Joined 90 days into the FCA Section 166 notice that had been issued the previous quarter. The prior CFO had left within the first month of the notice; the finance function was carrying a three-year failed remediation programme. Brief from the board was narrow: close the 166, pass the next external audit clean, retain the trading desks.
- Closed the Section 166 remediation in 11 months against the firm's original 22-month plan; FCA supervisory rating lifted from red to green at first post-closure review (FCA closure letter, 2024).
- Removed £14.2m of annual run-rate cost through a finance-and-risk operating-model redesign while maintaining front-office control-function headcount.
- Delivered the first clean external audit in the firm's history — zero management letter points, FY24, PwC lead partner.
- Rebuilt the board finance pack from a 94-page monthly document to a 22-page decision pack. Chair recorded the change as the year's most useful governance improvement in the 2024 NED survey.
- Led the £180m regulatory-capital raise executed in Q2 2024 under Basel III tightening; priced inside the preceding comparable issuance by 35 bps (Financial Times, June 2024).
- Reopened the Luxembourg regulated entity with the CSSF inside 8 months — peer average for re-authorisation: 14 months.