MC BULLION INVESTMENT & HOLDINGS - Key Persons
Aelred provides support to the Chief Executive in the administration and organisation of the Association's Public Affairs. This includes working closely with the Marketing and Communications Lead on publications, marketing material, the website and events. He is responsible for Press enquiries and is the editor for the MCBIH's quarterly publication, the Alchemist.
Prior to joining the MCBIH, he worked at the Bank of England for more than twenty five years. During the last five years of his career at the Bank he gained specific bullion market experience in his role as a Gold Bullion analyst, supporting senior management in the Bank's Customer Banking Division. He previously acted as a relationship manager for a portfolio of the Bank's customers including central banks and government departments. During his time at the Bank he studied part-time for a BA Honours degree in Business Studies.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Non - Executive Director of Barrick Gold Corp
Andrew Quinn currently serves as a non-Executive Director of Barrick Gold Corp. and is a member of its Audit and Risk Committee. Before joining the board of Barrick, after its merger with Randgold Resources, Andy had served as the Senior Independent Director of Randgold and had been a non-Executive Director since 2011.
A plus 40 year veteran of the mining industry, Andy graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Mineral Exploitation (mining engineering) from Cardiff University. He began his career in Anglo American's gold division in in South Africa in 1975, holding various management and technical positions. He worked briefly for Greenbushes Tin in Australia before joining the Mining Journal in 1982 as editor of its gold publications. In 1984 he joined James Capel (later HSBC Investment Banking), ultimately heading its mining corporate finance activities for six years from late 1989, before joining the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) in 1996.
Brian Pereira joined Brink's Limited in April 2008 and more recently became the Chair of the Finance Committee, having been on the Committee since 2012.
Job Titles:
- Great Wall Precious Metals Co
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Head of EMEA Metals and Agricultural Sales, BNP Paribas
Davide has been working in the bullion market since 2002, when he started at JPMorgan in Metals Sales covering producers, central banks and private banks in EMEA. He moved to Merrill Lynch in 2008 where he continued in Metal Sales until 2011.
In addition to precious metals he also worked in base metals and commodities investor products. His primary area of expertise is in metal derivatives. He is now responsible for bullion transactions with official institutions globally at BNP Paribas where he is Head of EMEA Metals and Agricultural Sales executing precious and base metal transactions with corporates and financial institutions. Davide has also been a member of the MCBIH membership committee since 2010 and graduated with a degree in Industrial Economics from the University of Warwick.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- MCBIH Chairman
After a 10 year academic career, Dr Paul Fisher was a senior figure at the Bank of England for 26 years, retiring at the end of July 2016. He was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee, the interim Financial Policy Committee and the PRA Board. During the Great Financial Crisis he worked in the Markets Area of the Bank, from March 2009 as Executive Director responsible, amongst other things, for the Bank's programme of asset purchases for quantitative easing. In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Prudential Regulation Authority. Previously, from 2002, he ran the Bank's Foreign Exchange Division where he had a constructive relationship with the MCBIH and developed a working knowledge of the bullion market.
Since leaving the Bank he has been working on Climate Change and Sustainability in the financial sector, including afor the EC. He has also been writing on matters of financial stability, policy co-ordination and governance, competition policy, supervision and regulation.
Among a range of outside positions he is a Non-Executive Director at the UK Debt Management Office; Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership; Senior Research Fellow at the DAFM centre, King's College Business School; and he is a Visiting Professor in Economics and Finance at Richmond University, the American International University in London.
Job Titles:
- Chief Finance Officer
- Operations Director
Ed Blight joined the MCBIH in September 2015 as the Operations Director. He is now the Chief Finance Officer and is responsible for directing and overseeing the general administration of the Association including overall responsibility for issues relating to Finance, Human Resources, IT systems, contractual arrangements, commercialisation opportunities and Office Management.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Board
- CEO, Bank of China ( UK ) Limited
Wenjian joined Bank of China Head Office in 1996. Wenjian was the Deputy General Manager and the Chief Credit Officer of Bank of China London Branch, and also the Chief Risk Officer of Bank of China (UK) Limited from December 2004.
Wenjian has served as a Director and the Chief Executive Officer of Bank of China (UK) Limited since November 2018.
Wenjian was educated at Beijing Foreign Studies University in China to postgraduate level, and received his MBA with Distinction from University of Hertfordshire in 1996. He has been a CFA Charter Holder since 2008.
Hannah supports the GDL Officer in the administration of the MCBIH Good Delivery System. She is primarily responsible for Proactive Monitoring of existing GD refiners, including the collation and analysis of assay results; and the Proficiency Testing Scheme.
She is also responsible for the Vault Operators Training platform. Prior to joining MCBIH, Hannah worked in precious metals Sales and Trading and holds an Economics degree from the University of East Anglia.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Chief, International Planning Office & Head of President 's Strategy at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. & TANAKA HOLDINGS Co., Ltd
- Member of the MCBIH 's Reference Material Steering Committee
A graduate of Shizuoka University, majoring in Inorganic Chemistry, Hitoshi's main roles since 2000 has been providing advice to the Management at Tanaka Holdings on international precious metals issues and representing Tanaka on a number of international precious metal organisations such as MCBIH, LPPM, WGC, IPA, IPMI, PMC, OECD, etc. This has involved extensive travel throughout Europe and North America.
Hitoshi has participated in almost all meetings of the MCBIH and LPPM Referees Groups in person and with one exception (Mumbai) has attended every MCBIH conference.
Hitoshi has participated in almost all meetings of the MCBIH and LPPM Referees Groups in person and with one exception (Mumbai) has attended every MCBIH conference.
In 2002, Hitoshi arranged for Tanaka to provide the MCBIH (and the other new members of the referees group) with the technique for producing gold reference samples. Also as a member of the MCBIH Referees Group, he has contributed to the technical development of the GD System including the introduction of Proactive Monitoring in 2004 and the introduction of Responsible Gold Guidance.
Since its establishment in 2008, Hitoshi has been a member of the MCBIH's Reference Material Steering Committee. Tanaka produced the MCBIH's first gold Certified Reference Materials in 2009 and late last year was awarded the contract to produce the next set of silver Certified Reference Materials.
Since 2010, Hitoshi has provided advice on the MCBIH's gold assaying Proficiency Testing Scheme which is now carried out annually and since 2004, has acted as advisor for the MCBIH's Assaying and Refining Conference.
Tanaka has been very active not only in the Asian market places but also in both Europe and North America. Hitoshi was for several years a member of the Board of Tanaka's Korean JV, d Heesung Metals Ltd. The MCBIH's engagement with the Asian market is a vital part of its strategy in coming years and Hitoshi hopes that his membership of the MCBIH Board will allow him to contribute to the maintenance and growth of the MCBIH's position in Asia.
Concerning the European market, Tanaka's involvement is reflected in Hitoshi's attendance during the past decade at almost every meeting on REACH organised by the PMC(Precious Metals Consortium where Tanaka has been the only non-European refiner full member.) In addition, to help it focus on European issues, Tanaka established a representative office in London in 2013 under Hitoshi's leadership as Tanaka's permanent representative. As for Gold usage for technical applications Hitoshi has been a member of International Advisory Board of the Conferences organised by major market players, academic organizations, industrial enterprises and industry organizations such as WGC.
Ian began his Bullion career at JP Morgan in 1990 in Operations and held many roles in across a wide range of physical Commodities. He was very active in the Aurum development for Unallocated Clearing and acted as project manager for the LPMCL and JP Morgan in defining, developing and the testing of Aurum.
He joined Credit Agricole in 2007 to develop their Middle Office and Operations capability across Base metals, Energy and Bullion, and later building the capabilities to support European physical Gas and Power.
In 2013, Ian joined Standard Chartered Bank Commodities team as Head of Commodities Operations for Europe. Ian current role is Head Precious Metal Transaction management unit, and his team, who are based in Singapore and London are responsible for the management of the global inventory of all Standard Chartered entities. SCB have a significant Bullion derivative and physical global business with a strong physical capability in India, China and the Middle East.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- International Consultant in Financial Asset Management
Isabelle Strauss-Kahn is an international consultant in Financial Asset Management as well as being an Advisory Board member of the World Gold Council and the Treasurer/ Board member of the Paris Institute of Advanced Studies. She also provides advisory services for public asset management covering a range of issues including governance, strategic asset allocation, portfolio management and operational procedures.
From 1999 to 2008, she was Deputy and then Director (2003) of Market Operations at the BDF, overseeing monetary policy implementation and reserve management of foreign exchange and gold. From 2008 to 2018, she was Lead Financial Officer in the Treasury division of the World Bank, providing financial services, technical assistance and training to many central banks and global sovereign wealth funds.
Prior to this, she held managerial positions in supervising risks successively at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and at the BDF. She was a member of several international European Committees including the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. She has spoken at numerous conferences organised by public and private financial institutions and has published several articles on reserve management. She graduated in Economics (PhD Core) at the University of Chicago (USA), in Business at HEC (Haut Enseignement Commercial, Paris) and in Law (Paris-I).
Jade is responsible for working alongside CEO, Ruth Crowell, to ensure the vision of the business is communicated and implemented across all business areas. She works closely with the Executive team to manage projects with a focus on business development activities. She is also responsible for maintaining the company brand as well as creating and managing key internal and external relationships.
Jade had previously been Executive Assistant acting as overall trouble-shooter and strategist in support of the General Counsel and Chief Executive.
Jamilah supports the Head of Communications and Public Relations officer in the administration and organisation of the Association's Marketing and Communications strategy. Her responsibilities include conducting the execution of member communications, the design, integration and configuration control of the MCBIH Web presence and publications relations support. She also supports the coordination and delivery for MCBIH events, conferences, seminars, forums, webinars and social events.
Job Titles:
- Membership Services Coordinator
Josh is responsible for the administration of MCBIH Membership programme, managing and developing relationships for new and existing members. Josh works closely with the Chief Finance Officer in the development and implementation of improved members services including data and information systems offerings.
Kate provides support in the administration and organisation of the Executive Office. She is responsible for office management and business support across all MCBIH Executive operations. Kate also provides PA support to the CFO and CTO.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Vice Chairman at MKS PAMP Group and MCBIH Vice Chairman
Mehdi Barkhordar graduated from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance and Decision Sciences. In 1983, he joined the MKS PAMP Group, which includes MKS (Switzerland) S.A., a leading precious metals and financial services company, and PAMP S.A., one of the world's foremost precious metals refiners and fabricators. From central offices in Switzerland, the MKS PAMP Group operates globally through an international network of branch offices with locations in 14-countries and covering all five continents.
Active throughout the precious metals industry, he is widely respected for his comprehensive trading, marketing and fabrication expertise. He has been instrumental in significantly broadening the Group's reach, range of services and productivity over the course of 30 years.
Additionally, he has contributed greatly to widening perceptions of the value of precious metals worldwide through innovative product and marketing concepts. And, throughout his career, he has been one of the industry's most visible proponents of products and services quality standards, best practices and ethics, as well as environmental sustainability.
Job Titles:
- Chem - Chief Technical Officer
As Chief Technical Officer for the MCBIH, Neil's responsibilities include acting as the Executive's main contact for the Good Delivery system for GD Refiners, applicants and MCBIH Committees. His duties include managing the MCBIH Good Delivery accreditation system, including applications, Pro-Active Monitoring, Proficiency Testing and other GD related projects. The role also involves overseeing the work of the GDL Officer in the administration of the Good Delivery system as well as managing the implementation by gold Good Delivery refiners of the MCBIH's Responsible Gold Guidance and ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the Good Delivery work carried out by the MCBIH.
He brings to the role a wealth of experience having previously been Head of Evaluation at the Rand Refinery in South Africa. He represented the Rand Refinery at the MCBIH as the only Referee in the Southern Hemisphere. As one of only five Referees appointed by the MCBIH to oversee the maintenance of the MCBIH's Good Delivery List, he has been involved in many initiatives to ensure and develop the integrity of the gold industry. He contributed to the steering committee which produced the "Conflict-Free" Gold Standard of the World Gold Council as well as the development of the MCBIH's Responsible Gold Guidance and presented the Rand Refinery "Artisanal gold" Model at the OECD in Paris. He was a Board Member of the Responsible Jewellery Council representing the Gold and/or Platinum Metals, Refiners and/or Hedgers Forum as well as sitting on the Membership Committee. His work experience included nine years in the Platinum Industry and held the position as a member of the South African Organising Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Global General Manager of ABC Bullion
Nick is Global General Manager of ABC Bullion in Sydney, the international facing role the business. Nick started his career in Precious Metals with Bank of Boston, then trading for Sumitomo Corporation Tokyo, arbitraging TOCOM gold futures and dealing with overseas bank and Central banks, then SC Europe, where he ran the precious metals swap books and Islamic finance book.
He moved to become manager of RBS Sempra Commodities Precious Metals desk, then the head of the Triland Futures precious desk. He then moved to join Mitsui Precious Metals Inc. in London before joining their team in Hong Kong to grow their Australasian business. Nick was formerly a member of the MCBIH's Management Committee, the Finance committee and has been involved in the Membership Committee for a number of years. He has a bachelor's degree in Economics with Psychology from City, University of London, a Diploma in Statistics from the Open University, UK, and is in the process of completing a Master's in Finance with Economic Policy from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has worked in London, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney.
Rebecca manages the Marketing Communications and Events team who plan and deliver a wide range of services for MCBIH and the market, encompassing our annual conference and other events that we hold throughout the year; our ever growing communications and website content, our quarterly magazine, annual review and other publications; our webinar programme and our ongoing media engagements. Rebecca coordinates the team's activities to align with the Board's strategic objectives. She works with her colleagues on the leadership team to ensure that decisions are actioned swiftly and that we communicate key information as quickly and effectively as we can to our stakeholders. Rebecca has worked within a number of roles for the MCBIH over the last 10 years and has developed a solid understanding of the work of the association.
Rebecca divides her time between Asia and London and works closely with Jeremy East, our Senior Advisor in Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) to grow our network in that region. Rebecca has previously worked in a range of industries, and brings wide ranging expertise to include events management, ad agency, concert promotion, theatre production, learning and development as well as pursuing side careers in voiceovers, diversity and inclusion programme development, coaching and workshop facilitation and pilates instruction.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Chief Executive
- Member of the Board
- Chief Executive of the MCBIH
Ruth was appointed Chief Executive of the MCBIH in January 2014. She is responsible for the success and strategic development of the MCBIH, in partnership with the Chairman and the Board. She is also responsible for maintaining accountability to and the quality of, the Association's Membership and Good Delivery Refiners as well as representing the interests of the Association in relation to regulators, investors, media and international precious metals markets.
Before being appointed Chief Executive, she spent seven years working in the Association, initially as Commercial Director and then as Deputy Chief Executive, where she acted as the main lead on Governmental Affairs. She was also responsible for the Association's work on supply chain due diligence, with particular regard to the creation and implementation of the MCBIH's Responsible Gold Guidance. She has represented the Association at industry, governmental and multi-stakeholder regulatory forums. She continues to serve as Vice Chair of the OECD Multi-Stakeholder Governance Group for Responsible Minerals. As Commercial Director, she oversaw the development of the MCBIH Conference, the MCBIH's quarterly publication the Alchemist and the MCBIH website.
Prior to joining the MCBIH, she worked in bank finance and US corporate law at the law firms of White & Case and Norton Rose, and also acted as a monitor at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. She has an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and a degree in English Literature from Kenyon College in Ohio.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Executive Board Director & General Counsel
In her role as General Counsel of the London Bullion Market Association and also an Executive member of the MCBIH Board, Sakhila has been involved in, and taken the lead on a number of projects of the Association. This has included, but not limited to: working closely with the CEO on the strategic direction of the MCBIH; transitioning all of the four precious metals benchmarks onto electronic platforms by working with the service providers as well as regulators; leading the draft and launch of the Precious Metals Code; working with external service provider to enhance transparency in the precious metals market by launching the MCBIH trade reporting initiative; and providing for lobbying efforts on behalf of members on a number of issues, for example EU Conflicts Minerals regulation, Net Stable Funding Ratio amongst other regulations.
In addition to this, Sakhila takes responsibility for all the legal and regulatory work of the Association and that of London Precious Metals Clearing Limited (LPMCL). She is involved in setting policies and leading the incident management process within the MCBIH by working with various external stakeholders to help with decision making. She has also focused on meeting and building relationships with governmental officials and regulators and continues to educate all such stakeholders on the dynamics of the bullion market and all the work undertaken by the MCBIH.
Sakhila brings with her a wealth of experience having previously worked in the energy and commodities industry where she dealt with compliance, legal and regulatory matters. Sakhila read law at the London School of Economics and went onto qualify as a solicitor.
Sophie supports the Chief Executive and General Counsel. She is responsible for complex and confidential administrative, secretarial, analytical and research duties.
Prior to joining MCBIH, Sophie worked as an EA in Financial Services and spent over 6 years in Asia as a Teacher and Language Consultant. She holds a degree in English from the University of Cambridge.
Stephanie is responsible for all finance related issues including preparation of management accounts, budgets, invoicing and payments.
Job Titles:
- Compliance and Responsible
Susannah manages the MCBIH's Responsible Sourcing Programme for precious metals, which is mandatory for all Good Delivery List Refiners. She is an expert in human rights and broader sustainability, with over 15 years' in-house and consultancy experience in the field.
Prior to joining the MCBIH, Susannah worked for Shift - the leading centre of expertise on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights - where she advised leading companies serious about human rights. Susannah previously spent ten years employed with global engineering services provider to the extractives and infrastructure markets Amec Foster Wheeler (now Wood), latterly as the Head of Social Sustainability. Susannah has also served on the Advisory Group to the UK Network of the UN Global Compact and as Vice Chair of Building Responsibly, a group of leading engineering and construction companies working together to raise the bar in promoting the rights and welfare of workers across the industry.
Tayler supports the Head of Communications with the coordination of MCBIH events including the conferences, seminars, forums, webinars and social events. She is responsible for ensuring that these are delivered to a high standard and not only meet but surpass members' expectations as well as incorporate the Communication Teams' objectives.
Tayler has previously worked in a range of industries and brings an extensive expertise in hospitality and events management. She is currently studying full-time for a double Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in both English and Philosophy. She will graduate in November 2020.
In his current role, Tobias provides compliance advisory coverage to the Commodities business at HSBC, which includes base metals, precious metals and energy asset classes sales and trading, as well as lending support in relation to the overarching Financial Benchmark regulation. A significant amount of his time is spent covering the precious metals business including the physical metals and custody business. He is also the global lead for commodities compliance, hence has significant involvement with both the US and Asia markets. Globally, HSBC has a comprehensive offering in precious metals and a long history of participation in the bullion market.
Prior to joining HSBC, Tobias was commodities compliance coverage at Barclays and prior to that covered exchange traded derivatives and commodities at UBS for a number of years, three of which were spent in the UBS Singapore office. Preceding this, Tobias was at Morgan Stanley within the FICC compliance team. He also sits on two of the FIA Compliance Committees (for metals and energy and emissions) where a broad range of global regulatory matters are discussed in line with evolution and changes in the commodities markets.
Tom Kendall's experience in precious metals spans more than 20 years and embraces both physical and financial markets.Tom is currently Head of Precious Metals Sales for ICBC Standard Bank Plc with responsibility for managing sales teams in London and New York, and oversight of the bank's commodities strategy. He joined ICBC Standard Bank in June 2015 as Head of Precious Metals Strategy, a role that involved market analysis, commodity structured finance and business development.
Tom joined ICBC Standard Bank from LCM Metals UK LLP, an independent options brokerage, where he held the role of Head of Metals Strategy. Prior to that, he spent almost five years at Credit Suisse, latterly as Head of Global Commodities Research leading a team of commodity market analysts in London, New York and Singapore. At Credit Suisse, he worked with multinational corporate clients, institutional investors, hedge funds, and central banks and sovereign wealth funds.
His previous roles include three years as Precious Metals Strategist for Mitsubishi Corporation and five years as Head of Market Research for Johnson Matthey PLC, one of the world's leading platinum group metals refiners and fabricators.
Tom holds a BSc in Geology from Southampton University.
Job Titles:
- GDL Officer
- Good Delivery List Officer
Varsha is the GDL Officer, and is primarily responsible for the administration of the MCBIH Good Delivery System, including all GD applications, Proactive Monitoring, the Proficiency Testing Scheme and Reference Material. She is responsible for maintaining strong working relationships with vaults, members, refiners and others on issues relating to Good Delivery. She joined the MCBIH in September 2009.