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 Our Board

Oversight of SFE comes from a non-executive board of management made up of senior leaders appointed from our membership

Sandy Begbie CBE FRSE
SFE Chief Executive

  • Sandy Begbie CBE, FRSE was appointed Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise in October 2020.

    Prior to joining SFE, Sandy led the development of the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee following an 18-month contract at Tesco Bank as the Chief Transformation Officer.

    Sandy was responsible for the Global People, Organisation and Culture Integration following the successful merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017. Before the merger Sandy was the Chief People Officer and Lead Executive for China and Hong Kong for Standard Life for eight years. During this time, he led the Standard Life HR team to be recognised as one of the top performing functions in the UK and also led the turn-around of Standard Life’s Chinese Joint Venture. Sandy was appointed Senior Advisor to the Standard Life HASL Asia business in Hong Kong in July 2020, having been Chair of the Hong Kong-based Board since 2014. In December 2023 Sandy was appointed as International Director to the HASL Asia business and stepped down as Senior Advisor.

    Before joining Standard Life in May 2010 Sandy held similar Transformation and Group HR Director positions within Aegon, Scottish Power and Royal Bank of Scotland.

    Sandy holds several non-executive positions including Chair of Place2Be Scotland and a Trustee on the National Place2Be Board, Chair of Young Person Guarantee and Chair of DYW (Developing the Young Workforce).

    Sandy was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in August 2018 for services to business and social inclusion. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in March 2023. In December 2024 Sandy was awarded Freedom of the City of London for his transformative leadership in Scotland's financial sector and his enduring commitment to fostering economic growth and social inclusion across Scotland.

Sue Dawe
SFE Chair
Head of Financial Services
Scotland for EY LLP

  • Sue Dawe was appointed Chair of SFE in July 2024. She leads EY’s Financial Services Practice in Scotland and is the Managing Partner for the Edinburgh office. She has been with EY for 30 years. Previous roles include, Head of EMEIA Wealth and Asset Management Assurance and Head of UK Wealth and Asset Management audit. She is a member of EY’s UKFS Leadership team and a former member of the EY UK LLP Board. Sue is on the Financial Services Growth and Development Board (FiSGAD) and was on the Board of Scottish Investment Operations until December 2018.

    Sue is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and has a degree in Accountancy and Finance from Heriot Watt University.

Judith Cruickshank
Managing Director, Commercial Mid Market
Royal Bank of Scotland

  • Judith Cruickshank has worked with NatWest for 14 years in a variety of roles, focused on customer solutions for both Retail and Commercial customers. She is currently MD Commercial Mid Market Banking, Scotland and Climate Lead for the Business Bank. She is particularly passionate about helping business and personal customers prepare for the future through building financial capability and transitioning to a lower carbon world.

    Prior to joining the bank she worked in oil & gas for Shell International and for Marakon Strategy Consultants, with experience in both Asia and Europe.

    Outside of the bank, Judith is also a Finance Committee member of Heriot Watt University and a Director of Scottish EDGE.

Rushad Abadan
Group General Counsel
Aberdeen Group plc

  • Rushad leads Aberdeen Group plc’s global Legal, Governance, Public Affairs and Corporate Sustainability function, as part of which he advises the Aberdeen Board and executive team on various strategic, operational, regulatory, people and risk issues.

    In other current roles, Rushad serves as a Member of the Court of The University of Edinburgh and of its Audit & Risk Committee. He is also a non-executive director of Standard Life Savings Limited and Elevate Portfolio Services Limited, the operating companies for the Aberdeen Group’s Adviser business. Previously, Rushad has served as a non-executive director of HDFC Life Insurance and HDFC Asset Management. 

    Rushad joined Aberdeen in January 2016, at that time Standard Life plc. Before this, he was at NatWest Group (then The Royal Bank of Scotland Group) where he was Group Deputy General Counsel having previously served in senior roles since 2006.

    Rushad arrived in the UK in 2002 to work in the Corporate Finance practice at Dundas & Wilson (now part of global law firm CMS). He began his career in India in Arthur Andersen’s Tax and Foreign Investment practice and latterly in Andersen Legal’s M&A and Private Equity team.

    Rushad holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) from the University of Mumbai and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Government Law College, Mumbai. He is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales, and India. Rushad is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program from MIT’s Sloan School of Manage.

Colin Halpin
Global Head of Market Data Management
Barclays

  • Colin Halpin is Managing Director of Global Market Data Financial Management for Barclays Group, is a member of Barclays Global Procurement Leadership team and Glasgow Procurement and Corporate Real Estate Site Principle. In his role, Colin is accountable for the end to end management of all market data products and services, devising and delivering the Groups Market Data strategy, complex contract negotiation, informing and supporting group wide strategic decisions around technology, data and process.

    Colin has over 29 years Financial Services senior leadership experience across Market Data, Asset Pricing, Reference Data, Back Office Operations, Invoice Discounting, Mortgage Operations, Risk Management, Strategy, Transformation, Process Design, Technology Architecture and Client / Stakeholder / 3rd Party Relationship Management.

    Colin is on the Board of Scottish Financial Enterprise, is a member of SFE Audit Committee, Board sponsor for Talent and Inclusion as well as the Data and AI pillars of the 5 year Financial Services Strategy for Scotland and sits on the Rest of UK Talent Attraction Advisory Forum for the Scottish and UK Governments.

    Before joining Barclays, Colin held a number of senior leadership roles at HSBC, JP Morgan, Ulster Bank (RBS) and Pfizer Treasury. Colin was a Political Ambassador for HSBC as well as Chair of the HSBC Scotland Leadership Team and was on the Scottish Governments Financial Services Advisory Boards Sub-committee for Banking and the Economy.

Anthony Rafferty
Chief Executive
Origo Services Limited

  • At the FinTech company Origo, Anthony Rafferty is responsible for continuing the firm’s 30 year-long legacy of delivering improved operational efficiencies, lowering costs for market participants and improving outcomes for consumers.

    Before joining Origo, Anthony held a number of senior roles in the life, pensions and investments industry. During this time, he developed a passion for supporting consumers in the UK become more engaged with their financial futures and devising ways for the industry to make that much easier for them.

Roland Inglis
Head of Scotland & North England
Capco

  • Roland heads up Capco in Scotland and the North of England and is a Partner and member of the firm’s UK Leadership team. He is responsible for Capco’s relationship across multiple Financial Services clients in the UK and globally. He is an Influential and incisive industry leader with over 27 years of experience driving transformation and improvements that successfully address people, business and technology challenges in Financial Services.

    Roland is a Strategic advisor to C-suite and Boards an astute independent thinker with advanced questioning and negotiating abilities. He facilitates discovery and analysis to find the ‘why’ and expand on ideas, enabling an objective view of required action for longer-term success. Roland demonstrates readiness to take – and stand by – business decisions. He is a Transformation and change trailblazer in the stewardship of operational, project, change and transformation initiatives.

    Highly skilled in parachuting in to restore delivery in struggling, complex change programmes and realise business ambitions. Roland is an Industry ambassador with detailed domain knowledge across Banking (retail, investment and corporate), Insurance, Securities Services, Markets, Data, AI, Risk, Technology, Wealth and Asset Management. He has an in-depth understanding of financial sector governance and the market environment alongside legal and regulatory frameworks.

Vida Rudkin
Managing Director
Morgan Stanley

  • Vida Rudkin is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley based in their Glasgow office. Vida is the Head of the Glasgow Office, Global Operations Chief Operating Officer and the UK Senior Manager for Client Assets. Vida holds positions on a the boards of Morgan Stanley UK Limited and Morgan Stanley Pension Trustees Ltd. She also holds external positions on the board of Scottish Financial Enterprise and the Financial Services Growth and Development Board. 

     Vida joined the Morgan Stanley Glasgow office in March 2010 after ten years working in London in various roles across UBS, Barclays Capital and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Prior to entering the Financial Services Industry Vida spent six years as a consultant with Andersen Consulting and then Deloitte Consulting working in the Oil & Gas and Financial Services Industries. Vida has an MBA from Henley Management College and a BSc (Hons) Degree from the University of Surrey.

Andrew Wilson
Director of Communications, Marketing & Responsible Banking
Santander UK

  • Andrew joined Santander UK in March 2023. Andrew has had a varied career as an economist, politician, corporate communications professional and a strategic adviser to businesses, charities and a variety of other organisations.

    He studied at the universities of St Andrews and Strathclyde and began his career in the civil service, before working as a researcher and economist for the SNP and as a business economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

    He was elected as a member of the first Scottish parliament in 1999, serving as shadow minister for, variously: finance, economy, transport and lifelong learning. In 2003, Andrew re-joined RBS, working in a number of roles including as deputy chief economist. During the banking crisis, he served as head of group communications and was intimately involved in the bank’s high-profile engagement with the City, UK government and the media during those tumultuous times. In 2012, he joined global marcomms group WPP in a client strategy role, before co-founding Charlotte Street Partners a strategic communications agency in 2014.

    In March 2020 Andrew was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in October 2024 he joined the board of The Aldersgate Group as Non-Executive Director. Andrew has served as a Non-Executive Director/Trustee of a number of organisations including The National Galleries of Scotland, Sistema Scotland, Motherwell FC, The John Smith Centre for Public Service and the Edinburgh International Culture Summit.

Louisa Knox
Solicitor and Partner
Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP

  • Louisa Knox is a solicitor and partner at Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP having joined in the early 1990s. Louisa has specialised in pensions law for over 28 years and advises trustees and corporates on a wide range of pensions law matters.

    She is co-Chair of the Shepherd and Wedderburn’s ESG advisory group and also its Constitutional reform group. In her board role at the firm, she is the sponsor for the Shepherd and Wedderburn journey to net zero. Louisa is vice Chair of the PLSA Scotland Group and a member of the ICAS Pensions Committee. 

Jackie Leiper
Chief Customer & Distribution Officer
Lloyds Banking Group

  • Within Lloyds Banking Group, Jackie Leiper leads the Embark, Scottish Widows, and Halifax Share Dealing businesses with a collective purpose of providing modern long-term savings & retirement solutions for the UK population.

    Jackie is also a lead media spokesperson for Scottish Widows, and is a leading campaigner of gender inequality championing women’s development into leadership roles and also leads for Scottish Widows on Gender Pensions and financial resilience. Jackie is a member of the Insurance, Pensions & Investment Exec Committee, an executive member of Embark Group Board and also the Chair of the Scottish Widows Master Trust Strategy Committee.