In anticipation of the 2023 eprivateclient Excellence Awards, we can exclusively reveal this year's Judging Panel.
Building on the success of the first two Awards ceremonies, eprivateclient has decided to include an external judging panel of experts to further demonstrate the Awards' focus on independence and rigour.
James Anderson, founder and editor in chief, Katie Royals, managing editor, and Will Sidery, senior editor, all at PAM Insight (eprivateclient's parent company), will be chairing the judging sub-committees.
In no particular order, here is the 2023 Judging Panel. (NB any judges with links to firms eligible to enter will not be judging those categories to avoid potential conflicts of interest.)
Jennifer Ollerenshaw
Head of wealth planning UK
Lombard Odier
Jennifer Ollerenshaw is head of wealth planning UK at Lombard Odier. She specialises in investment structuring, wealth and estate planning for individuals and families who have a UK connection.
Ms Ollerenshaw has worked extensively with entrepreneurs, financial services professionals and non-UK domiciled individuals, and works closely with clients’ professional tax and legal advisers. She takes a holistic yet personalised approach, ensuring that clients’ wealth planning and investment strategies meet their specific requirements.
She trained as a Chartered accountant while working in the tax team for Barclays Wealth. She then went into practice, spending most of the next five years at EY providing tax advice to ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals and private banks, before returning to the banking sector in 2018. Ms Ollerenshaw is a Chartered tax adviser and holds the Investment Advice Diploma from the CISI.
Wendy Walton
Business coach and consultant
Ms Walton recently launched a coaching and consulting business to professional services firms and the wealth management industry. Her aim is to help partners and senior executives succeed by maximising their personal and career potential.
Prior to that she was at BDO for 35 years and was its head of global private client services and a member of the leadership team. She really enjoys helping people find solutions to their issues and making complex matters understandable for them.
Vikash Gupta
Co-founder and chief executive
VAR Capital Limited
Vikash Gupta is the chief executive and co-founder of VAR Capital Limited, a multi-family office based in London.
He joined VAR Capital from Barclays, where he was part of the key clients and family offices team within the UK private bank. Mr Gupta was also a member of the investment committee of the UK private bank.
Before joining Barclays, he was at Booz & Company, providing corporate and M&A advisory services to some of the world’s leading financial institutions. Mr Gupta holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Bangalore University, Bangalore, India. He is also a board member of Spirit of 2012, a not-for-profit organisation set up to keep the spirit of the London 2012 Olympic Games alive.
Drew McNeil
Head of client relationships
Wren Investment Office
Drew McNeil is head of client relationships at Wren Investment Office. He works with clients to provide advice and oversight with responsibility for all aspects of client service and portfolio management. He is a member of the investment committee.
Prior to his role at Wren Investment Office, Mr McNeil was an executive director at Sandaire Investment Office in charge of client relationship management. He also served the same role at Lord North Street from 2005 until 2014 when Sandaire acquired Lord North Street.
At both of these firms he had lead responsibility for a large number of client relationships, both families and endowments. Before entering the multi-family office sector, Mr McNeil worked for Schroders Private Bank from 2000 to 2004, as a private banker on the international client desk, and ING Barings Private Bank from 1995 to 2000, as a portfolio manager.
He has been a CFA charter holder since 1999 and holds a BSc in Physics from Durham University. He has passed the Adviser Competency Training for social investment.
Carl Darnill
Head of advisory Intermediaries
Coutts & Co
Carl Darnill has over 30 years' experience in the financial services industry, working both onshore and offshore during this time. He is a qualified wealth manager, financial adviser and trust practitioner and has held senior leadership roles in business development and marketing across the trust and wealth management sectors. His work has led to him working and living for spells in Asia, UK Crown Dependencies, Switzerland and the UK.
Currently, Mr Darnill leads a team responsible for the external professional relationships at Coutts & Co in the UK including international trustee firms.
He brings a wealth of practical experience and understanding with regard to working closely with professional firms across the UK, Crown Dependencies and Switzerland.
Mr Darnill is a STEP Committee member for STEP Yorkshire. His professional memberships include CII/PFS and STEP.
Fella Khelifi-Arnulphy
Head of UK advisory solutions
EFG Private Bank
Fella Khelifi-Arnulphy has almost 20 years’ experience working with UHNW, family offices and institutional clients from all over the world. She has established the investment advisory arm of EFG Private Bank in the UK and leads with passion and energy to service her clients’ investment needs.
As wealth transitions to a new generation and a new breed of UHNW is created through disrupted industries, she comments "being close to clients means truly listening and building solutions that meet a fast-changing world with their fast-changing needs”.
Before joining EFG in 2015 she held various roles at Citi Private Bank, including an investment counsellor in the UK, and led the alternatives managed investment sales for EMEA in Switzerland. Prior to this, Ms Khelifi-Arnulphy was an alternatives portfolio manager at Union Bancaire Privee where she serviced institutional clients. She started her career as an analyst with Ansbacher & Co in London.
She grew up in Algeria but has worked internationally and speaks fluent French and Arabic. A relentless advocate for diversity, she supports women in the industry to promote themselves and reach their leadership potential. She created and chairs the EFG International’s women network. Ms Khelifi-Arnulphy regularly contributes to wealth and diversity publications and talks.
Victoria Nahmany
Head of wealth planning Europe
Pictet & Cie
Victoria Nahmany is a English qualified lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of wealth structuring, tax and litigation.
She has worked in private practice with leading law firms in London and Geneva and for trust companies in Geneva. She joined the Pictet Group as a wealth planner in 2011 and is currently head of the UK and Europe wealth planning teams.
Ms Nahmany has considerable experience with UK tax issues for high net worth (HNW) and UHNW individuals and their families, and complex international structuring for succession planning and asset protection purposes.
She is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).
Her mother tongue is English and she is fluent in French.
James Gladstone
Head of wealth planning
Cazenove Capital
James Gladstone is head of wealth planning at Cazenove Capital, advising some of the firm's largest clients from landed estates to high-profile entrepreneurs. His key areas of expertise include investment structuring, inter-generational wealth transfer, asset protection and estate planning.
His approach focuses upon the emotional relationship that clients have with their wealth and how this drives decision making, using his experience to help clients successfully navigate often challenging decisions.
Mr Gladstone is also responsible for leading the wealth planning business within Cazenove Capital, where he is a member of the senior leadership team for UK wealth management.
He joined Cazenove in 2012 and previously was head of financial planning at UBS and a financial planning director at Rathbones. He has over 20 years’ industry experience and is a Chartered financial planner.
Ben Chance
Partner & head of private office
LGT Wealth Management
Ben Chance is head of the private office and a partner of LGT Wealth Management. He has 17 years of experience specialising in advising UK and international UHNW families and entrepreneurs. Prior to joining the firm in 2015, he spent 10 years as an investment adviser focusing on sophisticated investors at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.
Mr Chance sits on the firm's private equity and charity committees and on LGT Group's UHNW steering committee.
Outside the firm, he is a trustee of the Percy Bilton Charity, a former trustee of One World Media, and acts as an adviser to a global family foundation.
He was previously named a PAM Top 40 Under 40 and holds a BA in Economics from Durham University.
Jeremy Franks
Head of wealth planning and advisory, UK & EMEA
HSBC Global Private Banking
Jeremy Franks joined HSBC Global Private Banking in 2019 and is responsible for co-ordinating and enhancing the wealth planning and advisory proposition across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. The WPA teams across the UK & EMEA regions help clients leveraging all the WPA pillars from wealth structuring, to financial planning, to family governance, to philanthropy and to family office advisory.
Immediately prior to joining HSBC he ran a UK private office (KPO) where he spent just under three years as chief executive working with serial entrepreneurs assisting them with all aspects of their personal and business affairs.
Earlier in his career Mr Franks spent nearly 12 years at UBS Wealth Management where he was managing director and UK head of wealth planning advisory. He worked with family offices, entrepreneurs, serial angel investors, hedge fund and private equity principals and assisted them with all aspects of their wealth planning needs. Before working at UBS, he worked at PwC in its entrepreneurs and private clients and its tax technical teams.
Mr Franks is a Chartered tax adviser and holds the Advanced Financial Planning Certificates. He has represented the CIOT and British Bankers Association in consultations with HMRC and HM Treasury.
Maya Prabhu
Managing Director
JP Morgan Private Bank
Maya Prabhu leads the wealth advisory practice at JP Morgan Private Bank across the EMEA region. She advises families on strategies to plan for and support the harmonious transition of their family wealth and family businesses to the next generation.
Her areas of focus include developing family governance and communication strategies, next generation engagement and development, establishing family offices and in crafting effective and rewarding philanthropy strategies. Ms Prabhu has worked with families around the world especially the UK, Middle East and Asia.
Prior to joining JP Morgan in 2018, she worked at Coutts & Co London for over 10 years as a specialist adviser where she most recently led wealth advisory services.
Ms Prabhu holds practicing certificates in Family Business Advising and Family Wealth Advising from the Family Firm Institute (Boston, USA), a Certificate in Executive Coaching from the Henley Business School (University of Reading) and is an accredited mediator from Regents University.
She is a member of the teaching faculty for the Family Firm Institute’s GEN courses and for the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioner’s Diploma Certificate in Private Client Advising. She has also guest lectured for the Wealth Management Institute, Singapore. Ms Prabhu serves on the board of the Family Firm Institute and volunteers as a community mediator.
Sarah Allatt
Head of wealth planning UK and Jersey
UBS Wealth Management
Sarah Allatt is head of wealth planning UK and Jersey at UBS Wealth Management. She started her career at PwC, qualifying as a Chartered accountant and a Chartered tax adviser.
After 10 years at PwC, primarily advising private clients and private businesses, she moved to UBS in 2010. At UBS her role is to understand a client’s tax and legal situation, pointing out opportunities and risk areas on which a client may wish to take external advice. A significant portion of her clients are UK resident but not UK domiciled, and she has expertise in navigating the practical investment aspects of the tax advice these clients receive.
Ms Allatt works with a large number of solicitors and tax advisers, both when they advise her clients and when they advise the bank on tax aspects of products the bank may advise on.
As well as working at UBS, Ms Allatt is also a fee paid Judge in the First Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), a position she has held for eight years.
Outside of work, she is chair of governors at a local primary school.
Rebecca Williams
Head of wealth planning UK
Brown Shipley
Rebecca Williams joined Brown Shipley in October 2015. She provides advice on risk management, investments, retirement solutions, estate planning and lifetime cash flow planning.
She has particular experience of using lifetime cash flow with clients to help structure their affairs tax efficiently and plan to meet future goals. Ms Williams is a Certified financial planner and a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments. She also holds the Society of Trust and Estate Planners Certificate.
Quentin Holland
Social entrepreneur
After setting up an IFA called PQR Financial Planning in 2003 with two colleagues which was later sold to TPO (The Private Office) in 2016, Quentin Holland is now a social entrepreneur. He helps rich people find fantastic projects they can build to make the world a better place.
He has most recently become an ESG (environmental, ethical and social governance) influencer and investor. He is passionate about having a positive impact and helping the wellbeing of the planet.
When he is not in the office, Mr Holland goes on many adventures with his partner; paragliding, paddleboarding, sailing, exploring nature and hiking worldwide.
Martina Iannotti
Co-head of financial planning
James Hambro & Partners
Martina Iannotti joined James Hambro & Partners in 2012, initially on the investment team, before becoming chief operating officer and a partner in 2015.
Ms Iannotti entered financial services with UBS in 2010 after deciding against a career in law. She went on to jointly run the financial planning department, moving to her current role in December 2022. As the head of wealth, she oversees all commercial and operational aspects of the investment and wealth management arm.
Ben Stern
Partner and head of family office services
Lincoln Private Investment Office
Ben Stern is a partner and head of family office services at Lincoln Private Investment Office. He has over 20 years' experience advising HNW individuals from a range of backgrounds including entrepreneurs and finance industry professionals.
Lincoln is a wealth management business that is truly aligned to its clients. The firm has no external shareholders and the partners invest all of their own personal assets alongside their clients.
Prior to Lincoln, Mr Stern was a senior director at Barclays Wealth managing a team of bankers and advising clients. He is a member of the Chartered Institiute for Securities and Investment. He is also a trustee of a charity supporting children with rare chromosome disorders and a director of an online retail business.
