Judges

Emma has been a member of the Insurance Institute of Leeds council for several years, taking over as President in 2024-25, and continuing as a Joint President on Leeds’s first ever Presidential Committee for 2025-26. Her earlier roles on council included chairing the Harrogate committee for two years and serving as Deputy President of Leeds in 2023.

Emma’s theme for her Presidential year was ‘consistency’, focussing on continuing the strong professional development offering provided to insurance and financial services members across the region. She has also been raising money for the Leeds South & East Foodbank.

Emma was shortlisted in the ‘Team Leader of the Year’ category at the 2024 Women in Insurance Awards and is passionate about learning and development of colleagues. She has worked as an insurance broker at Marsh Ltd for 11 years.

John Godfrey is the Managing Director of Public Affairs, Policy, and Research at TheCityUK. He assumed this role on an interim basis following the General Election, stepping in after his predecessor, Emma Reynolds, was successfully re-elected to Parliament and appointed as Pensions Minister. 

John’s career spans forty years, during which he has worked in City institutions and both central and local government. He began his career in debt and equity capital markets at a Japanese investment bank, followed by a secondment as a Special Adviser (SPAD) to the Home Secretary. Afterward, he returned to the City, taking on Corporate Affairs roles at both a US and a German bank before serving as Corporate Affairs Director and Executive Committee member at Legal & General for 16 years. His work involved policy development and engagement on financial and regulatory matters, as well as investment-led growth, public-private partnerships, demographic change, and urban regeneration across the UK. 

In 2016/17, John took a sabbatical from Legal & General to serve as Head of the Policy Unit at Number Ten Downing Street. He later returned to Legal & General, working as Levelling Up Director. Recognising the importance of local leadership in delivering major investment projects, he spent a year as Interim Executive Director for Housing, Property, and Regeneration at the West Midlands Combined Authority, where he helped unlock over 8,000 homes on brownfield sites by combining government funding with private capital. 

John is a strong advocate for integrated, evidence-based policymaking. He serves as a Financial Inclusion Commissioner and contributes to various commissions and boards focused on health-related issues. He is also the founding Chairman of Business for Health and a board member of the Centre for Ageing Better. 

Louise Hewitt has 25 years’ experience assisting customers with money matters. She is passionate about helping people achieve their dreams and goals through preserving and growing their wealth.

Unravelling pensions is particularly rewarding for Louise, especially when she can confirm you’re on track for the retirement lifestyle you want and generally simplifying the complexities of financial matters, so that you have peace of mind, knowing your financial future is well planned.

Having taken time out to raise a family, Louise returned to the industry 5 years ago and updated her industry qualifications and is currently working towards chartered status.

Outside of work Louise enjoys yoga, gardening and spending time with her two teenagers walking in the beautiful countryside – especially pleasing when there’s a great coffee and cake stop on the horizon.

Shortlisted for Levelling Up Leader by Northern Power Women Awards, Director of the Year by The Institute of Directors and winner of Mentor of the Year by Forward Ladies, Poonam Kaur is an award-winning corporate financier, accountant, and business consultant. 

Trained as a formal accountant and with more than 12 years of experience in corporate finance, Poonam has worked with organisations across a plethora of industries, including worldwide organisations, supporting them with their succession planning (specifically mergers and acquisitions), or on their board via an appointment or through director-level training. 

Her specialisms in director-level training include the role of a company director, good corporate governance, finance for non-finance directors/managers, buying and selling businesses, and the role of a non-executive director. 

Poonam is chief executive officer of fds Director Services, where she leads all projects and director-level training with the support of chair Jo Haigh. She is passionate about helping organisations and directors with their business journeys, whatever stage they may be. 

Tanya Retter is the Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Banker Institute. Joining the Institute in 2023, Tanya has played a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the Institute’s current strategic vision. Tanya now leads the Institute’s efforts to raise professional standards across the banking sector, ensuring that education, ethics, and lifelong learning remain at the heart of a responsible and future-ready profession.

With over two decades of experience in financial services, Tanya brings deep expertise in leadership development, digital transformation, and customer and employee experience – skills developed during her time in senior roles at NatWest and RBS. She is instrumental in driving the Institute’s global educationstrategy, overseeing the design and delivery of qualificationsand professional development programmes that support the evolving needs of banks, regulators, and individuals.

Tanya represents the Institute on the Chartered Body Alliance, which she represents on the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC), where she is contributing to the national policy discussions on skills. Tanya also chairs sector roundtables, championing innovation and inclusion in banking and is a prominent voice in the sector through her podcasts, seminars, and keynote speaking engagements.

A certified SAFe 5 Agilist and Executive Coach, Tanya is committed to embedding agile thinking and ethical leadership across the profession.

Tracy Vegro is the CEO of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), which she joined in 2022. She hails from a Whitehall policy-making and Financial Services Regulatory background and has always had a strong link to businesses and stakeholder development in all her roles. The CISI is a global membership body and educational charity with a large and varied membership base, which means Tracy is often in the Yorkshire and Humber region meeting her member firms.

Tracy also sits on the Board of Salix Finance, where she is Chair of the People and Remuneration Committee and serves on the Board at the UK-ASEAN Business Council. In addition, she is Chair of the Regulatory Response Unit (RRU) for LawTechUK. Tracy also served until recently on the Financial Services Skills Commission Board and is a member of the Cabinet Office’s Major Project Leadership Academy (MPLA).

Prior to joining the CISI, Tracy’s last two Regulatory roles were at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), where she was leading on the delivery of the SRA’s Corporate Strategy; heading up the Innovation, Regulatory and Education Policy Division and leading on Research & Analysis as part of her portfolio. Prior to the SRA, Tracy was Executive Director, Strategy and Resources at the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the Regulator of accounting, audit and corporate governance. She was the FRC’s Diversity Champion and designed a number of initiatives aimed at boosting diversity on FTSE boards, for which she was awarded an OBE.