Unlocking Retirement Strategies Conference Speakers

Meet the speakers

John Milliken

Chief Executive Officer, Defaqto

Before joining Defaqto, John was the CEO for Speechmatics where he transformed the start-up into a scalable technology business, doubling ARR in 18 months. As the Chief Operating Officer for Infomedia Limited, John oversaw a transformation program that resulted in 40% YoY growth. Milliken has led and scaled various fintech, SaaS, enterprise software and deep-tech businesses as both CEO and COO across several industries, including banking and payments during his time as a founding member of the team and MD at Monetise - an organisation that achieved a public market valuation of £1.5bn through pioneering the use of mobile phones as a consumer banking channel.

Sally Boyle

Chief Sales Officer, Defaqto

Sally joined Defaqto in January 2024 as Chief Sales Officer.

With almost 17 years’ experience, Sally is an accomplished leader in sales, marketing, coaching and training. Her previous experience comes from a range of industry leading brands in the investments and asset management space, notably 10 years with Octopus Investments growing their sales function and as Head of Marketing.

Sally has a degree in Management and Marketing from the University of Manchester. Sally lives in London and in her spare time enjoys keeping fit, Pilates, Art, horse riding and extensive travel.

Paul Johnson

Director, The Institute for Fiscal Studies

Paul has been director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies since 2011. He is a columnist for The Times, and is a regular contributor to other broadcast and print media. He was for 11 years a member of the UK Climate Change Committee. He is a visiting professor in the UCL Policy Lab and at the UCL department of economics.

Previous roles have included time as chief economist at the Department for Education and as director of public spending at HM Treasury, where he also served as deputy head of the government economic service.

Paul was appointed CBE in the 2018 birthday honours.

Nick Watt

Political Editor, BBC Newsnight

Nick Watt has worked in national journalism for more than 30 years, reporting on UK and EU politics. In 2016, Nick became the Political Editor of Newsnight on BBC2. Before joining the BBC, Nick worked as the Guardian’s Chief Political Correspondent and as its European Editor based in Brussels. He started his career at The Times where he worked as a Political Correspondent and as Ireland Correspondent based in Belfast.
Nick has covered eight UK general elections, two Scottish referendums and two UK-wide referendums. In recent years Nick has gained extensive experience speaking at and chairing events in the political sphere and beyond. He has won praise for his witty and authoritative approach.
Since moving full time into the world of broadcasting, Nick has become a familiar figure across BBC
television and radio, reporting on the rollercoaster of UK politics since the Brexit referendum. This has seen five prime ministers come and go. He regularly appears on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the World at One, PM and the World Tonight

Catherine Doyle

Investment specialist, Real Return team

Catherine Doyle joined Newton in 2008 and is an investment specialist within the Real Return team. Catherine began her career as a global equity analyst before moving into a client-facing role in the institutional area, more latterly focusing on the investment needs of Defined Contribution schemes.

Catherine is a CFA¹ and CAIA² charterholder, has an MBA from Profingest Business School, Bologna and graduated from Kings College, London with a BA in French. She also holds the CFA¹ ESG Certificate. Catherine speaks French and Italian, enjoys gemmology and is an accomplished violinist.

Jon Lewis

Business Development Manager, Canada Life Asset Management

Jon joined Canada Life Asset Management as a Business Development Manager in June 2023. His focus is to provide information and support on our product range to financial advisers. He previously worked in business development roles at Charles Stanley, Brooks Macdonald and Premier Miton Investors and he has over 24 years’ worth of sales and client service experience in the asset management industry.

Sam Pardoe

Senior Investment Development Manager, Standard Life

Samantha Pardoe - Senior Investment Development Manager at Standard Life: Sam through her variety of account management roles has a fantastic knowledge of the intermediary market. She started working in financial services in 2010 and in that time has worked for companies such as LV, The Embark Group and Vitality. At the end of 2023 Sam joined Standard Life within the wholesale partnerships distribution team.

David Jane

David Jane Fund Manager, Premier Miton

David Jane joined Premier Miton in June 2014. He founded Darwin Investment Managers in September 2010 and prior to that he was Head of Equities Investments at M&G. David joined M&G

in December 2000 as a Fund Manager in the global specialist equity team before becoming Head of Equities investments. Whilst there he was portfolio manager of the M&G Managed Fund and the

M&G Cautious Multi Asset Fund, which he launched in February 2007 and grew to over £300 million during his tenure. Prior to M&G, David was the Head of Global Financials Research at AXA

Investment Management and before that he was at Newton Investment Management as Director of Global Financials Research. He also served as Non-Executive Director of M&G High Income Investment Trust plc from October 2002 to July 2010.

Andy Parsons

Head of Investment & Protection, Defaqto

Andy is Insight Manager for Investments at Defaqto and alongside his team, works closely with Asset Managers and DFMs, to define, appraise and develop market-leading, investment ratings, reviews, panels, publications and consultancy. Over the past year he has been instrumental in the design, development and launch of the Defaqto MPS Comparator.

Andy has over 35 years of financial services experience. Before joining Defaqto in 2023, he spent over 16 years at The Share Centre as head of investments, head of product proposition and co-fund manager and prior to this, he held roles at Equitable Life, HBOS and Bank Of Scotland Investment Service. Andy is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI.

Samantha Wallace

Strategic Accounts Director, Defaqto

Samantha has over 20 years’ experience in financial services working across stockbroking, investment management, tax efficient investments, and most recently for 5 years in-house at a large national advice firm integrating and acquiring new IFA businesses.

Samantha is responsible for Defaqto’s strategic relationships with national advice firms and adviser networks since joining in 2024.

Samantha is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI.

Mark O'Donnell

Insight Manager, MiCAP

Mark was previously a researcher for Orthogonal Partners, where he was responsible for researching new investment opportunities across a broad range of esoteric investments opportunities, as well as monitoring current investments. During this time he completed the Investment Management Certificate.

Prior to that Mark was a researcher for one of the largest UK family offices, supporting the chairman across a range of family interests.

Mark holds a MSc in Corporate and International Finance from Durham University and a BSc in Rural and Environmental Economics from Newcastle University.

Mark is the Head of Research for MICAP, responsible for managing MICAP’s team of analysts and providing oversight on MICAP Reviews, MICAP Data, MICAP Impact Scores and MICAP Panel Support Services.

Agenda

The day will include dynamic keynote speakers and insightful panel sessions.

See what the day looks like

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These events are exclusive to authorised investment advisers only (or officers of a regulated advice business).

Delegates can include this event towards the CII / Personal Finance Society CPD requirement should you consider it relevant to your professional development needs.