External Advisory Board

Nicola has led FinTech Scotland since 2021, advancing the fintech ecosystem and innovation in Scotland to be recognised and accredited as one of Europe’s top fintech centres of excellence.

Recently, and in collaboration with industry, Nicola has set up the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, which aims to shape the future of Financial Regulation in Scotland.

With a focus on making finance work well for customers, society, business and markets, Nicola’s experience spans large and small enterprises, and regulatory bodies and across a wide range of industries.

Nicola is also an NED at Advice Direct Scotland, and a member of both The Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services and The Scottish Government’s Financial Services Growth and Development Board.

Sandy Begbie CBE was appointed Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise in October 2020.

Prior to joining SFE, Sandy led the development of the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee following an 18-month contract at Tesco Bank as the Chief Transformation Officer.

Sandy was responsible for the Global People, Organisation and Culture Integration following the successful merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management. Before the merger Sandy was the Chief People Officer and Lead Executive for China and Hong Kong for Standard Life for eight years. During this time, he led the Standard Life HR team to be recognised as one of the top performing functions in the UK and also led the turn-around of Standard Life’s Chinese Joint Venture. Sandy was appointed Senior Advisor to the Standard Life Asia Board in July 2020, having been Chair of the Hong Kong-based Board since 2014.

Before joining Standard Life plc in May 2010, Sandy held similar Transformation and Group HR Director positions within Aegon, Scottish Power and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Sandy holds several non-executive positions including Chair of Career Ready, Non-Executive Director of Place 2 Be and Chair of the Centre for Moving Images.

Sandy was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in August 2018 for services to business and social inclusion, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2023.

Barry leads the Everyday Banking team within Retail Banking, delivering current account, payments and savings propositions for 12 million customers across RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank (NI). Barry has been with NatWest for 20 years previously working at National Australia Bank and Barclays. Barry is an economist who also holds a First Class Honours MBA from the Edinburgh Business School and is passionate about financial capability and inclusion, and life-long learning.

Jean is Chief Operating Officer at Sandbox Banking, a FinTech startup that creates Banking as a Service infrastructure connecting banks and fintechs. She is a proven business leader with extensive experience driving growth initiatives from start-ups to well established companies. Recently, she built and led the nonprofit accelerator, FinTech Sandbox, which focuses on helping over 200 start-ups utilize data and grow their business. She is a University of Edinburgh alumna, and is a mentor for the Hack Diversity, MassChallenge FinTech, and TechStars programs.

After doing her PhD in theoretical atomic physics at the University of Oxford in the early 1990s, Jessica spent a better part of 30 years finding mathematical solutions to problems in the world of finance, as well as managing teams and projects. In her own words, Jessica is happiest with her head down doing maths and coding. In addition to a successful career in financial services, Jessica is an accomplished author, having published several books and articles.

As an investor and serial entrepreneur, with the speciality in AI and FinTech, Joel develops and invests in related projects and accelerates portfolio companies. For the past 5 years, he has reviewed over 500 AI and FinTech startups for investment and incubation. He gained extensive knowledge and experience of AI and FinTech from working as an investor, serial entrepreneur, and a university faculty member. He had been a highly acclaimed faculty member of AI programs at Singapore Management University. He has volunteered actively as a mentor for startups from Startupbootcamp, Wayra UK etc.

Working in Customer Strategy at M&G plc, I influence leadership and key stakeholders through growth and transformation initiatives that focus on customers and their long-term savings and investment needs.

I also leverage the role of finance in supporting the future of the planet, working with a connected climate change community both internally and externally. I serve as the Secretary of the Customer Committee and the Co-Chair of the Elevate Committee, empowering gender equality and true potential within the organisation.

Nick works for the Financial Conduct Authority, jointly heading up the FCA presence in Scotland. Since 2020 he has supported a tripling of the size of the Edinburgh office to over 250 staff. The FCA is delighted to be using this increased footprint to deepen relationships with key stakeholders in Scotland including the University of Edinburgh.

Alongside this, Nick works across our supervision and enforcement areas to improve regulatory response in order to better detect and respond to harm.

Nick’s background is in Government both advising Ministers and operational delivery.

Myles founded Modulr in 2016 which has grown to become a leading provider of embedded payments to digital businesses across the UK and Europe. Delivered using Modulr’s modern FinOps hub, Modulr enables 260+ clients to automate, control and embed payments and is now processing an annualised transaction value of more than £100bn.

Prior to founding Modulr, Myles was Managing Director, WEX Europe and Board Director for WEX Europe Services, WEX’s JV with Radius Payment Solutions. WEX Inc is a global provider of payment technology solutions in the fleet, corporate payment and healthcare markets.

Myles founded CorporatePay, a prepaid and virtual card platform, in 2008 with Blenheim Chalcot and led the business to a successful exit in 2012 to WEX Inc.

Myles spent seven years with Retail Decisions Plc including running the European business unit and subsequently as Strategic Development Director led ReD's investment in Mi-Pay and Digital Payments.

Myles started his career with Marks and Spencer Plc.

Myles earned his MA in Biochemistry at Christ Church, Oxford University including research at Padova University, Italy.

Raffaella Turco is leading Global Business Development for a newly created unit in Aon focused on Digital Solutions for Key Multinational Clients.

She has been in the insurance industry for 27 years working for key financial institutions, banks and Insurance companies. She started her career in GE Capital Financial Services in Italy mainly focused on retail banking, moving then to International and global roles in Citibank, Genworth Financials and lately in HSBC where she was in charge Globally of Commercial Banking and Private Banking insurance.

She has an Executive MBA and consolidated international experience. Her main focus is to drive growth at global level, leading innovation and stratgeic inititives to acquire, develop and retain key multinational clients.

James is passionate about working within Tribes to solve Wicked Problems. A fintech enthusiast, proud generalist and startup addict, he’s led Open Banking innovations for 15 years, creating inclusive financial solutions like the first global credit score. His journey intertwines finance and tech, driven by a passion for challenging norms and embracing tech advancements. James is dedicated to guiding emerging companies toward international success, fostering global collaborations, and nurturing a community focused on transformative growth and innovation.