Commissioners

Commissioner

Julian Winser

Chairman of the Commission

Julian was appointed as a Commissioner in May 2021, and became Chairman in December 2021.

Julian served in the military as an officer in the Royal Green Jackets and Army Air Corps. On leaving, he spent ten years at Baring Asset Management in operations and investment management, and subsequently 23 years at Schroders working in the investment market on behalf of private clients and institutions. Between 2005 and 2020 he was CEO of Schroders’ offshore private client business based in Guernsey responsible for the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Malta and Bermuda, while also being part of the team managing Cazenove Capital worldwide.

He has been a Trustee of Youth Clubs UK, President of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of the Guernsey Youth Commission. Currently, he is Chairman of the Guernsey Friends of DofE and a CEDR trained mediator, and advisor to the Oxford Process, an international conflict resolution organisation.

John Aspden

John Aspden

Vice-Chairman

John is a senior finance professional with significant experience in investment and banking supervision in both public and private sectors. He was Chief Executive of the Financial Supervision Commission in the Isle of Man from 1998 to 2015, where he was responsible for the regulation and supervision of all banking, securities and funds, trusts and companies, and money transmission activities. Prior to taking up his role at the Financial Supervision Commission in the Isle of Man, John held roles in the private sector including Managing Director of Matheson InvestNet Ltd, at the time Hong Kong’s largest independent distributor of, and adviser on, collective investments for retail investors. John has also held the role of Deputy General Manager of the International Bank of Asia Ltd., and has worked in banking supervision at the Bank of England, and at the Office of the Commissioner of Banking in Hong Kong, now HKMA. John is also Chairman of the Group of International Finance Centre Supervisors and co-chairs the Basel Consultative Group. He was made an MBE for his work in financial services supervision.

Wendy Dorey

Wendy Dorey

Commissioner

Wendy was appointed as a Commissioner in November 2015.  She has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry in the UK, France, and Guernsey. She is currently Director of Dorey Financial Modelling, an investment consulting firm, and a Non-Executive Director of Schroders (CI) Limited, Weiss Korea Opportunity Fund Ltd and TwentyFour Select Monthly Income Fund Limited. She has multi-sector experience across investment, banking, and pensions, occupying senior posts in business strategy, governance and marketing, and distribution for a number of leading institutions in the City of London. During that period, she was responsible for external risk reporting to the Financial Services Authority and embedding new "Treating Customers Fairly" processes.  She was also responsible for the launch and on-going promotion of the Guernsey-domiciled M&G Property Fund to the UK Market. A strong advocate of continuous learning, she assisted the Investment Management Association in developing a new investment management syllabus for Independent Financial Advisors and, in 2018, gained the Institute of Directors Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction. She was admitted as a Chartered Director and Fellow of the IoD in 2019, before becoming Chair of the Guernsey IoD Committee in 2021.

 

Philip Middleton

Philip Middleton

Commissioner

Philip is a senior financial services strategist with significant recent experience in advising governments, central banks, and financial institutions. Since 2014, he has carried out consulting and advisory work in central banking and financial services as a Director of Rifle House Capital Limited. He is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a leading think tank, where he also chairs the Digital Monetary Institute. He has had significant experience in the private sector, holding various roles within KPMG LLP, including Partner and European Head of Financial Services Strategy, and within Ernst & Young LLP, including Partner and Head of Central Banking, EMEIA. 

Commissioner

Stuart King

Commissioner

Stuart is a non-executive director at Pension Corporation, the UK pension annuity specialist, and an independent consultant. Previously, Stuart was the Group Compliance Director at Aviva and a Managing Director at Promontory Financial Group - a consultancy specialising in strategy, risk, and governance issues. 

Earlier in his career, Stuart worked on a range of regulatory and public policy issues at the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and, before that, at the Bank of England and IMF. During his time at the FSA, he was successively Head of UK Banks Regulation, Head of Retail Intelligence and Regulatory Themes, and Head of Major Insurance Groups Regulation. He also led the re-launch of the FSA’s Treating Customers Fairly initiative and the supervision of the large insurance groups during the 2008 global financial crisis. He was responsible for the changes to the supervisory approach towards insurance groups which were introduced following the crisis.

Stuart takes a keen interest in mental health issues, particularly among the young and other vulnerable groups. He is the Treasurer of Emerge Advocacy which won a Queen’s Award in 2021 for its work with young people suffering mental health challenges. He is working with a new charity which will provide counselling services to rough sleepers and is a Trustee of a Multi Academy Trust.

The Rt Hon The Lord Henley

Oliver Henley

Commissioner

Oliver Henley is a longstanding member of the House of Lords. He is currently a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights.  He previously served as a Minister under four Prime Ministers, from Margaret Thatcher to Theresa May, in a range of departments including Social Security, Defence, and DEFRA and as a Minister of State at the Department of Education and the Home Office.  His most recent ministerial position, from 2017 to 2019 was at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy where, among other responsibilities, he covered regulatory reform and the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.

Between 1997 and 2010 he served as Opposition Chief Whip in the Lords, and subsequently as opposition spokesman for Home Affairs and Justice.

Oliver was called to the Bar in 1977.  He was an elected member of the County Council in his native Cumbria from 1986 to 1989, resigning on his appointment to the Government.  He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2013.

Commissioner

Robert Girard

Commissioner

Robert is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and served 45 years with NatWest Group. He was a member of the RBS International Executive Committee for 12 years, Country Head for the Group in Guernsey, Director of the Bank’s Institutional & Corporate Banking Business in Guernsey and had line management oversight of its Jurisdictional Heads in Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Luxembourg for part of that tenure. He was also a Director of the NatWest Group Global Captive Insurance Company for 12 years.

He is Chairman of the Guernsey Banking Deposit Compensation Scheme, Vice Chair of the Channel Islands Financial Services Ombudsman and a Commissioner of the Guernsey Language Commission engaged in the re-vitalisation of Guernsey's native language Guernesias. He also served a Member of the Juvenile Panel of the Guernsey Royal Court for six years.

Commissioner

Paul Hodgson

Commissioner

Paul was appointed as a Commissioner in March 2024.

Paul is a highly regarded financial services professional with over 35 years of international experience, principally in the areas of fiduciary and administration and insolvency.  He retired from his role as a senior executive of the Butterfield Group in October 2023 having worked for the firm for over 25 years, including 17 years as Managing Director of the Bank’s Guernsey trust company and the last for years in the role of Deputy Group Head of Trust.   In his roles with Butterfield, Paul was a regular speaker and Chair of international conferences focussing on the Private Client sector.

Paul has actively supported the growth and development of the Finance Sector in Guernsey and has been a Committee member and Chair of the local STEP Branch, the Guernsey Association of Trustees and, most recently, as Chair of the Guernsey International Business Association (“GIBA”).  He has also acted as a Non-States Member of the Public Accounts Committee of the States of Guernsey and is presently a member of the Financial Scrutiny Panel of the Scrutiny Management Committee.

Before arriving in Guernsey in 1998, Paul worked for KPMG, initially in Brisbane, and spent 10 years with the firm in Australia, London and Hong Kong, mostly working in the area of insolvency and restructuring, including corporate turnaround.  Paul is currently a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and a member of both STEP and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Commissioner

Anna Guggenheim KC

Commissioner

Anna was appointed a Commissioner in January 2024. From 2014 until 2023 she was a partner in the dispute resolution team at Babbé LLP in Guernsey, undertaking litigation and mediation in the fields of financial services, trusts and banking. She was called as an Advocate of the Guernsey Bar in 2016.

Before moving to Guernsey, Anna practised a barrister, and sat as a Circuit Judge, in London. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1982 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2001. Her practice at the Bar included general commercial litigation, insurance coverage disputes, technology and construction disputes, and professional negligence. As a judge she tried a wide range of civil cases at Central London Civil Justice Centre, and criminal cases at Wood Green, Southwark and Isleworth Crown Courts, including complex fraud, serious sexual offences, organised crime and human trafficking. She took a particular interest in the use of scientific evidence and statistics, and was a member of a Royal Statistical Society Working Group on Statistics and the Law which produced a series of Nuffield Foundation reports on the role of probabilistic reasoning in forensic science and on DNA evidence.

From 2010 to 2014 Anna was a judicial member of the Parole Board of England and Wales, and a member of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee.