Governance

John Browett, Chair

In a career spanning thirty years, John has held the position of Chief Executive within a number of major UK businesses including Tesco.com, Dixons Retail, Monsoon-Accessorize, and Dunelm Group. He has extensive experience of transforming and strengthening the position of some of the UK’s most popular retailers. At Dixons, he was responsible for driving their five year transformation strategy and oversaw the successful merger of the Dixons Retail business to form Currys PC World. Prior to this, John played a key role in the major transformation of the Tesco operating model, launching and overseeing the retailer’s online operation, Tesco.com.

Judy Bennett, Non-Executive Director

Judy has built an extensive executive career both in the UK and internationally, holding senior roles at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the Bank of England, and Experian among others, with a focus on data, technology,  operations and transformation. Her work centres on building sustainable capabilities that evolve in step with business needs.

Most recently at LSEG, Judy led the delivery of the Group’s Operational Resilience programme in response to emerging global regulatory standards and was accountable for defining and assuring Group-wide data governance.  Prior to that, she established a service escalation function and co-led Refinitiv’s COVID-19 response, ahead of its acquisition by LSEG.  During her tenure at the Bank of England, she initiated and delivered large-scale infrastructure transformation programmes.

Zoe Wimborne, Non-Executive Director

Zoe is the Citigroup International Chief Risk Officer responsible for risk management for the 95 countries where Citi has operations outside of North America.   Prior to taking on this role in September 2023, she was the Chief Risk Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa, responsible for leadership and oversight of Risk within the region.

Sarah-Jill Lennard, Non-Executive Director

During a distinguished career that spanned both the public and private sector, Sarah-Jill worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before being appointed CEO and Accounting Officer for Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre (HMGCC). More recently, Sarah-Jill worked as the Security Partner for Deloitte UK, combining the duties of Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, and was responsible for Confidentiality and Privacy in both the UK and Switzerland.

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Alex Bailes, Non-Executive Director

Alex is a transformational technology leader with over 20 years' experience in real estate technology. As CTO at Brockton Everlast, one of the most innovate Commercial Real Estate investment firms in the UK, he set technology strategy for fund management and a diverse asset portfolio, delivering cloud migration, smart-building platforms and data systems. He also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Houesmark. Previously he led product, engineering and digital transformation across EMEA at CBRE and earlier drove group digital strategy at Connells Group and formerly FTSE 250 listed Countrywide plc, where his teams built platforms that significantly grew online leads and revenue across the business. A former chair of the Property IT Directors Forum, he is a well known figures across PropTech community, he holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham. 

Interim Chair: Dr Nikki Grieve-Top, Cigna

As an expert in Investigative Psychology, Dr Grieve-Top is a recognised financial services figure specialising in fraud & financial crime risk management. Nikki is the Director of Payment Integrity at Cigna Global Markets where she is responsible for the strategic leadership and tactical direction of activities to manage fraud, waste, error and abuse across Cigna’s international health plan products. Nikki has over 20 years’ experience of influencing and leading diverse multidisciplinary teams and can demonstrate a proven track record of improving operational performance. A seasoned conference speaker and recognised subject matter expert, she has sat on several cross-sector anti-fraud steering groups and she prides herself on her unique academic and industry expertise. Nikki is a regular guest lecturer at the University of Liverpool where she also obtained her PhD titled ‘Explorations into Insurance Fraud: Bare facts, Behaviours and Beliefs’ which cements Nikki as a leader in this field.

Stuart Stevens, Direct Line Group

Stuart has worked for Direct Line Group for over 24 years.  He leads their Intelligence function and investigation teams focussed on preventing fraud in both commercial and personal lines of business.  Stuart and his teams have been successful in gaining awards for collaboration and for the use of Anti-Fraud Technology. He has progressed many initiatives to improve prevention, including robotic process automation, device recognition, digital identities, email risk scoring and biometrics. Having gained professional qualifications in Financial Crime Prevention and Anti-Money Laundering, he has extensive technical knowledge. Stuart chairs DLG’s Fraud Risk and Oversight Committee, which shares intelligence and tracks the impact of fraud. Stuart is passionate about tackling fraud and protecting victims, through the combined power of working together.

David Callington, HSBC UK Bank plc

With over 35 years’ experience in the financial services industry, David currently has responsibility for fraud across HSBC UK, including First Direct and M&S Bank, and is the current Chair of UK Finance’s Strategic Fraud Committee. David has previously held senior fraud roles at Lloyds Banking Group, including Group Fraud Director and Fraud Insight & Analytics Director. In addition to his responsibilities whilst at Lloyds, David sat on the Board of Directors of Financial Fraud Action UK, the industry body that worked collaboratively to protect UK consumers and businesses from fraud and the Home Office led UK's Joint Fraud Taskforce Management Board.

David Eborne, Revolut

David has over 18 years experience in a variety of Fraud Risk Management roles across both Financial Services organisations and fraud prevention solution providers. In August 2022, David joined Revolut to lead the fraud prevention efforts across Account Protection and Acquiring Fraud and looks to continue to innovate in fraud prevention in order to fight the ever-changing fraud threats that consumers and businesses face. Prior to joining Revolut, David has held senior fraud roles within the consumer lending space - most recently with Close Brothers and Klarna where he established a global fraud operations group and has previously held fraud consultancy roles with Transunion, supporting organisations across a broad range of different sectors to make effective use of data to help mitigate their key fraud challenges.

Lee Gray, The Very Group

Lee has been at the Very Group since October 2019 and is responsible for the new business and fraud strategy within credit risk along with the development, monitoring and implementation of internal risk models. Prior to his role at the Very group, Lee has held positions at large banks, credit references agencies and new start-up companies primarily with the objective of using the latest data and systems available to protect customers and improve lending decisions. With nearly 20 years’ experience within credit risk and analytics, Lee has a strong passion for making improved lending decisions and utilising the latest tech available.

Mike Haley, Chief Executive

Since being appointed Chief Executive at Cifas in May 2018, Mike has actively worked to grow the community of stakeholders sharing data, intelligence and insight in the pursuit of preventing fraud and financial crime. Mike is passionate about Cifas becoming the driving force behind fraud prevention in the UK and with over 30 years’ experience of tackling and preventing fraud across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, he is determined to bring together a strong cross-sectoral collaborative approach to tackling fraud. With a Master’s Degree in Criminology, Mike has led counter fraud efforts in the National Health Service, Ministry of Defence, Office of Fair Trading, HM Revenue and Customs and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. He also worked at the National Fraud Authority directing cross sector fraud prevention strategies. Mike believes that the battle against fraud is one that cannot be won alone and that only by collaborating as a community can turn the tide on fraud and not only protect each other but also make the UK a safer place to live and do business.

Richard Freedman, Chief Operating Officer

Richard joined Cifas as Chief Operating Officer in August 2018, bringing over 25 years of experience in financial services and operational leadership. He leads the Member Success division, driving organisational growth and member engagement, ensuring members maximise the value of Cifas’ products and services. In addition to oversight of Operations and Finance, Richard has played a pivotal role in Cifas’ digital evolution, including spearheading the Digital Transformation Programme and launching the Cifas Member Portal.

Prior to joining Cifas, Richard held senior leadership roles at Countrywide plc, where he led strategic initiatives across operations, transformation, and corporate strategy. He successfully ran a subsidiary business serving corporate clients, developed strategic plans for new business units, and oversaw multi-site operations. Earlier in his career, Richard held various roles across UK retail banks, building a strong foundation in financial services and customer-focused delivery.

Mark Courtney, Chief Product Officer

Mark joined Cifas in 2019 and leads the Product and Technology Division, overseeing the product innovation of both new and existing services, introducing cutting-edge products. Mark has over 20 years of global experience in fraud prevention, identity verification, and building both B2C and B2B software products. At Cifas, Mark plays a crucial role in the fight against fraud and financial crime in the UK by facilitating and innovating the sharing of data, intelligence, and learning, which has included leading the launch of the Cifas Academy and our new member products such as Vision and our new Intelligence service.

Before joining Cifas, Mark spent 16 years at GBG, which included leading the product launch of the industry’s first electronic identity verification service in 2004, before developing this into a global service that is still used today. He went on to become Managing Director for both the Identity Verification and Identity Assurance divisions, playing a key role in the growth of GBG, including being involved in several global acquisitions. After GBG he went on to become a co-founder at a startup, acting as Head of Product and Engineering for TruNarrative, which was later acquired by LexisNexis.