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Ed Brown, Head of Commercial Mortgages, Swoop
Ed Brown has over 20 years’ experience in secured debt and commercial mortgages. Since 2019, he’s worked exclusively as a commercial finance broker, supporting SMEs and property professionals with tailored debt solutions. He has deep sector expertise in social care and healthcare, and works closely with advisors to deliver the right outcomes for clients. A strong advocate for technology, Ed has helped shape the Swoop platform to better serve both businesses and introducers in an evolving market.

Ciaran Burke, Co-founder, Swoop
Ciaran Burke is the COO and Co-Founder of Swoop, the global platform helping over 250,000 businesses and their advisors secure over £1.5bn in funding. He began his career at KPMG before building Hiive.co.uk, a creative network of 150,000 members. A passionate advocate for digital communities, Ciaran has spoken at events for the BBC, Guardian, and more. Since co-founding Swoop in 2018, he’s helped expand the business across six countries, raising £20m in investment. He works closely with accountants and advisors to drive SME growth. Outside work, he’s a devoted sports fan with a love/hate relationship with Aston Villa.

Chris Downing, Director for Accountants and Bookkeepers, Sage
Chris joined Sage having been a partner at a top 100 accountancy firm. He brings nearly 20 years of hands-on experience and strategic insight of the profession, coupled with an infectious enthusiasm in the adoption of technology and Business Intelligence to improve reporting and drive innovation in the SME sector.

Oliver Eardley, Digital Marketing Consultant and Podcast Host, Add People
Oliver Eardley is a digital marketing consultant with nearly a decade of experience helping professional service firms grow through clear, effective marketing strategies. He works closely with law firms and accountancy practices to improve visibility, attract better clients, and drive long-term results. He’s also the host of The Eardley Bird Podcast, where he interviews business owners in the legal and accounting space about how they’re growing their firms in a changing digital landscape.

James Huang, Owner, Alongside Accounting
James Huang is the founder and owner of Alongside Accounting, established two years ago to provide high-quality accountancy and finance transformation advisory services to small businesses and charities across London and South East England. With 17 years of extensive experience spanning audit, financial control, FP&A, and finance transformation within large, international corporations, James brings a wealth of expertise to partner his clients on their finance journeys.

Dean Neaves, Senior Manager, ICAEW
Dean Neaves is a Senior Manager in the Quality Assurance Department (QAD) within Professional Standards at ICAEW. Dean leads QAD’s Practice Assurance and DPB (Investment Business) monitoring activities and has experience of visiting practices of all sizes throughout the UK. He is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience working in the audit practice of a Big 4 firm prior to joining ICAEW in 2016.

Simone Taylor-Allkins, Technical Advisory Service Manager, ICAEW
After qualifying with a top 20 firm, Simone moved to Grant Thornton and worked with a diverse portfolio of manager-owned businesses in a varied role covering both audit engagements and management accountancy engagements. After 18 months in the audit and assurance team, she transferred to their national training centre in High Wycombe to train audit trainees for the firm. From 2007 to 2010, she decided to apply her skills to the education of non-financial managers working as a freelance finance trainer for worldwide blue chip companies. This eventually led her back to her technical roots in July 2010, joining the ICAEW Technical Advisory Service, helping fellow chartered accountants make sense of accountancy, audit, company law, anti-money laundering and ethical regulations.

Edward Partridge, Head of UK Affinity, Marsh
Edward is a seasoned insurance professional with over 23 years of experience in the industry. As Head of UK Affinity for Marsh, Edward’s passion is working closely with partners to understand the unique needs of their members. His focus on building strong relationships combined with his extensive experience and sector focus, make him a trusted adviser for both affinity groups and SMEs. Above all, Edward is dedicated to delivering member benefit and mutual growth through an honest and collaborative approach.

Roz Harrington, Senior Practice Manager, ICAEW
An experienced engagement strategist and programme manager, Roz works to help practitioners succeed by providing them with access to skills, knowledge and tools to service their clients across the business and wider community. Before joining ICAEW, Roz worked for a healthcare charity overseeing central operations for 35 hospitals across the UK.

Gareth Winters, Stakeholder Engagement Officer, caba
Gareth joined caba in 2019 and is part of the stakeholder engagement team, responsible for building and developing new and existing relationships for firms, businesses and the ICAEW. Gareth is also responsible for delivering presentations, raising awareness of the support available to ACA students/members and their close family.

Communication has always been a key role throughout Gareth's career and even started out in the world of performing arts, where he spent many years touring theatre productions and starring in short films.

Marsh is a world-leading risk and insurance advisory specialist providing risk management, risk consulting, insurance broking, alternative risk financing, and insurance programme management services to the world’s leading companies, growing corporates and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Marsh is the parent company of Marsh Commercial who has worked with ICAEW for over 14 years as a trusted Member Rewards Partner.

Providing business solutions no matter your industry, Sage can take care of everything from controlling cash flow to creating and sending invoices with award-winning financial software that delivers results.