Rachel Edwards is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries. She is the project lead for Working in Mortgages which is a careers and outreach initiative with more than 130 volunteers from more than 90 firms and is also the project lead for the Green Mortgage Advice Initiative which is a cross-industry project intended to act as a source of support for intermediaries, helping them to understand and address green issues. Rachel’s background in financial services is primarily managing underwriting and processing teams for mortgage lenders. 

Chloe is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries specialising in Green and ESG policy, Consumer Duty, the Later Life sector and UK mortgage market regulation. She previously oversaw the launch of AMI’s award-winning ‘Working in Mortgages’ Diversity and Inclusion initiative, and in 2020 she published a book on the UK housing crisis. She also speaks on national radio (BBC R4, BBC R5 Live, LBC and Tonight with Andrew Marr) about issues affecting renters and first-time buyers.

Vic Jannels was appointed CEO of the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL) in January 2020. He is also Chairman of Impact Specialist Finance Ltd, a multi award winning company operating in the mortgage intermediary sector.

Some of Vic’s previous roles include Chair of the Professional Mortgage Packagers Alliance (PMPA), Director of specialist mortgage lender Unity Home Loans and was a co-opted board member of The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI).

Throughout his career, Vic’s priority has always been to champion the customer and he had used this approach to help steer key boardroom decisions at a number of organisations. He has played an instrumental role in the launch of the Certified Practitioner in Specialist Property Finance (CPSP) and was most recently named in the 2023 Global Mortgage 100, which included the most influential industry professionals across the planet.

John Blackwood has worked in the private rented sector for nearly 30 years and is widely recognised as one of the leading voices in the Scottish private rented sector. He represents SAL on a number of Scottish Government committees working to inform and influence housing policy. John is chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL), managing director of Gladstones Property Investment Managers and chairman of Scotland’s national accreditation scheme for private landlords and letting agents, Landlord Accreditation Scotland (LAS). John also holds a judicial appointment as a member of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing & Property Chamber) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.  

Robin Fieth joined the Building Societies Association (BSA) as Chief Executive in December 2013. Previously he was Executive Director, Members and Operations at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Robin originally joined the ICAEW in 2002 as Director of Finance. During his career, he has also held a number of other senior positions in the corporate sector, including Group Finance Director and Company Secretary at AIM listed Transacsys plc. He spent the first 10 years of his career with PwC. 

The BSA is the voice of building societies in the UK, speaking out on issues relevant to building societies and their members (savers and borrowers). Together, building societies serve over 25 million customers across the UK; have total assets of over £500 billion and have a 23% market share of the residential mortgage market, and 19% share of the savings market. 

Robin is a fellow of the ICAEW, a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK and a member of the General Assembly of the European Association of Co-operative Banks.  He is married with three grown-up children. 

Tanya leads the development of the Institute’s portfolio of qualifications, education, and training, ensuring they are supporting the needs of professional bankers globally. Her remit includes delivery of the Institute’s strategic vision with continued growth and utilization of the Institute’s Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Academy.

In joining the Institute, Tanya brings over 25 years of banking experience from NatWest and RBS, with skills and capabilities across Learning and Development, Professional Qualifications, Digital enablement, Leadership and most recently CX and EX. She is a certified SAFe 5 Agilist and Executive Coach.

Dr Muhammed Bolomope is a Lecturer in Real Estate at the University of Aberdeen Business School. He obtained his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and has previously lectured at Massey University and Lincoln University, both in New Zealand. Based on his multi-disciplinary background, Muhammed has worked professionally in various property appraisal, development and management roles. He has published articles in reputable journals and his research interests are in property market disruptions, decision-making, sustainability, procurement and urban policy. 

Dr. Yuan Zhao is an Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of Reading. Before joining Henley Business School, Yuan worked as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Aberdeen where she gained her PhD in Real Estate Finance. 

Dr. Yuan’s research areas cover a wide range of finance and real estate subjects, including mutual funds; portfolio optimisation; behavioural finance; risk management; crypto assets from finance fields, and housing valuation; real estate finance; sustainability; leasehold relativity from real estate areas. 

Dr. Yuan has built her research portfolio in real estate and finance with both ABS-ranked 3*/4* journal papers and institution-funded research projects. She has published and served as a referee in several peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, International Review of Financial Analysis, and International Journal of Finance & Economics. She has worked as a co-investigator in several funded research projects, including the IPF project on the investigation of hurdle rates in the real estate investment process and the consultancy project on London leasehold relativity. Yuan is currently working on research projects on portfolio homogenous subsets, investor sentiment, herding, tokenised real estate, and fund family competition. She is also involved in a Property Research Trust-funded project on occupier profile and the ESG agenda in commercial real estate with the University of Aberdeen.