Shining the spotlight.

The aim of The Verve Awards is to really shine a spotlight on some of the amazing people and initiatives that are happening in financial services, that are often rarely in the headlines – and really should be!

Our mission at The Verve Group is to keep developing financial services, pushing it towards being an outstanding and inspirational profession, and we want to highlight those firms and individuals that are genuinely working towards the same goal. 

It’s time to meet our #TheVerveAwards2023 winners! 

The Thrive Award

Supporting the growth of firms in finance.

WINNER:
Phil Bray

Phil Bray

Founder at The Yardstick Agency

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Phil Bray is the Founder of The Yardstick Agency (the UK’s highest rated financial services specialist marketing agency). The criteria for The Thrive Award matches Phil’s work perfectly – he dedicates his time to supporting the growth of so many financial services firms. Not only does he do this through his work at The Yardstick, but also through his personal LinkedIn page – providing insightful, relevant, consistent content to encourage individuals to think outside the box when it comes to their businesses.

Phil’s passion can be spotted a mile away. He promotes positive change and shares his expertise to truly help people. Phil actively embodies everything The Thrive Award represents.

Lisa Conway-Hughes

Founder at Miss Lolly Money

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Lisa, a Chartered Financial Planner, established Miss Lolly after becoming pregnant and recognising that not everyone possessed the expertise and resources to strategise their financial outlook as she did. Lisa provides "impartial financial insights," whether you require assistance with mortgages, investments, savings, or addressing financial apprehensions. She invests her utmost passion and effort into her endeavours and the solutions she offers.

Lisa has committed herself to democratising financial education and demystifying the intricacies of the financial realm through methods such as blogs, podcasts, complimentary resources, and public speaking engagements.

Lee Robertson

Founder and CEO Octo Members Group

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Sometimes ideas come together and clearly the idea creating a cohesive adviser community who are sharing best practice and bringing back the love of the job is working well for Octo members.

Lee never fails to impress me with his insight, innovation and sheer passion for our profession and the role Octo plays in connecting like-minded people is one that reminds me of why advisers do what they do and why we need to support them in doing it as well as they can.

I think it’s pretty obvious from the above why I nominated Lee, but sometimes the no nonsense approach can go unnoticed and I thought it was time to ensure that it is noticed and needs some recognition from the outside world!

The Attraction Award

Attracting people to a career in finance.

WINNER:
Alice Lording

Alice Lording

Head of Wealth Operation at Saltus

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Alice has been in the industry for a decade, starting out as an apprentice at a local IFA after making the decision that university wasn’t quite the right fit for her. Having come into the industry with no knowledge of financial services, Alice has worked her way up to become a Partner at Saltus and has recently been appointed as member of the board.

Her passion for the industry is clear and within just a few minutes of speaking to her, you’ll see how infectious that is! Throughout her career, Alice has always worked to share her knowledge and expertise, mentoring her colleagues, and supporting them in their career journeys. Knowing first hand that finance is for everyone – no matter what your background or experience – Alice is keen to do all she can to encourage new talent and particularly, more women into an industry that hasn’t been all that welcoming in the past.

Sam Oakes

Founder at Financial Planner Life

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Sam has harnessed his 15 years recruitment experience in the niche of Financial Services to impact hundreds of careers and subsequently, businesses over this time. He has now founded, and hosts, the Financial Planner life podcast, aimed at inspiring the next generation of Financial Planning professionals, with a focus around mindfulness, wellbeing, and career growth/satisfaction.

Sam is constantly innovating and finding new ways to attract talent to the industry, opening discussions around the barriers to entry in place for non-experienced candidates, whilst championing those who want to make Financial Planning a more diverse, inclusive industry to work in.

Sam Secomb

Founder & Financial Planner at Women's Wealth

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Sam has dedicated the last decade of her career to making a difference for women in financial planning sector and in 2019 she launched Women’s Wealth as a platform to appeal to women investors and attract female planners.

She works tirelessly helping a small team make a big splash in the financial services landscape. Every interaction with her develops and encourages us to be a better version of ourselves and we feel we own part of the mission Women’s Wealth has to change how financial services shows up for women. It makes it an inspiring place to work, and I feel as though we are making a difference.

The Innovation Award

Bringing innovation into an ‘old’ industry.

WINNER:
Anthony Massie

Jon Dunckley

Director at About Consulting

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Whilst About Consulting is described as a 'professional training and coaching' company, the range of 'things' they offer goes way beyond this. By offering more specialist training areas, I believe that Jon is brining innovation in amongst the more traditional training offerings within the industry.

Neurodiversity is fast becoming better understood and Jon has been working tirelessly to shout about the benefits of attracting and retaining neurodiverse talent. His belief is that neurodiverse talent can significantly enhance the way businesses operate, bringing in talent with the power to look at things differently and often key skills so desperately needed by modern organisations, and through his training he's helping to make the industry more diverse.

Anthony Massie

Marketing & Ops Manager at Herbert & Webster

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Anthony has innovated many parts of the company and processes through his own initiative and self-taught problem-solving skills. His most recent success is building our own intranet, which has revolutionised how we work as a team, allowing us to view our processes and problem solve. He has taken this success and now built a professional platform from scratch, where our professional connections can interact with us, share documents, review our marketing material, and refer clients. This new development has even had our connections asking if Anthony could build a similar system for them. Anthony continues to adapt and improve how we use technology.

Johnny Ridd

CEO at RQ

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What Johnny at RQ is developing is, in my view, something that every stakeholder – clients, professional services firms, professional bodies, regulators – should welcome.

Seeking to positively, permanently change the way professional services firms collaborate and accordingly, to improve long-term outcomes for all is not only right and proper, but they are going about it with a vision, approach and intended scale that I believe has not been seen before.

At its heart, RQ is a technology-led professional collaboration ecosystem. Built alongside the ICAEW and others, it brings together lawyers, accountants, financial planners and other professionals so they can refer clients to one another, share data and collaborate in a more seamless, effective, compliant, transparent and modern way, that is fit for 2023 and beyond.

The Emerging Award

Recognising rising stars within financial services.

WINNER:
Sioned James

Helen Grieves

Financial Planner & Education Coordinator at Lowes Financial Management

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Helen Grieves is the perfect embodiment of a candidate who lives and breathes her commitment to the profession, the community, and personal development—both for herself and others. In 2020, Helen made a life-changing decision, resigning from her position as Head of Maths at a secondary school to pursue a career in financial services. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and other hurdles, Helen not only excelled but soared to new heights in her new field.

Helen's brilliance extends beyond her academic prowess; she possesses a compassionate and warm demeanor, instilling trust in her clients and fostering strong relationships. Her ability to articulate complex financial concepts in a relatable manner has endeared her to her clients, resulting in a rapidly growing clientele that relies on word-of-mouth referrals.

Sioned James

Paraplanner at Positive Wealth Creation

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The unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic required resilience, adaptability, and determination. As the Chartered Insurance Institute’s 2022 “Pandemic Perseverance” Winner, Sioned successfully navigated the uncertainties and disruptions caused by the crisis. Sioned proactively sought opportunities to support the team during this challenging time along side studying to obtain Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning, which demonstrates her ability to remain focused, motivated, and organised. This experience has strengthened her ability to thrive in dynamic and unpredictable environments, making me a valuable asset in the finance industry.

Recognising the importance of continuous professional development, Sioned is currently studying for the Chartered Financial Planning qualification, which demonstrates commitment to achieving the higher level of expertise in the field. These qualifications showcase my dedication to staying abreast of industry trends, regulations, and best practices, enabling me to provide exceptional financial advice and services to clients when the time comes.

Katja Oakley-Bell

Centralised Investment Proposition Lead at Quilter

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Katja has made several outstanding achievements, including being accepted onto a Transformational Leadership course, which she is now in the final stages of. She has presented a series of important adviser-facing events to audiences of more than 300 people. As one of only a few female presenters at that event, and the youngest by roughly ten years, Katja stands out as a real rising star. Katja has also been trusted with the day-to-day responsibility of two of her colleagues. She tries to create a psychologically safe and inclusive environment for them to develop and grow, and she works hard to demonstrate the values that she believes in. She also considers her colleagues’ learning styles and adapts training so that they can process information more effectively. In particular, she recognised that as a fully virtual team, isolation can be a challenge, so she arranged regular check-ins with a colleague who was struggling.

The VERVE Award

A pioneer for changing the face of finance.

WINNER:
Ruth Handcock

Ben Hampton

CEO at Wealth Wizards

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Ben is the CEO of Wealth Wizards, who have financial wellbeing at the heart of their business and use technology to assist in getting financial advice to all. Ben has constantly impressed with his endless innovation, bringing guidance and advice to the sector.

With a genuine passion to help reduce the gap of those able to get support for their financial planning, an enthusiasm for innovating through tech and a deep understanding of the challenges facing regulated advice firms, Ben is helping carve out new paths for the future of finance.

Ruth Handcock

CEO at Octopus Money

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As the CEO of Octopus Money, and through her various roles across the Octopus group, Ruth uses her position to promote causes and tackle issues that are important to the heart of not just financial services, but all businesses.

Her work on social mobility, women in leadership and closing both the advice and the gender gaps has inspired many in finance and her mantra of “On a mission to give everyone access to money advice from a real person” shows the ambition to tackle the largest of challenges.

Holly MacKay

Founder and Managing Director at Boring Money

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Professional speaker, writer, talker (podcaster) and tireless campaigner, Holly works hard to demystify financial advice and has been recognised for her work in engaging consumers and practitioners alike.

As a pioneer in the educational finance piece and self proclaimed bullshit-basher Holly works hard at reducing the jargon filled world of finance into something that is easy to understand and fully inclusive. This approach results in more individuals feeling confident in looking after their own finances, and / or approaching a professional for regulated advice, which benefits the industry as a whole.

The Verve Award

A pioneer for changing the face of finance.
This special award will be given to the company or individual who has embodied the missions being driven forward by The Verve Group. Those that have regularly gone above and beyond to change the face of finance, to break down stereotypes within the profession and encourage innovative, forward thinking ideas.

We will be monitoring activities across financial services to create our own shortlist which will be announced shortly.