COO of BNY Mellon Markets, he played a key role in identifying and implementing strategic initiatives such as platform industrialization and core business transformation in response to evolving regulatory requirements, including MiFID, IBOR replacement, and QFC rules.

Prior to BNY Mellon, Piers was Deutsche Bank’s global co-head of Listed Derivatives & Markets Clearing. He spent 26 years with JP Morgan Chase, where he held a variety of senior positions in FX options trading, credit portfolio & CVA trading, credit risk management, and OTC clearing.

Piers grew up in Puerto Rico and is parent to a special needs child, now adult, and this parenting experience has colored his management approach to working parents and remote work. Growing up in a multi-lingual environment in PR, and with extensive family ties toAsia, Europe and the Caribbean, Piers also recognizes the benefit that different personal experiences and styles bring to team dynamics and to business outcomes.

In Piers’ management roles in NY, London, and Singapore, he developed first-hand experience in the addressing compensation practices that were not directly linked to capabilities and performance. Being able to develop talent, and build globally diverse teams, in the US, LatAm, EMEA, UK and APAC has been one of the main rewards for Piers in his financial career.

Confidence Clusters

To support our executive female COO community members, we run COO Confidence Clusters. Each cluster of six senior managing director level COOs remains the same over a 12-month period, meeting every quarter for a 60-minute on-line exchange. This safe space allows our iCOOC and WCOOC members to engage with a peer group with confidence and in-confidence on common challenges. How does this work?

Frequency: The group meets once every quarter.

Confidentiality: Discussions are held in a safe space under the Chatham House Rule, ensuring privacy.

Commitment: The same six members will participate for a full year, promoting continuity.

Attendance: While all six can join, it’s expected that four will attend each call.

Duration and Agenda: Each meeting lasts 60 minutes, with topics submitted in advance or raised spontaneously.

Scheduling: Meetings for the upcoming year are planned by December 31 of the previous year.

Support: Armstrong Wolfe will manage logistics and documentation, including noting action points and providing feedback to the WCOOC Chair.

WCOOC

Are you interested in joining a Confidence Custer?  Contact Isabelle Scanell:  

WCOOC Steering Group

North America

Andres Oranges
COO Finance
Societe Generale

Kay Lazidis
SVP, COO, U.S. Global Banking & Markets
Scotiabank

Rhiannon Wakefield
COO, Americas
TP ICAP

Caitlin Behrens
COO, Americas
Standard Chartered Bank

Susie Roberts
Managing Director, Chief of Staff for Global Fixed Income & Currencies

EMEA

Yvonne Waldron
Director – Treasury Services Global Business Change Lead and EMEA CAO
BNY Mellon

Sophie Rutherford
MD, EMEA Head of FX Business Risk
State Street

Emma Prophet
Global Head of Operations
TP ICAP

Fahreen Kurji
Chief Customer Intelligence Officer
Behavox

Natalie Golding
COO
Payment Systems Regulator

Anna Chadderton
Head of International FICC Operations
Goldman Sachs

Thomas Snowden
Director, Strategic Projects
EMEA Executive Team
BlackRock

APAC

Fatema Bookwala
MD and COO Markets and Securities Services ASEAN
HSBC

Katy Matvey
Former APAC COO
Wells Fargo

Dawn Tan
APAC Head of Operations
TP ICAP

Stiofan De Burca
Chief Financial Officer
JP Morgan Asset Management

“I am excited to be a part of the WCOOC Steering Group as the work of the WCOOC is important to continue to connect and advance the women in the global COO Community.”

Katy Matvey Former APAC COO Wells Fargo

WCOOC Testimonials

“When smart motivated people come together with a common goal there is no end to what they can achieve. This growing community of WCOOC brings together some of the best and brightest experienced professionals, joined by shared desires to promote equal opportunities, excellence and innovation. I am honoured to be a member of this community as an ambassador.”

Rowena Everson, Head of Digital Channels and Data Analytics for the West region at Standard Chartered Bank

“The COO has a unique and wide-reaching role with the capability and responsibility to inspire, impact and empower change across the entire organisation.  As such, it is extremely valuable to have a forum like the WCOOC to exchange ideas, meet likeminded people and strengthen resolve to create environments of complete inclusion allowing everyone to bring their whole self to work.”

Peter Zorn, Talent and Transformation, IBM Consulting

“As a female COO, manager of talented women, and mother of two daughters, the advancement and development of the next generation of female leaders is close to my heart. It’s a privilege to join the Steering Committee for Women in the COO Community, which has grown into a vibrant network of accomplished women who are actively supporting each others growth and success.”

Rebecca Crowe, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at BNY Mellon

“I have been engaged with the WCOOC and the Armstrong Wolfe community since inception. The WCOOC community is both relevant and pertinent given the challenges that the COO, and wider C-suite faces. More critically it provides an excellent, safe space platform, sandbox if you will, for critical discussions on the often highly complex commercial, regulatory and human elements of our business.”

David Sharratt, COO Asia, Commerzbank

“The WCOOC is an outstanding collaborative forum bringing together the COO (and wider) community to engage, learn, network and examine in detail the key topics and challenges impacting business today and in the future. As a rare cross-industry platform it provides a unique opportunity for the COO community to come together and support each other in what are increasingly challenging roles in increasingly challenging times.”

Stephen Miller, Chief Information Officer, Arco

“The role of the COO has been my most challenging and at the same time most rewarding of my career to date. Being an ambassador for  Women in the COO Community allows me to support others and share my experiences in what is an often misunderstood role with few experienced resources to lean on.”

Rich Evans, Former Head of Equities, EMEA, Barclays and Current Head of Prime, CEX.IO

“Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion is not just a commitment, infact it is a driving force in shaping the future of our industry. I am honoured to join the WCOOC Steering Committee and look forward to passionately contributing to the journey of fostering a more inclusive and equitable financial landscape for all.”

Fatema Bookwala, Managing Director, Managing Director & COO Markets and Securities Services ASEAN, HSBC

“Being equally able and allowed to develop ones full potential in the workplace should not be a topic of discussion anymore in this day and age. Unfortunately it still is. Creating and supporting avenues that enable the right environment to ensure everyone has access to equal opportunities remains urgent and important. As a woman with a career in Finance, I know it is not a given for everyone to break or confront barriers in adverse environments. I have seen firsthand how WCOOC is paving the way and supporting talented women in our industry across all walks of life. I am extremely honored and proud to be able to contribute as a steering Committee Member.”

Sietske Kalse, Managing Director, COO and Head of Business Development, Citi

“The COO role covers a wide range of responsibilities and a unique set of challenges. It is so important and invaluable to have a community like WCOOC that supports us to deliver and develop both professionally and personally.”

Kimberly Ong, EMEA & Asia COO Asset Management Solutions, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

“I am a firm believer that truly inclusive cultures drive better business outcomes and enable everyone to realise their full potential.  It is encouraging that the most egregious behaviours of past decades can now at least be reported and taken seriously rather than the complaints being shut down.  But significant disparities and inequalities persist.  Diversity shouldn’t be about tokenism and diversity on its own is not enough.  Inclusion is critical to ensure that different perspectives are taken into consideration. There is notable benefit, not least from a risk management perspective, in seeking cognitive diversity from staff with different life experiences and to encourage decision making which takes into account a variety of different viewpoints.

This is especially important in a rapidly changing world where sophisticated solutions are needed to tackle ever more nuanced issues. So many members of the flourishing Armstrong Wolfe community are aware of the benefits of inclusion but also of the challenges any firm faces when implementing measures to achieve inclusive cultures. I am honoured and delighted to have been asked to become an WCOOC Ambassador and look forward to working actively with WCOOC to help drive meaningful change.”

Alexandra Stanton, Corporate Culture Consultant, AVS Corporate Culture Consultancy

“I refuse to believe that women do not have the potential to achieve success at the highest levels of business given their proven academic achievements and business contributions and yet, we continue to see the gender gap persisting. Our customers, shareholders and communities are being failed because businesses are not tapping into the full, representative talent pool available to them, being unconsciously (or consciously) trapped by biases and held back by the legacy overhang of accepted practices. I’ve been an active member of the Armstrong Wolfe WCOOC for a number of years and love how it brings individuals together, agnostic of organisation and geography, to collaborate, challenge accepted norms and share best practice with the common aim of improving diversity and inclusion and, in doing so, improving the outcomes for our clients, our shareholders and our communities as a whole. I am very grateful for the opportunity to contribute more actively as a WCOOC Ambassador moving forward.”

Helen Hughes-Green, Managing Director, ICG Head of Client Conduct Risk, Citi

Armstrong Wolfe Forums & Events 2025

In 2025 we will be providing for our members 100 events, of which 61 will be face to face and 39 on-line.

We strongly believe that whilst the opportunity to meet on-line is now a very important part of any business activity and has enabled us to bring our worldwide community together in real-time for meaningful debate, that in-person events are the bedrock of our community’s ability to truly engage. Contact Maurice Evlyn-Bufton (CEO) or Isabelle Scannell (EMEA and APAC Relationship Manager & WCOOC Global Programme Lead) to discuss membership or for any further information you need.

Recent WCOOC Content

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Armstrong Wolfe are proud signatories of the Women in Finance Charter.

Despite being called ‘Women in the COO Community’, our mission is to promote all talent regardless of gender, race or socioeconomic background to leadership positions, and we are appreciative of the fact that best practice and true change must be a holistic effort and involve all members of the community.

To improve D&I in the workplace, we have a strong board of ambassadors who contribute to our purpose of providing opportunities and the cause of leadership for all women and underrepresented groups across financial services.

WCOOC

Become a Member

Join the only global membership committed to the advancement of the Financial Services COO.

Contact Maurice Evlyn-Bufton (CEO) or Isabelle Scannell (EMEA and APAC Relationship Manager & WCOOC Global Programme Lead) to discuss membership or for any further information you need.

Be engaged, connect with the industry and your peers, empower your people through knowledge transfer and learning.