Financial Services Research Conference 2025

Ayesha Begum, Senior Manager of Strategy and Impact, Fair4All Finance

Sarah Doody, Customer Insight Consultant, NFU Mutual

Lisa Edgar, Chief Executive Officer, Big Window Consulting

Edward Gardiner, MD, CogCo
Edward is a co-founder and Managing Director at CogCo. His focus lies in using a more scientific understanding of behaviour to improve the design of products and services. Ed also oversees work on 'Behavioural AI', which includes CogCo's BengoAI platform that enables users to turn research into interactive customer profiles. Previously, he was a Founding Member of Common Collective and led the Behavioural Design Lab, a partnership between Warwick Business School and the Design Council. He holds a PhD in Behavioural Science from WBS.

Anne-Marie Gardner, Senior Director, Firefish Data
Anne-Marie is Senior Director at Firefish Data, where she blends strategic leadership with a passion for research that drives meaningful commercial and human change. Over the past decade, she has played a pivotal role in shaping and expanding the company’s offering, ensuring Firefish Data continues to evolve and offer world class insight and strategy.  
Her career in research spans a wide range of sectors - from finance to fashion, social media to FMCG - giving her a unique versatility and breadth of perspective. She has engaged with diverse audiences, from consumers to business owners, high-net-worth individuals to teenagers, always uncovering insights that matter.
Anne-Marie is known for her high standards, clear thinking, and collaborative spirit. She leads with the conviction that great work comes from empowered teams and rigorous insight, setting a culture where curiosity and excellence thrive.

Ellie Gould, Associate Director, Thinks Insight & Strategy
Ellie is an experienced social researcher, passionate about supporting people to maximise their money and take control of their financial futures by equipping firms, regulators and industry bodies with a deep understanding of consumer and business behaviour and experiences.
Her research in the financial services sector includes studies with clients such as the Financial Conduct Authority, the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, and Hodge Bank. This work includes a diverse range of large, strategic studies as well as smaller tactical research, including supporting the development of innovative new later-life mortgage products, research for regulatory bodies with the aim of improving consumer access to advice and support, and research to explore the psychographic factors that influence financial decision-making.

Dr. Kenny Imafidon MBE, Co-founder and Managing Director, ClearView Research

Natasha Kapur, Senior Design Researcher, Lloyds Banking Group
Natasha has over eight years of experience in the industry, both agency-side and in house, leading research across a wide range of sectors for global companies like Meta, Google and William Grant during her time agency-side whilst her in house experience ranges from fintech to large enterprises like BT. She currently leads AI focused research within her team at Lloyds Banking Group, exploring innovative solutions to address high priority customer needs.  Outside of work, Natasha also serves on the organising committee of Ladies that UX London, a global network supporting women in tech. 

Stacey Kohalny, Senior Team Director, Human8

Antoinette Lee, Head of Social Impact, Canada Life UK

Natalie Malevsky, Head of Brand Strategy and Product Marketing

Carol McNaughton Nicholls, Managing Partner, Thinks Insight & Strategy
Carol has been delivering strategic insight in the financial services industry for over 15 years, and is a leading practitioner in this space in the UK and internationally. Her insight spans several key areas including responses to fraud and financial crime, developing effective consumer facing products, services and communications, supporting vulnerable consumers, industry reputation, and the impact of changing technology and innovation to drive better outcomes and engagement with finance and investing.
Her clients include regulatory bodies the Financial Conduct Authority, Ofcom, Competitions and Market Authority, the Financial Services Consumer Panel, industry bodies including UK Finance, TheCityUK, the Association of British Insurers, the Finance and Leasing Association (where she sits on their Advisory Group) and numerous firms such as Barclays, Zurich, Lloyds Banking Group, Euroclear and Nationwide.

Sam Omokan, Senior Project Executive, ClearView Research and two research participants

Lauren Peel, Senior Partner, Inclusive Outcomes
Lauren Peel is Senior Partner at Inclusive Outcomes, a consultancy that helps organisations define, design and deliver good outcomes for customers in vulnerable circumstances. With over a decade of client-side experience in proposition design and customer experience, she’s worked across financial services, from multi-national providers to community credit unions. Lauren is passionate about products and services that work for everyone, building financial resilience of those who are excluded or underserved. Inclusive Outcomes is part of The Big Window, a research and insights agency with deep experience in financial and other essential services.

Helen Rowe, Brand Consultant, Kantar

Andy Rudd, Research Manager, Nationwide Building Society
Andy Rudd is a Research Manager at Nationwide Building Society, where he leads insight projects that shape strategy and ensure the voice of the customer is central to decision-making — helping the organisation to better understand and empathise with customers’ experiences. His recent projects have included exploring how financial services can better support people in vulnerable circumstances, defining the components of inclusive service, and developing propositions that respond to real-world needs.
Collaborative and pragmatic, Andy is particularly interested in how organisations can design products and services that are informed by people’s lives and actively help them achieve their goals or overcome challenges. Before joining Nationwide, Andy held research roles at the RNLI and in Local Government. These experiences shaped his belief in research that is actionable, impactful, and grounded in everyday experience. His previous experience includes employee engagement, proposition development, brand tracking, and strategic planning of infrastructure and public services.

Owain Service, CEO, CogCo
Owain is a co-founder and CEO of CogCo. His focus lies in helping organisations to build their internal capabilities relating to the behaviours of their customers and employees; and in the practical application of behavioural science. This includes the development of the FinWell Index, which tracks the financial wellbeing of the UK population over time. He is also an Honorary Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick University. He was previously the co-founder and Managing Director of the UK Government’s Behavioural Insights Team and before that was a Deputy Director of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. He is the co-author of 'Think Small', a book which explores how insights from behavioural science can be used to help achieve personal or work goals.

Ali Smith, Senior Director, Firefish
Ali Smith is a Senior Director at Firefish with almost 20 years’ experience in qualitative research, including more than a decade specialising in financial services. Over the course of her career, she has worked extensively across both personal and business banking, leading projects in segmentation illumination, proposition development, brand positioning, and communications research.
Ali is particularly passionate about representing the voice of the customer, ensuring that clients truly understand what people think, feel, and experience in their day-to-day lives. Her work often involves engaging with hard-to-reach audiences, using inclusive and innovative methods to make sure their opinions are heard. Ali is highly skilled at bringing customer stories to life in ways that drive empathy, action, and meaningful change within businesses.

Andrew Smith, Head of Insights & Strategy, Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum
Andrew is Head of Strategy and Insights at the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF), with an extensive background in government and regulatory policy and analysis.
The DRCF is a cross-regulator forum that brings together the ICO, Ofcom, CMA and FCA, to act jointly in areas of digital regulation. Andrew leads cross-regulator coordination in areas such as AI regulation and research, the future of Smart Data and regulators’ role in cross-sector use cases, how regulators are using technologies to aid their supervisory activities, and bringing together regulatory research into harmful online choice architecture.

Emily Trant, Chief Impact Officer, Stream
Emily is Chief Impact Officer at Stream (previously Wagestream) where she leads on the scale-up’s work to tackle financial exclusion and build a more inclusive app that improves workers’ financial wellbeing. The role brings together stakeholders across policy, public sector and the financial services sector - from running co-creation sessions with customers, through to leading an impact advisory board. She runs the company’s programme of academic research in collaboration with leading think tanks and global universities and is the host of the Invisible Worker podcast.

Riffat Tuffail, Vulnerability Lead, Monzo
Riffat has a career spanning over 25 years in financial services and has championed Diversity and Inclusion in all her roles, including initiating a reverse mentoring scheme in a FTSE 100 firm.  Currently Riffat is leading the Vulnerability Strategy for Monzo Bank - everyone’s favourite hot coral card from the leading digital bank with over 12 million customers.
Riffat is respected for her knowledge and passion for Vulnerable Customers and challenging the industry to create a coalition to raise the bar on delivering good customer outcomes.  Innovation is close to her heart, pioneering virtual reality to bring empathetic experiences to life for a range of stakeholders.
Riffat has been recognised for her work through numerous Customer Experience awards for delivering successful insight-led Vulnerable Customer programmes and leadership.
Riffat has also trained as a Counselling professional, supporting individuals with their most vulnerable moments in life.

Keily Vanstone, Head of Marketing, Brand and Communications, Canada Life UK

Charlotte Wildgoose, Senior Design Researcher, Lloyds Banking Group
Charlotte Wildgoose is a Senior User Researcher with a background spanning FMCG, sports technology, and financial services. She began her career in market research, working with a range of FMCG clients, before moving into sports technology at Hawk-Eye Innovations, where she led research to inform new product development.
Now at Lloyds Banking Group, Charlotte focuses on how AI can be embedded in banking in ways that meet customer needs. Her role has evolved alongside the technology from predefined, chat-based systems to generative AI and, more recently, agentic services. She explores how these technologies can be designed in customer-centric and trustworthy ways.
In 2024, Charlotte completed the Design for Good program, where she deepened her practice in life-centred design.

Michael Worledge, Group Research Director, Toluna
Michael works with clients across the financial services industry, including banking, insurance, pensions and investments. With almost 30 years in research, Michael has extensive consumer and B2B experience across UK and international markets, including market understanding, brand & comms and new product/service development. Recently, Michael has led the research team managing the Toluna Consumer Duty Consortium, helping firms to improve consumer understanding in their communications. Michael lives in the North West, has a BSc in French and German from Aston University and is a Certified Member of the Market Research Society.