Speakers & Presentations

Angela Knight – CEO British Bankers Association

Angela Knight On leaving Bristol University with an Honours degree in Chemistry, Angela worked for the American industrial gas company Air Products Ltd. She was the product development manager for the application and sale of nitrogen as an inert carrier during the treatment of ferrous metal components.

Angela went on to set up, and was Chief Executive of, a specialist contract heat treatment company treating precision engineering components – Cook & Knight Metallurgical Processors Ltd – and an associated process plant manufacturing company.

From 1987 to 1992 Angela was Councillor and Chief Whip on Sheffield City Council. She entered Parliament in 1992 as MP for Erewash and was Economic Secretary to the Treasury between 1995 and 1997, when she lost her seat at the General Election. Angela then took up a post as the Chief Executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers from September 1997 to December 2006.

She is currently the Chief Executive of the British Bankers Association and a non-executive director on the boards of IFSL, Brewin Dolphin plc and the Financial Services Skills Council.

Major General (Rtd) John Holmes DSO OBE MC

John spent 34 years in the British Army in both the Scots Guards and the SAS. He commanded 22 SAS during Gulf War 1 and was Director of Special Forces during the Kosovo and Sierra Leone deployments. He also commanded the British Parachute Brigade and for three years was the Secretary to the Supreme Allied Commanders (SACEUR) NATO Command Group.

On retirement, John completed a study for the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police into what the commercial sector in London could do to assist the UK’s counter-terrorist effort. Subsequently he was a Director of a UK Security Company operating in Iraq for 4 years and co-founded Titon International, a business intelligence company, in 2004.