Alan has 30 years experience of trading, origination, structuring, risk management and training. He joined Kleinwort Benson as a credit analyst and left as a foreign exchange and money market trader. He became the senior consultant in HSBC's International Treasury Management Group where he advised banks and multinational corporations on the management and execution of their ALM and currency and interest rate risk management strategies, while building the firms currency swap book.

He set up and ran a currency arbitrage book for Nikko Europe, trained the Tokyo and New York staff in the trading and structuring of swaps and structured products and ran an illiquid trading book at Scotia Capital Markets, specialising in the origination and sale of structured products and the derivatives training of the capital markets traders. He ran his first training course over 20 years ago and has delivered over 1,500 days training, in over 20 countries, to traders, salespeople, operations staff, risk managers, compliance officers, solicitors, journalists and software developers at central banks, commercial banks, investment banks, information vendors, accountancy and legal firms, including Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, UBS, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan, ABN-Amro, Rabobank, Fortis Bank, ING, Fortis Investments, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Ernst & Young and The Bank of England.

He is the author of Mastering Swaps Markets published by the Financial Times, holds a masters degree in International Banking and Finance, is a visiting lecturer at the Cass and London Metropolitan Business Schools and has a golf handicap of 5.6. He plays the clarinet in a choral trio and the saxophone in a rock band.

In addition to his current training and research assignments he is retained as a consultant by a leading investment bank and has been commissioned by John Wiley & Son to write a book on Capital Structure and the Investment Banking business.

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Gould Training specialise in an emotional intelligence training course for managers and supervisors called "Skills with People". They are acknowledged as niche providers of very personalised coaching and training which is particularly appealing to people who (because of individual needs or seniority) are not easily satisfied by standard courses.

Alex Gould runs the in-company "Skills with People" training. For most of his life he has been steeped in both the content and method of this training. The most challenging aspect of it is not that it usually involves changing habits of a life time. The job of the trainers therefore is not just to tell people how to do it better, but to help them be aware of and unlearn some of the old habits that get in the way. This calls for special skills. Alex has a BSc in psychology, is a qualified and practicing Psychosynthesis counsellor, an NLP Master Practitioner, and runs a private counselling practice. Before launching himself full-time as a trainer, he worked for many years selling in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Angela manages the EMEA Business Research Centre at J.P. Morgan, working as part of a global network of BRC centres across the world encompassing offices in nine countries.

Angela's experience in the sector spans 20+ years, throughout which she has gained an in- depth, hands on wealth of knowledge and skills, from business research to team management. In addition she has lived through changes in business and corporate environments and experienced the effects on the Business Information sector and the professionals that work in it.

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Director of the Department of Information Studies at University College London. He is also the Director of the UCL Centre for Publishing and the CIBER Research Group. Previously, he was Head of Department, Department of Information Science, City University. Research interests largely concern mapping behaviour in virtual spaces, the virtual scholar and the health information consumer.

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A director at Xancam, Dee Fitzgerald specialises in working with leading organisations on the assessment and development of high potential talent. Her expertise embraces senior executive assessment, coaching and development. She has previously worked as an International Resourcing Manager with a global organisation and also has considerable experience of devising and implementing talent strategies to meet the business' strategic priorities. Most recently she developed a leading-edge Accelerated Development Programme for British American Tobacco, and this programme was a finalist for the Personnel Today Awards in 2008.

Dee has worked with clients from a wide variety of sectors. These include: Allianz, British American Tobacco, Daily Mail and General Trust and Royal Mail. Dee has a first-class degree in Applied Psychology with Mathematics and an MSc in Organisational Psychology from the University of East London. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and is registered with the Society as a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. She is a graduate of the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme as accredited by the Solicitors' Regulatory Authority and The Worldwide Association of Business Coaches.

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Hamilton is an 18 year veteran of the Financial Information industry. After graduating from Liverpool University with a MSc in Psychology, he worked on the Financial Intelligence Journal at Mintel before moving on to Thomson Financial where he was European Sales Manager for the Investment Banking and Capital Markets division.

For the past 8 years, Hamilton has been a key member of the Mergermarket leadership team. During that time, has developed the company from a start-up into a multinational business with offices in over 35 countries, an annual turnover in excess of £65 million, and now a successful division of the Pearson Group. He currently runs Mergermarket's commercial and product development activities and, in this role, has been instrumental in the creation and growth of Debtwire which focuses on distressed debt and corporate restructuring. This is one of The Mergermarket Group's fastest growing products.

In addition to his role at The Mergermarket Group, Hamilton holds two non-executive directorship positions, has appeared on Bloomberg and CNBC and has spoken at the London Business School.

Away from work, Hamilton combines time with his family and other interests which include endurance events, skeleton bobsleigh, cooking and wine.

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Jo Ann Sweeney has 25 years experience marrying the needs of audiences and clients, ensuring communications deliver for both. Clients include many of the largest corporates as well as charities and small businesses.

Jo Ann specialises in corporate communications strategy for annual planning and programmes, employee engagement, media relations, events and editorial management.

She is a trained journalist, chartered marketer, fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, fellow of the British Association of Communicators in Business and member of the Institute of Directors.

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Janice Lachance has been CEO of SLA (the Special Libraries Association), since 2003. SLA is the global association representing the interests of 11,000 information professionals and their strategic partners in 75 countries. She has led reformulation of the association's mission, vision and strategic plan, created the online Click University, and expanded SLA's public policy program. She designed and leads a multi-year comprehensive research effort that will produce a shared and evidence-based vision of the future of the information profession and the association's role in it. She serves on the board of the American Society of Association Executive's Center for Association Leadership and is a Fellow and a Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the National Academy of Public Administration. She was a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society.

Formerly, Janice advised non-profit organisations on strategic planning, organisational transformation and culture change. From 1997 to 2001, she was the Director (CEO) of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's independent human resources agency with a 3,700 person workforce and a $27 billion budget serving the 1.8 million member civil service. She received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law and B.A. from Manhattanville College.

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As Regional Director for Europe and Asia Investment Banking and member of the Sell-Side Executive Committee, Kevin's responsibilities at FactSet rest in growing revenue, and setting strategies for sell- side business development to ensure continuous growth in market share. His role includes dealing with acquisition opportunities and post acquisition integration, encompassing the many issues arising from merging separate cultures.

Kevin has worked in the financial software industry for over 10 years. He joined FactSet as a consultant, working with both buy-side and sell-side financial institutions. Early in his career, Kevin chose to specialise in Investment Banking and has since gained wide experience working with banks, in particular Research and M&A departments.

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Martin is an independent consultant with over 25 years experience in the Information World.

From his working experience, Martin has insight into the information and knowledge requirements of different organisations and companies from Central Government, through to Strategic Management Consultancy and Investment Banking.

Martin has practical experience in a range of dimensions of the Information World including: Business Information; Knowledge Management; Market Data, Budgeting & Financial Planning; Procurement & Contract Negotiation; Vendor Management; Project Management and Team Management. Budgeting is a common theme across all these areas and Martin's business experience ranges through the economic cycles.

Martin has published a number of articles relating to the Business Information profession, most recently on Vendor Management, Compliance and Market Data for Business Information Review published by Sage Journals.

Graduating in Classics from Cambridge University, Martin holds a postgraduate diploma in Librarianship from the University of Wales. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Information Professionals (CILIP), the City Information Group (CIG) and the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

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Pamela has been an information specialist for 19 years, 17 of which have been in the legal sector. Having previously worked in the Government (PSA and DTI), Pamela joined Wilde Sapte (now Denton Wilde Sapte) as an Information Assistant and over the next eight years enjoyed several promotions leading ultimately to Deputy and Acting Head. She then joined Morgan Cole in 2000 as their London Offices Librarian and in 2004 took on the new post responsible for knowledge management at the firm. She developed expertise in this area and had the opportunity to unite these skills together with her library management experience in her new role as Knowledge Services Manager at Nabarro LLP in 2006. Her professional interests include Knowledge Management and the development of the information profession and the individuals within. She recently co wrote an article which included these topics with Victoria Jannetta for the published CIG Yearbook. Pamela has been a guest lecturer for a number of organisations including Universities - Aberystwyth, Northumbria and Sussex and UKeiG. She will also be speaking at the pre-conference seminar at the BIALL Conference in June.

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Paul Westcott is Head of Products and Services for ICC, one of the UK's leading suppliers of business information. Since graduating from Coventry University with a degree in Politics and International Law, Paul has spent more than 15 years with ICC. Much of Paul's focus and experience has been gained working with legal and accountancy clients, especially in the areas of due diligence and compliance. Paul's focus is on developing, enhancing and delivering ICC's market leading range of easy to use services that enable users to make smart business decisions with confidence.

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Roland is the Capital Markets Manager at PI, where he is integral to the expansion and development of PI's financial information products. Before joining Perfect Information, Roland was Manager of Editorial and Data Acquisition at CMA (Credit Market Analysis), where he was responsible for content and product design of a credit default swap and bond quote management system. Prior to CMA, he held the role of Business Manager for Fixed Income and Derivatives at Thomson Financial, where he developed and implemented worldwide fixed income, derivatives, FX, commodities and economics data content strategies in conjunction with the product teams. In addition, whilst at Thomson, Roland held the following positions: Regional Manager for South Africa; and Data Content Manager for bonds. Before joining Thomson, he spent a year as Junior Fund Manager in Equity Fund Management of DWS (Deutsche Bank).

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Sebastian Monk is the Head of Product Strategy at Perfect Information. Leading a new team, Sebastian is tasked with exploring new markets and developing products and key functionality to assist both current and prospective clients. Prior to his appointment at PI, Sebastian worked as both an investment banker and corporate lawyer. As a banker, Sebastian held the position of Assistant Director at Rutley Corporate Finance, part of the Knight Frank Partnership and at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Investment Bank, where he led a team of professionals originating and executing equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions transactions in the UK, Europe and Asia on both AIM and the London Main Market.

Sebastian spent three years at Slaughter and May where he trained in the corporate, competition and litigation departments before qualifying and practicing as a corporate lawyer in the firm's Technology, Media and Telecoms Group advising clients on equity capital markets and both public and private mergers and acquisitions. Before joining the City, Sebastian spent four years as an infantry officer with the Royal Green Jackets, serving in the UK and on operations abroad. Sebastian is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, holds a degree in Modern History from Oxford University and is a qualified solicitor.

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Stephen is Global Head of the RBS (formerly ABN AMRO) Business Information Centre (BIS), managing teams in London, Paris, Sydney, New York and Amsterdam.

Originally based in Sydney, he was asked to move to Amsterdam in 2006 on a three-year expat assignment, where he was responsible for the global research function within BIS. During this time, he worked with the BIS teams, developers and internal clients to create and implement a 'find' engine that allowed bankers to access straightforward information without the involvement of BIS Researchers. One of the primary drivers was to free up the Researchers' time for more value-added requests; an outcome which has proved very successful for the team and BIS clients. Significant cost savings and efficiencies were also achieved.

Stephen commenced his current role in November 2008, and he is now responsible for both the research effort and content assessment for RBS. Starting this new role in the current economic climate has provided both practical challenges in terms of people and cost management, as well as the need to continually market the value proposition of BIS. This value proposition is reinforced by the BIS strategy of positioning itself as the 'experts' in information in RBS to ensure ongoing relevance to the bank.

He is currently completing a Master of Business & Technology degree from the University of NSW (Sydney), a reflection of his keen interest in technology and its impact on business information and people.

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Stephen studied Librarianship and History at the College of Librarianship Wales, joining the Information Profession in 1987.

Stephen has held a number of positions at various organisations, including Charter plc, Merck Inc, Grant Thornton and KPMG. In 1994, he joined Morgan Stanley as a senior researcher; in 2000, he was appointed Global Head of Business Information Services (BIS). During the last 9 years, he has restructured the group and engaged in a range of strategies to develop the BIS operation and raise its profile within Morgan Stanley.

He has led or supported a number of high profile initiatives: Empowering end users with a range of information products and tools; Deploying sector specialisation within the BIS teams; Embedding specialist research staff into the business; Offshoring or outsourcing aspects of the function; Improving the financial transparency and accountability of the function; Leveraging a range of technologies to develop or improve service provision. Stephen has written, or contributed to a number of articles in the professional press. He has given a number of presentations and facilitated workshops at several conferences and events, including Online Information 2008 in London.

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Steven Shove joined OneSource in 2003 and quickly became top performing sales person globally and has now led the UK & European business for the past two years. Steven graduated with an MBA from the Brighton University Business School, qualified as a marketer with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management. Steven began his career in finance, initially in public practice accountancy, then leading various financial operations for American Express Europe Ltd. He then spent many years as a management consultant for Pegasystems Inc. designing and implementing mission critical process and data re-engineering projects for global blue chip organisations. Prior to joining OneSource, Steven became Director of Partner Sales at Pegasystems, then Vice-President of Alliances and European Channel for Eyretel PLC. Steven enjoys guest speaking and adventure sports and has a passion for helping organisations improve performance across the entire value chain.

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Sue Hill has been prominent in the information field as a recruiter for over twenty years. Sue has an excellent overview of all aspects of information work and the many issues that arise for both employers and practitioners. She is passionate about encouraging individuals to attend to their CPD, to develop their skills and take the time to analyse, recognise and promote them as well. It is her hope that employers can look beyond the obvious in the race to retain skilled talent.

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Currently Director of Information and Research for the London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Geneva offices of Sidley Austin LLP, a US firm with headquarters in Chicago. Sue is responsible for Library & Information services, Records and Archives, intranet, know how, web 2.0 services, chairs the Environment Group, Data Protection officer, renews all the practising certificates and thereby knows much more about the firm's worldwide structure than she ever thought possible.

Sue has been at Sidley Austin LLP for 10 years and in law firm information for nearly 20 and has a Law degree from the London School of Economics and a postgraduate diploma in Information Science from (what was then) the Polytechnic of North London.

Sue was the Chair of the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) 2004-5 and editor of their Newsletter 1993-98. Having spoken at the annual conferences of BIALL and its Canadian equivalent CALL, Sue also has had articles published in Legal Information Management, The Lawyer, Delia Venables's Internet Newsletter for Lawyers and is the author of the chapter on Know How in the latest Handbook of Legal Information Management.

Head of a team that for two years running (2007 and 2008) has won the Halsbury Award for Best London Commercial Legal information Service. Sue is also a qualified City of London tour guide.

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Ursula has over 18 years experience in the Corporate Information Industry. She began her career at the strategy consultants COBA. As a "one woman band," she provided a research service for the consultants and began providing information and knowledge consultancy to the clients. After two years in consultancy, Ursula moved to Ernst & Young as they were setting up their Centre for Business Knowledge. Ursula provided research for both the Insolvency and Industrials teams.

Ursula then changed direction moving into Investment Banking, first as a Senior Researcher at Lehman Brothers then as a Department Manager at Goldman Sachs. At Lehman Brothers she was involved with rolling out the end user research platform and training programme. Ursula was at Goldman Sachs for 8 years; as Assistant Manager looking after a 24/7 European research service, then as Manager she implemented an offshore research function in the Goldman facility in India.

More recently she was Market Insights Manager at BDO Stoy Hayward, managing a team that provided research and analysis for a number of UK sectors within the Professional Services environment. She was also Customer Services Manager at Prenax, the corporate subscription agency. Ursula is now a Consultant with Stephanie Wheeler Associates and Nest UK.

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Victoria has over 20 years' experience in the information profession. She has worked for several law firms in management positions and also for the accountancy firms KPMG and Grant Thornton. She moved to FFW in 2006 to take up the role of Head of Library and Information Services. During the two years she has been with the firm it has invested heavily in developing its knowledge and information resources and she has been able to build and develop her team. Victoria has a keen personal interest in professional development and has held several senior roles in BIALL including chairing the Association in 2004. Victoria is now a trustee of the City Information Group, CIG. Victoria's professional interests include change management and performance measurement.

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