Focus on Capital Markets Union

Inès Buttet is a Policy and Regulatory Affairs Advisor within the Business Development team of Luxembourg For Finance.

While contributing to the Business Development team efforts which involves promoting Luxembourg’s financial industry internationally, she focuses primarily on Regulatory and Policy developments in the EU and Luxembourg.

Prior to working at Luxembourg for Finance, Inès worked in the Asset and Wealth Management industries, first as a Research Analyst; then, as an Investment Advisor and Portfolio Manager focusing primarily on funds and hedge funds and providing investment advice to UHNWI.

Melvin Goergen is the Head of Strategic and Corporate Development at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, which he joined in 2018. In his current role, he leads the company’s development and implementation of its long-term corporate strategy and acts as an advisor to LuxSE’s senior leadership team while also having responsibility for all corporate M&A and venture capital activities.

Melvin spent over a decade at the investment banking divisions of Citigroup and Dresdner Kleinwort in London where, as a Director in Equity Capital Markets origination, he provided corporate finance advice to some of the largest equity and debt issuers in EMEA. He specialised in structuring and syndicating complex equity and equity-linked products such as Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), secondary equity placings as well as convertible and hybrid bonds. In this role, Melvin helped corporate and governmental issuers meet their bespoke financing needs by accessing funding provided by institutional investors across global capital markets.

Melvin holds a BSc in Business Administration and Finance from the Lancaster University Management School and the University of Florida and is fluent in four languages.

Matthias Graulich took responsibility for Fixed Income, Funding & Financing Strategy and Development of Deutsche Börse AG in September 2018 and is a Member of the Executive Board of Eurex Clearing AG since August 2014. In his Strategy and Development role he is in charge within Deutsche Börse Group for Strategy, Business and Product Development for listed and OTC derivatives as well as repo and securities lending across trading and clearing.

From March 2016 until August 2018 he was in charge of Cross Market Strategy leading the strategy for Eurex Clearing and Clearstream. From April 2013 until February 2016 he established and developed as Chief Client Officer and Global Head of Clients & Markets a dedicated client facing organisational unit of Eurex Clearing.

Before that he took responsibility as Head of Clearing Initiatives for the implementation of Eurex Clearing’s strategic project portfolio and regulatory affairs. Since joining the Deutsche Börse Group in 2001, he has held a number of leadership and project management positions at Deutsche Börse and Eurex for various strategic projects, amongst others, the introduction of EurexOTC Clear as well as the merger and integration of the International Securities Exchange.

Matthias holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in North Carolina.

Emmanuel Gutton is the Director of Legal and Tax at ALFI, the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry, since September 2020.

Before joining ALFI, Emmanuel was Head of Legal and Conducting Officer at Pictet Asset Management (Europe) S. A., a Luxembourg UCITS management company and AIFM, from 2016.

Prior to joining Pictet, Mr Gutton worked for more than ten years as a lawyer (Luxembourg Bar and Paris Bar), specialising in collective investment funds and management companies. He worked as Counsel at Elvinger Hoss and in September 2012 he relocated to Hong Kong to launch Elvinger Hoss’ office and he stayed there until September 2015. Previously, Mr Gutton had worked as a lawyer at Linklaters in Luxembourg and De Pardieu Brocas Maffei in Paris.

Mr Gutton holds a Master’s degree in Law from the University Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France) and a Master’s Degree in International Business Law and Management from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), Paris in partnership with the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP).

Chris Hollifield is head of business development at Luxembourg for Finance, where his work involves advising FinTech and financial companies looking to develop cross-border activity through Luxembourg-based platforms. He also advises on the development of the ecosystem in Luxembourg and on synergy creation with other key financial centres, with a focus on East Asia.

Prior to working at Luxembourg for Finance, Chris worked in the strategy department of Clearstream Banking SA, an International Central Securities Depository that facilitates the settlement of interbank transactions in over 50 markets worldwide. Here, his work focused particularly on strategic projects concerning distributed ledger technology and other FinTech topics.

Sheila Nicoll is a Senior Public Policy Advisor at Schroders. She has been closely involved in the development of the financial services regulatory system in the UK and Europe since 1982.

Before joining Schroders, she was a Senior Adviser at EY and from 2007 to 2013 she was at the Financial Services Authority where she supervised the whole range of mid-sized financial services institutions during the financial crisis, before becoming Director of Conduct Policy and part of the leadership team which created the Financial Conduct Authority. Previously, she was Deputy Chief Executive of the Investment Management Association and held several policy roles at the London Stock Exchange, including before and after “Big Bang”.

She chairs the Board of the International Regulatory Strategy Committee which advises the City of London Corporation and The CityUK and is a member of the Council for British Industry’s Financial Services Council.

Martin Parkes, Managing Director, is a member of BlackRock’s Global Public Policy Group based in London. Martin is responsible for engaging with policy makers and BlackRock’s clients on policy and regulation relating to investor protection and distribution, retirement and fund structures in the EU and the UK. He chairs the Investment Association’s International and European Policy Committee and is a member of the AMF’s Post Trade Consultative Committee. He regularly contributes to the work of key asset management trade bodes such as EFAMA, ICMA, ICI, the Investment Association, ALFI and Irish Funds.

He is also a committee member of BlackRock’s LGBT OUT network, particularly supporting the network on external events and outreach with other firms and networks.

Martin has worked at BlackRock since 2004 and prior to joining the Public Policy team he worked in BlackRock’s legal team responsible for BlackRock’s European-managed investment funds. Martin studied European Law at the University of Exeter and at the Université d’Aix-Marseille III and is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales.

Paul Péporté is a Partner within the International Capital Markets practice of Allen & Overy in Luxembourg.

He has over 15 years of experience specialising in securities law and capital markets transactions and regulation. Paul advises on the full spectrum of debt and equity transactions, including securitisation, structured products, covered bonds, IPOs, placements and buy backs of securities, exchange offers, listing applications and ongoing obligations deriving from such listings. He further covers capital market related regulatory aspects, such as derivatives regulation.

Paul regularly holds conferences on various capital market and regulatory topics in Luxembourg and abroad.

Pablo Portugal is a Managing Director in AFME’s Public Policy and Advocacy Division. His main focus is market analysis and regulatory development across Europe on securities markets, banking and sustainable finance, having led AFME’s advocacy work in various regulatory debates and cross-cutting projects. Pablo is responsible for AFME’s work on the Capital Markets Union project. He is a Member of the Board of the European Capital Markets Institute.

Prior to joining AFME, he was engaged with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, where he worked on financial reporting, auditing and financial sector issues. His experience includes roles in European organisations and the United Nations. He holds a BSc Econ (first class) from the University of Wales and a Masters Degree (with distinction) from the London School of Economics.

Philip Whitehurst is Head of Service Development for LCH’s Rates Derivatives business, which includes SwapClear, the market-leading swap clearing service operated by LCH.

Mr. Whitehurst has 30 years’ experience in the OTC Derivatives markets in a range of functions and firms. Following initial roles trading GBP and DEM interest rate swaps and options, Mr. Whitehurst spent more than 10 years with major global investment banks, structuring fixed income derivatives solutions for their institutional and retail clients.

Mr. Whitehurst joined LCH’s SwapClear service in 2009 to lead its product development function. He was heavily involved in the design of SwapClear’s client clearing models both in the US and in Europe, and in the development of SwapClear’s compression services. More recently, he has focused on the post-reform outlook for the OTC derivatives markets from both a regulatory and commercial perspective as swaps markets adjust to central clearing and to a new generation of benchmarks. He represents LCH on a number of industry groups working on IBOR transition, including ARRC in the US.

Mr. Whitehurst is a graduate of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.