Who we are

Dennis William Cox, is an innovative financial services risk management specialist, chartered accountant and internal auditor who has been a thought leader in the international banking and financial services sector for over 30 years.
He has held senior management positions within the banking and accountancy profession as Director, Risk Management at HSBC Insurance Brokers Limited and Director, Risk Management, Prudential Portfolio Managers. Formerly he held a number of roles within the audit profession including Senior Audit Manager (Compliance) at HSBC Holdings PLC and Senior Manager (Banking and Finance) at both BDO Binder Hamlyn and Arthur Young. He has significant expertise in total risk management, risk-based internal audit, forensic accounting, money laundering deterrence, treasury, credit, liquidity, operational and market risk.
Dennis has developed significant Islamic banking, finance and Shari’a regulatory implementation experience in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Recent and current assignments include major risk management and internal audit programmes for Islamic banks in the MENA, GCC region and Malaysia including the Monetary-, Audit-, Investment Authorities Audit Authorities and Central Banks of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Since 2009 he has maintained offices in Riyadh. He regularly advises national trade associations of bankers and internal auditors.
Throughout his career Dennis has assisted firms globally on obtaining financial services licences, investigating acquisitions and disposals and opening (or closing) firms. Specific licences have been obtained for banks and security houses in the UK, USA, Europe and the Middle East. Work conducted has included development of applications, managing relationships with regulators, implementing control and management systems and documenting plans, procedures and manuals.
He is a Fellow, Co-founder and Chairman of the Risk Forum for the UK Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), he has also been a National Council Member for 17 years. He holds a BSc Honours degree in Mathematics from London University.
Dennis is an accomplished international conference chairman and lecturer, and is the author of a number of publications including Banking and Finance: Accounts, Audit and Practise (1993 Butterworths, being updated and republished in 2010 by BPP), The Mathematics of Banking and Finance (2006 Wiley Finance), Frontiers of Risk Management (2007 Euromoney) and An Introduction to Money Laundering Deterrence (2010 Wiley Finance). He is currently writing one book, The International Handbook of Money Laundering Deterrence for Wiley Finance for publication 2011 on the topic of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations and techniques in global markets.

Lisette is a dynamic international business leader with a broad range of commercial and public sector experience for 30 years in the US, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia. After taking university degrees in political science and economics in New York City, and following an early career in the United Nations she joined Thomas Cook International on Wall Street as a junior executive.
Lisette left TCI to establish her own business which was eventually brought into the Federated Group Bloomingdale’s division from 1989 - 1996. Having established solid financial credibility and international supply chain relationships under her own business brand she was able to ensure that suppliers continued to deliver to Federated during the early phases of the financial crisis.
Relocating to the UK Lisette took senior management roles with an American architecture and engineering firm serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. After September 11, 2001, she remained in the UK forming her own US - UK business consortium delivering pharmaceutical and biotechnology facilities, public/private enterprise zones and biotechnology parks in the UK, New Europe and India. With government level contacts in emerging markets and her practical experience in those markets, in 2006 she took on the role of Director of Business Development at Risk Reward. Promoted to Commercial Director two years later she has since built a cutting-edge, service excellence delivery mechanism for the export of British banking expertise to the top 100 banks and Central banks globally.

He has over 35 years experience in Banking and the Financial Markets, involved in areas from the sterling money market through to derivatives trading, structured derivatives, Eurobond new issuance, structured products and financial engineering.
As a money broker he led a corporate sterling money market sales team, and then joined the futures markets, working at the IMM in Chicago and on the trading floor of LIFFE.
Subsequently moving to Bankers Trust in London initially he served as an interest rate swap trader and progressed to head up the financial derivatives sales and financial institutions origination team as part of the bank’s Eurobond and MTN capital markets activities.
On joining HSBC he assumed the role of Head of European Derivatives Sales, continuing this role when HSBC merged with Midland bank. He was involved with the GTC (Global Treasury Course) in-house training programme for inbound central banks from HSBC’s global business units.
On moving to West Merchant Bank (a part of the WestLB Group) Jeremy was appointed to the main board. In this position he was of Head of Marketing and sales for the Global Derivatives and Fixed Income Group and latterly also including treasury sales. In addition was part of the team that ran this division, specifically with global risk management oversight and was responsible to the board of WestLB for the asset securitisation programme.
Jeremy is the Head of Treasury at Risk Reward Recent since 2007. He is an accredited risk management trainer for the UK Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments on a wide variety of risk management topics and treasury products including derivatives and hedge funds. He is a advisor to development and central banks, stock exchanges and their regulators as well as commercial and investment banks worldwide.

He is a Chartered Accountant and senior risk and internal audit consultant. Peter is a former bank senior executive having spent more than 25 years internationally with JPMorgan Chase. For 10 years he was assigned to Brazil where he was on the Group Board of Banco Chase Manhattan SA and held the positions of Chief Auditor, Group Operations Executive and Senior Financial Officer reporting to Chase Bank’s New York headquarters.
Subsequent to his Brazilian assignment he went on occupy a number of area and country executive positions in Europe (Germany, UK) encompassing operations, finance and risk management. In the latter stages of his career with JPMorgan Chase, before joining Risk Reward Limited, he was the Head of Risk Management – Global Shared Technology & Operations and it was during this time that he specialised in Basel II and operational risk management.
Peter advises on a variety of audit and risk management topics including Operational Risk and Basel II & Risk Management. Some recent and current assignments include assignments in Cairo to introduce risk-based audit principles into a major national bank and modernising the bank’s internal audit function; in Mauritius training an internal audit team within a Big Five accountancy firm on risk-based internal audit; in Johannesburg, auditing a major bank’s ICAAP and helping to prepare their ICAAP application; teaching Practical Measuring and Managing Operational Risk in Doha (Qatar) to regional commercial and retail banks, preparing a capital adequacy programme for a TARP funded region banking group in the USA, and an in-house training course on the Modernisation of Internal Audit Practices in Abu Dhabi for a National Bank.

Fred Vacelet is an international Financial Risk Management Consultant well versed in quantitative techniques, with a strong academic and practical background in financial management and financial markets, an expertise in Risk Management methodological frameworks for credit risk, market risk and operational risk, and compliance with risk regulations.
He has some 20 years experience advising banks and software houses on derivatives and risk management. His client list includes ABN Amro, Barclays, Reuters, Credit Suisse and numerous other institutions.
As a senior consultant for ABN-Amro in the Capital and Risk Management field, Fred worked to improve the capital position by some £100m in risk weighted assets. He was appointed by the European Union, for an international bank to start up an Operational Risk Management Function and department, which included designing and implementing processes and controls as well stress-testing scenarios. Fred also worked for a Middle Eastern Bank establishing Control Procedures and Key Risk Indicators for a hedge fund resulting in an immediate saving and decreases in risk.
Fred also has solid expertise of most Risk Management IT tools, including undertaking projects to implement advanced risk management and stress testing solutions for banking and financial institutions.

John has extensive risk management experience gained through senior management roles in retail and commercial banking in a career spanning over 30 years, a large part of which was spent with HSBC (formerly Midland Bank).
During his carrier with HSBC, in the 1980’s recession, John served in the bank’s corporate recovery unit, assisting with the recovery (or demise) of many well-known UK industrial groups. At the height of the 1990’s property crash, John was given responsibility for the management of a specialist property lending unit into which had been gathered many of the bank’s large property and construction industry exposures with the aim of improving management and minimising losses.
Following his role as a senior manager in the HSBC Group Internal Audit function, John joined an associate of the Group, British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB), an Anglo-Arab bank specialising in trade finance in the MENA region. Initially Head of Internal Audit and Compliance, John then set up the bank’s Risk Management function of which he was Head. John was for many years the bank’s MLRO and Compliance Officer and developed a significant expertise in trade finance due diligence. John has travelled extensively in BACB Middle Eastern and North African markets and now advises central banks as well as sovereign wealth funds and commercial banks.

Graeme Skelly is a Board level senior operations and systems professional who is a pioneer of data warehouse technology, with a proven track record of delivery and adding value. He has over 28 years experience of directing and implementing systems, strategies and projects within critical business functions of highly dynamic multinational companies.
He has spent the majority of his career working within business functions, developing a reputation as a technology and risk expert with first hand business experience. He has the ability to communicate complex issues effectively and is an experienced lecturer. He has been an IT Director, and a Chief Operating Officer at Barclays Bank (UK).
This diverse career has helped him develop expertise in operational risk, Basel II, IT strategies and technologies, risk management, business planning, business projects, change and people management, leadership, treasury and finance.
Graeme is an experienced consultant and trainer known for his practical know-how and hands-on approach. He is the co-author or the Central Bank of Indonesia International Certificate in Banking Risk and Regulation, Measurement, Supervision and Disclosure.
Graeme is a member of the Risk Reward Risk Management Faculty since 2007 advising and training banks and financial institutions in emerging markets on topics including Basel II & Risk Management, Basel II Implementation and Compliance, and Measuring and Managing Operational Risk. Recent assignments were delivered in five CIS States, Dubai, Doha, Lagos, London, Manila, Mumbai and Cairo.