Judges
Karen Jones
Citywealth
Editor & CEO
Karen founded Citywealth after a career at News International, The Times, and Sunday Times in the legal, financial and recruitment sections. She also ran the Legalease flagship title Legal Business/Asia Pacific Legal 500, and launched Legal Business Awards and Legal 500 parties. Karen then took over In Brief magazine, where she grew the organisation from a buyout where it had gone bankrupt to a successful £500,000-a-year publishing and events business. Her work as a Citywealth CEO was recognised by four New York Stevie Awards: Women helping women (2014, 2015), Innovator of the year (2015), and Entrepreneur of the year (2015)
Hakim Berhoune
Praxis
Managing Director
Hakim has over 18 years’ experience in Switzerland in the international fiduciary industry.
He has a law degree, a Master in Private Law and is STEP qualified.
Previously Hakim has worked for a Swiss Trust Company based in Geneva and in 2010 he set up Balmor Management SA, a multi-family office/fiduciary business with a strong focus on the Middle East. Balmor Management was acquired by the Praxis Group in 2016 and Hakim was appointed as a Director.
In November 2021, Hakim was appointed Managing Director of Praxis Switzerland where he is now responsible for managing the Geneva private client business.
Hakim speaks French English and Arabic. He was awarded Citywealth IFC Trustee of the Year – Switzerland award in January 2021 and has been again recognised at the 2023 Citywealth IFC awards and awarded Silver for Trustee of the Year – Switzerland 2023.
Alasdair McLaren
IQ-EQ
Regional Head of Private Wealth for the UK, Ireland, and the Crown Dependencies
Alasdair has worked in the financial services industry for 35 years in the UK, the Caribbean and Guernsey. He has specialised in providing and managing fiduciary services to UHNW families and their family offices for the last 25 of these years.
Prior to joining IQ-EQ over 8 years ago, Alasdair was a director at both bank owned and privately owned trust companies including SG Kleinwort Hambros, Saffery Champness and Turcan Connell. Alasdair has always travelled widely to meet with clients and their advisors, and his extensive experience has made him a popular speaker at industry conferences.
Alasdair has also been a keen supporter of STEP servicing as chairman of the Guernsey Branch, as a STEP Worldwide Council member and as a judge for the annual STEP awards. He was also a long standing committee member of the Guernsey Association of Trustees and sits on a number of industry working parties.
Alasdair originally graduated with an MA from the University of Aberdeen and is a member of the Scottish Institute of Chartered Accountants, STEP and is a Chartered Fellow of the Securities Institute. A passionate believer that the private wealth business is a people business where service and quality counts and that a sense of humour and degree of common sense does not go amiss.
Ravi Francis
Gateley Legal
Solicitor, Partner & Head of Private Wealth, London
Ravi advises on a broad range of subjects which tend to centre around UK tax law and the laws governing wealth-holding structures, including trusts.
Ravi’s international clients include professional fiduciaries, wealthy families and their advisers. He also has significant experience in acting for UK-based entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on the tech and digital sectors. His most common areas of advice include:
- UK taxation and structuring of blockchain businesses, as well as succession and estate planning considerations surrounding digital assets;
- tax planning for clients who are moving to or leaving the UK, to minimise both UK and foreign taxes;
- UK tax residence and domicile under UK law and the impact this has for UK tax purposes;
- using offshore trusts, foundations and companies to hold personal and business wealth;
- establishment, administration and taxation of investment companies;
- UK succession laws and how conflicts with foreign succession laws can be resolved; and
- the application of double taxation agreements to an individual’s affairs.
Ravi is a member of STEP and is holder of the Advanced Certificate in UK tax for international clients.
Paul Tomlinson
Altum Group
Head of Family Office
Paul specialises in establishing and administering trust and fiduciary structures for high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and their families from around the World, with particular focus on the UK and the Middle East.
A graduate of Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies, Paul is also a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. He was named on Private Client Practitioners’ list of Top Private Client Professionals under 35 in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and on Citywealth’s Future Leaders of Jersey list in 2013 and has been on the Leaders list since 2015.
As head of the Family Office team, Paul has divisional responsibility for the family office team at Altum.
Elaine Gray
Carey Olsen
Partner
Elaine Gray is partner and head of the dispute resolution and litigation team in Guernsey. She advises local and international clients on commercial and trust litigation, employment, data protection, competition law and intellectual property matters. She is recognised as a leading lawyer in these fields by Legal 500 and Chambers UK and appears regularly in courts and tribunals at all levels in Guernsey. In particular, Elaine has acted in numerous cases involving allegations of breach of trust, fraud and professional negligence, both for plaintiffs and defendants.
Elaine was previously President of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPs), the Channel Islands Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and is a member of the Chancery Bar Association.