Our People

Our People

We are a team that reflect the diverse needs of our clients

A partnership bound together by a collective vision and a common ethos. We believe deeply in intellectual capital, expertise, experience and credibility. We are creative, lateral in our thinking, responsive and proactive.

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Alberto Gomez

Alberto Gomez

Operations EU

Operations EU

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Alberto is the Head of Operations at Saranac Partners Europe. He is responsible for the day-to-day operational management of the European office, the relationship with external vendors and the regulatory compliance requirements of the firm.

Prior to joining Saranac Partners Europe in February 2022, Alberto worked for over 10 years in Private Banking for the French group Crédit Agricole (CA Indosuez Wealth Management), leading the operations teams in Spain as well as steering a number of key strategic European projects.

Alberto is trilingual in French, Spanish and English. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Santiago de Compostela and a master’s degree in banking with a specialisation in derivatives from EF Business School.

Allan Clayton

Allan Clayton

Operations

Operations

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Allan joined Saranac Partners in December 2017 as part of the Operations team, ensuring efficient day-to-day operations, and implementing processes to ensure helpful supporting of the front office and clients

Allan has over 18 years experience in private banking, having previous worked for UBS, Ruffer LLP, AXA, Rothschilds, Cazenove and Schroders.

Allan holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics & Management from King’s College London.

Connor Tucker

Connor Tucker

Operations

Operations

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Connor is an Analyst within the Operations team at Saranac.
Prior to joining Saranac in December 2021, Connor worked at Fusion Wealth, where he was a Trading & Settlements Specialist for two years.
Connor graduated from the University of Sussex in 2019 with a master’s degree in Financial Mathematics, he also holds a first-class honours bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

David Maxwell

David Maxwell

Compliance Officer

Compliance Officer

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David joined Saranac Partners in July 2022 as a Compliance Officer.

Prior to joining Saranac, David was Head of Risk and Compliance for the UK and Investments at Stonehage Fleming.  For 12 years before that David worked in Compliance at Private Banks, first HSBC and then Standard Chartered.

David has held various compliance roles at Carr Sheppards, Evolution and Cheviot Capital.  He has also worked for the regulator, the SFA and then the FSA in its first year, as a regulatory consultant with PwC and for the trade body APCIMS.

David has a Law degree from Stellenbosch University and is a Fellow of the CISI.

Joel Heilpern

Joel Heilpern

Operations

Operations

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Joel joined Saranac Partners in September 2022 as part of the Operations team.

Prior to Saranac, Joel worked at Shard Capital LLP managing high value IPO transactions and multi market settlements.

Joel completed 4 years at Dolfin Financial UK LTD in a 360-investment operations role supporting traders on their multi asset desk.

Joel graduated from Leeds University with a BA in International Business. Over the past several years, Joel has also been running an International Cryptocurrency spot and derivatives social media group.

Kathy Cleary

Kathy Cleary

Finance

Finance

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Kathy joined Saranac in September 2020 and leads our internal finance function. She provides internal financial support to both client advisors and the operations teams.

Kathy has an LLB from UCL and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Southampton, London and Amsterdam. She then moved into Private Equity investing and spent six years at 3i Group plc, originating and executing investments for their €5bn buyout fund. Most recently, she ran her own business helping Private Equity houses source and appraise Executive and Non-Executive management for their portfolio companies.

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Michael Lutter

Compliance

Compliance

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Michael is part of the compliance team at Saranac Partners, advising on a diverse range of UK and EU regulatory risk and compliance matters.

Working with the client adviser and proposition teams, he manages the monitoring programmes at Saranac, focusing on anti-money laundering and risk management, market abuse and suitability, alongside the approvals processes for investment and marketing materials and client onboarding.

Prior to joining Saranac, Michael worked with funds-based entities, corporate financial advisers, VC and PE firms at IQ-EQ within their regulatory hosting business.

Michael has a bachelor’s degree in politics and international relations and a master’s in law.

Philip Dench

Philip Dench

Compliance

Compliance

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Phil joined Saranac Partners in July 2016 as the Head of Governance. Phil is responsible for Risk and Compliance, a role which includes the prevention of financial crime and data protection.

Prior to joining Saranac Phil was the European Head of Compliance at Lombard Odier, where he oversaw Compliance for Europe. Before Lombard Odier Phil worked at HSBC where he was the Head of Compliance for HSBC Private Bank UK and Channel Islands.

Phil has held a number of senior compliance roles in Private Banking at JP Morgan, Schroders and Credit Suisse, covering the UK, Channel Islands and Switzerland.

Phil is a qualified Public Finance Accountant and gained his Economics degree from Swansea University.

Poppy Laird

Poppy Laird

Assistant

Assistant

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Poppy is Front of House and Team Assistant to the Proposition team at Saranac Partners. Poppy joined Saranac in 2023 from a recruitment company in the city, where she managed front of house and office admin. Prior to this Poppy completed a business administration apprenticeship in Finance and went on to be a team assistant for blu-3, an international infrastructure company.

Rick Bains

Rick Bains

Technology

Technology

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Rick is Head of Technology at Saranac Partners. He is responsible for innovating, advising and managing the firm’s technology and infrastructure. As part of the COO’s office he is also responsible for the firms real estate and steers several projects on operational and cost efficiencies.

Prior to Saranac Partners, Rick was Head of Major Projects, Key Transactions & Events for Barclays.

He has over 20 years IT consulting experience with a number of firms including global mining company Riotinto and multinational engineering and electronics company Bosch.

Rick has an undergraduate degree in Business Computing from City University London.

Samson Leach

Samson Leach

Operations

Operations

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Samson is an Operations and Technology Analyst at Saranac Partners, contributing since March 2023. Previously, he honed his skills at Sanlam, specialising in reconciliations and implementing data controls. Samson graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Exeter in 2020. With a penchant for coding, he enjoys automating back-office processes.

Sara Sleater

Sara Sleater

Human Resources

Human Resources

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Sara has a long track record of providing Human Capital services to blue chip businesses in the Financial Services sector, including multi-asset global investment firms, and investment trusts.

She provides support across all aspect of Human Capital including, Recruitment, Training and Development, Reward and Employee Engagement

Sara holds a Masters in Personnel and Development and a BA in History & Economics from Leeds University.

Sharon Johal

Sharon Johal

Legal

Legal

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Sharon has over 20 years’ experience in international financial markets and investment management. Prior to joining Saranac, Sharon held senior management and leadership roles with leading investment banks, international asset management firms and one of the largest global sovereign wealth funds. Specialising in all aspects of complex international banking, finance, international corporate/commercial law, fund structuring and formation, asset management and corporate governance & compliance.

Sharon has a proactive and an entrepreneurial approach to managing legal and regulatory issues in a cost-effective manner, overseeing key asset and project management, start-ups and fund launches, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, development and asset management activities in wide ranging asset classes. She is an exceptional communicator focusing on developing relationships with diverse clients, board members and stakeholders. Sharon has a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory issues currently facing the financial services industry and designing robust legal risk management systems.

Simon Bowden

Simon Bowden

Operations

Operations

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Simon is Head of Operations and Onboarding at Saranac Partners. He manages a dynamic team that supports the business with all operational matters and take-on of new clients.

Simon works closely and has built strong relationships with the custodians that Saranac has chosen to partner with.

Prior to joining Saranac in 2015, Simon worked at Lombard Odier and Close Brothers and has spent over 20 years working within Operations.

Sophie Hacking

Sophie Hacking

Assistant

Assistant

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Sophie is Front of House and Team Assistant to the Management team at Saranac Partners. Sophie joined Saranac in 2022 from Britannia Global Markets where she managed the front of house and office admin. Prior to this Sophie acted as Front of House Ground Floor manager at No. 1 London Bridge where she managed a team of receptionists and acted as assistant to the building manager.

Steven Griffiths

Steven Griffiths

Operations

Operations

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Steven is an Operations and Technology Analyst at Saranac Partners.  Working within the Operations Team, the focus of his work is to help build and develop the operations and technology platform.

Prior to joining Saranac in April 2017, Steven worked with in Portfolio Services and Emerging Market Equities at Schroders.

Steven holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Finance from City University/CASS Business School.