Our Team

Ben Blackett-Ord (Director) - BBlackett-Ord@bovill.com

Ben has over 18 years' financial services regulatory experience, and founded Bovill in 1999. Ben worked as a regulator at the Securities and Futures Authority (a forerunner organization of the FSA) for five years before moving to in-house compliance, first with IBJ International and then with Standard Bank. Ben is a qualified barrister and is regularly invited to speak on financial services regulatory issues at conferences throughout the UK. He is highly respected in the industry for his thorough and client-friendly approach. He writes regularly on regulatory and compliance issues.

Caroline Gibbs (Director) - CGibbs@bovill.com

Caroline joined Bovill in June 2004 and was appointed to the Board in August 2005. Caroline began her career as an investment advisor at a private client stockbroker before spending time managing an examination programme at the Securities Institute. Before joining Bovill she spent four years at the FSA supervising investment firms. Caroline is well respected by her clients because of her thorough knowledge of all aspects of the FSA rules and ability to communicate information in a straightforward and concise manner.

John Whitlock (Director) - JWhitlock@bovill.com

John has worked with Bovill since November 2004. Initially a part-time consultant, he joined the firm in October 2005, and was appointed to the Board in November 2005. John has over 20 years experience in government and regulation, having held senior positions at both the DTI and the FSA, where he was a head of department from 1999 until 2004, dealing mainly with general insurance. While John deals principally with insurance matters, he also advises more widely on policy issues, including the interpretation or application of regulatory requirements in particular situations. His senior-level experience at the FSA has given John a broad insight into its wider policies and processes, which is invaluable in advising clients on dealing with the FSA to achieve constructive outcomes.

Alex Ellerton (Associate Director) - AEllerton@bovill.com

Alex is a Retail Financial Services regulatory specialist and has worked with some of the UK's largest financial institutions on a wide variety of regulatory issues. Alex has developed a specialisation in general insurance and mortgage regulation, having assisted a number of clients with their preparation for the new regimes and providing on-going compliance support as the regulatory environment has developed. Alex has an excellent knowledge of the FSA handbook and has delivered presentations on the regulations to all levels of client staff and has facilitated workshop sessions to discuss the main areas of challenge.

Rebecca Thorpe (Associate Director) - RThorpe@bovill.com

Rebecca joined Bovill after six years with Deloitte & Touche, where she gained a wide variety of financial services and consulting experience through working with the UK's leading retail banks and insurance companies. Rebecca has deep experience on client facing projects and has made a number of presentations on regulatory themes for example the FSA's subject of "Treating Customers Fairly" at industry seminars and workshops, as well as having articles published in national publications.

Chris Harris (Principal) - CHarris@bovill.com

Chris is an experienced regulator having been with the FSA (and prior to that SFA) for more than 15 years. During that time he has been extensively involved in the supervision of smaller firms: most recently as a case team manager in Small Firms Division dealing with general insurance intermediaries, and previously working with personal investment, corporate finance and broking and futures firms. He has also been extensively involved in FSA project work, including the project to develop the original ARROW framework and projects to develop the regulatory regime for general insurance. His most recent involvement has been the TCF reviews conducted over the last 18 months. He is also a respected speaker at insurance intermediary events and has hosted various FSA firm focused events. Chris worked for 10 years in accountancy prior to joining the regulator.

Emma Croft (Senior Associate) - ECroft@bovill.com

Emma joined Bovill in January 2008 as a Senior Associate. She has worked in financial services compliance for over 10 years and brings with her extensive experience from both an industry and regulator perspective. During her time in the industry, Emma has worked for a number of mortgage providers ranging from large banks and building societies to sub prime lenders, and has real experience of managing the compliance issues which firms face both on a day to day basis, and through large scale initiatives. She has worked in a variety of different areas within retail mortgages including financial promotions, documentation, compliance monitoring, responsible lending, product development, treating customers fairly, and training & competence. Other areas of expertise include the Consumer Credit Act and the Data Protection Act. In addition to her retail experience, Emma also spent two years working in the financial promotions team at the FSA which provides a real insight into the move to more principles based regulation and how this can be applied in practice.

Katherine Davidge (Senior Associate) - KDavidge@bovill.com

Katherine began her career as a consultant with Deloitte & Touche in 2000. Since then she has spent three years with the FSA, firstly supervising retail investment firms and latterly in a policy role focusing on the FSA's move towards Principles Based Regulation. Katherine joined Bovill from the Compliance Review Team at J P Morgan. Katherine has a wide range of regulatory and compliance experience focusing on investment business for both retail and wholesale firms.

Tchay Deign (Senior Associate) - TDeign@bovill.com

Tchay has ten years financial services experience of which over seven was gained at the FSA. Tchay has in depth authorisation knowledge having worked within the FSA's Authorisations Department on high risk corporate applications. He has experience leading FSA authorisation and supervisory visits to firms and taking applications through the refusal process. His regulatory knowledge is very broad having assessed many types of firm both within the wholesale and retail sectors (including electronic money issuers).

Billie-Jo Dixon (Senior Associate) - BDixon@bovill.com

Billie-Jo has more than seven years of in-house compliance experience gained at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and, more recently, ABN AMRO Asset Management. She specialises in investment management regulation relating to private clients, institutions and funds. Billie-Jo has valuable experience in creating risk-based monitoring plans, providing training to all levels of staff, and developing compliance policies across a range of topics.

Pat Mulligan (Senior Associate) - PMulligan@bovill.com

Pat is a qualified accountant and brings with him a number of years of regulatory experience covering a range of sectors from time spent in industry and at the FSA. Most recently Pat has worked within Supervision where he has looked after retail asset management and stock broking firms and was prominent in helping to correctly categorise these firms under the Capital Requirements Directive. His time at the FSA has also included work with general insurance regulation and with corporate finance, fund management and personal finance firms. Prior to working at the regulator, Pat had 20 years experience of accounting work in the banking industry and was chief accountant at a Finnish bank.

Abidemi Adesanya (Associate) - AAdesanya@bovill.com

Abii graduated in Law at Brunel University and subsequently studied for a Masters at King's College, London. She joined Bovill after completing the LPC at BPP Law School. During her academic studies, she gained extensive experience working at city law firms and the Royal Courts of Justice Advice Bureau.

Hannah Bradshaw (Associate) - HBradshaw@bovill.com

Hannah joined Bovill having completed a BA in International History at the London School of Economics. After her degree she went on to complete the Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP Law School and has just recently completed her Legal Practice Course with Distinction.

Nicola Green (Associate) - NGreen@bovill.com

Nicola joined Bovill in 2008 as an Associate based our Manchester office. She has 8 years in house financial services regulatory experience gained with life & pensions companies. In her previous role with UISL, she was heavily involved in anti-money laundering and financial crime controls. She was also responsible for providing advice to the business on all aspects of the FSA regulations as well as creating risk based monitoring specifications. Nicola is currently studying for the CII Diploma of Insurance. She works with both insurance and investment clients on an ongoing support basis and is also involved in projects, such as FSA applications.

Ramya Puttanna (Associate) - RPuttanna@bovill.com

Ramya joined Bovill after completing an MSc in Economics at the University of Warwick. While studying, she also gained considerable experience in client-focused roles by providing both practical and legal advice at her local Citizens Advice Bureau. Ramya works mainly with corporate finance firms, fund managers and property firms and assists clients with FSA authorisation and other ongoing compliance obligations such as the approved persons regime.

Neil Thompson (Associate) - NThompson@bovill.com

Neil joined Bovill in 2008 as an Associate based at our Manchester office. He has most recently gained 8 years experience working within the compliance function of Aviva. Working closely with the general insurance business, his regulatory experience includes areas such as financial promotions, ARROW visit preparation, TCF and compliance monitoring. He has gained other industry experience, including life and pensions knowledge, at Bradford and Bingley, Barclays and Abbey National.

David Wood (Associate) - DWood@bovill.com

David graduated in Law at the University of Leeds and subsequently completed the LPC at the BPP Law School. During his academic studies David worked with the Royal Bank of Scotland for 6 years in the General Insurance Department. David works with a wide variety of clients in both the investment and general insurance sectors.

Emma Cooper (Office Assistant) - ECooper@bovill.com

Emma works alongside with the Office Manager assisting her in general administrative duties as well as any ad-hoc office related tasks. She also helps coordinating recruitment, assisting with marketing events and generally supporting the team.