OUR LEADERSHIP & TRUSTEES
Meet our volunteer Board of Trustees and find out why they are passionate about improving financial education across the UK.
Christopher Cummings - Chair, Trustee
Chris is the Chief Executive of The Investment Association, a post he has held since September 2016. The IA is the trade body that represents UK-based investment managers. He is a member of HM Treasury’s Asset Management Taskforce, and was a founding member of its Financial Services Trade & Investment Board. He serves on the Chancellor’s Financial Services Industry Advisory Group and Department for International Trade’s Financial Services Trade Advisory Group. He is a Board member on EFAMA, the European trade association for investment management and is a member of the Regulation Committee of IIFA, the international association for investment management. He was previously a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Regulatory Decisions Committee, a Settlement Decision Maker for the Payment Services Regulator. He served on the Foreign & Commonwealth’s Diplomatic Excellence Panel. Before joining The Investment Association he was the founding CEO of TheCityUK, held senior posts in banking, insurance and consulting with major global firms. He is a regular columnist, commentator and speaker on issues of international competitiveness and regulation in financial services.
Sheila Nicoll OBE - Trustee
Sheila is lay canon and senior non-executive director at St Paul’s Cathedral, London and is chair of St James’s Place Unit Trust Board. She has recently retired as Head of Public Policy at Schroders following a career in financial services regulatory policy, including at the Financial Services Authority, the asset management trade association and the London Stock Exchange. She is a former secretary of Churches Mutual Credit Union. She is an elder in the Church of Scotland and was a member of the Archbishop’s Task Group on Responsible Credit and Savings (2014-2016).
Alison Esther Grieve - Trustee
From 2001 to 2016 Alison was Finance Director at Business In The Community, one of a group of not-for-profit organisations of which HM The King is the Royal Founding Patron. From 1993 to 2000 she was Finance Director at ECHG, which provides supported and sheltered housing services. Prior to that she worked in retail and IT as a senior Finance professional having qualified in 1976 as a Chartered Accountant. Alison was educated at Harrogate Grammar School and St Hugh's College, Oxford, and has an MA in Mathematics. She is also a Trustee of All Nations Christian College and All Souls Serve the City CIO so she endeavours to stay current with changes in charity finance.
Rachel Elwell - Trustee
Rachel is the founding Chief Executive of Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, which was established in 2017 to manage investments on behalf of the Local Government Pension Scheme. Prior to this she had more than 20 years’ experience working in pensions and institutional investment (at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Royal London Mutual Insurance Society). In October 2020 Rachel joined the board of the Investment Association, the UK asset management industry’s trade body; in December 2021 she joined the board of Opera North; and she joined the board of the Just Finance Foundation in November 2023. Rachel is a Cambridge maths graduate and a qualified actuary.
Ven Catherine Pickford - Trustee
Catherine became the Archdeacon of Northolt in September 2020. The Archdeaconry covers part of North West London and includes one of the most multi faith, multi-cultural boroughs in the country. Previously, she served in the diocese of Newcastle for 20 years, as Team Rector in Newcastle’s multicultural west end, and latterly as priest in charge of a Northumbrian village and Diocesan Clergy Development Officer. She was Chair of the House of Clergy and served on General Synod. Catherine is married to John, a sculptor, and they have 3 school aged children.
Dr. Paul A Jones - Trustee
Dr Paul Jones is a Reader in the Social Economy and e heads up the Research Unit for Financial Inclusion (RUFI) in the Faculty of Education, Health and Community at Liverpool John Moores University. RUFI undertakes academic, action and evaluative research in a wide range of areas related to the development of financial services for lower and moderate-income households, money and debt advice and credit union development. He has published widely in the field of financial inclusion and credit union development and is a regular speaker at national and international conferences in the field of the social economy.
Rt Revd Richard William Bryant Atkinson OBE - Trustee
Bishop Richard was consecrated Bishop of Bedford in 2012. He came to Bedford from Leicester where he served Archdeacon, having previously ministered in the Dioceses of Oxford and Sheffield. Bishop Richard has a passion for the Church’s mission in the world. This has included several senior Trustee roles in relation to housing, regeneration, and work with the unemployed. He is committed to building strong inter-religious relationships, including a term as co-chair of the Inter Faith Network UK. Bishop Richard currently chairs the Church of England’s work in relation to disability and the deaf community. He is a Governor of the University of Bedfordshire; Chair of the St Albans Diocesan Board of Education; and Vice-Chair of the Luton Roma Trust. In 2002 he was awarded an OBE for services to employment in Rotherham.
Chris Hill - Trustee
Chris was CEO of Hargreaves Lansdown from April 2017 to August 2023. Prior to that he was Deputy CEO and CFO from February 2016. Before HL Chris was CFO at IG Group plc, the financial trading company and Travelex Holdings, the foreign exchange and payments company. Chris qualified as an accountant with Arthur Andersen in 1993 and spent time at GE Capital in a number of leadership roles. He is a Senior Adviser to Boston Consulting Group, a member of the Advisory Panel for IA Engine, a fintech network run by the Investment Association, and a member of the FCA Practitioner Panel.
During Chris' tenure at HL assets and client numbers doubled to £130 billion and 1.8 million with market share increasing from 35 to 41%. Chris launched the cash savings platform in 2018 and led its digital transformation. He is passionate about improving the financial resilience of individuals and launched HL's Financial Resilience Barometer which is published every 6 months, in conjunction with Oxford Economics, and helps to improve the decisions individuals and policymakers make to boost financial resilience, "Investing remains a minority activity and if we are serious about improving financial resilience for all, we need to make saving and investing an everyday activity."