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Frances Cowell, consultant, Paris- and London-based
Starting as equity research analyst, Frances later helped pioneer risk-controlled trading in the nascent market for financial derivatives in Australia. She then was Head of Enhanced Passive Investments at NatWest Investment Management in Australia and Head of Portfolio Risk at Morley Fund Management (now Aviva Investors) where she served on key governance bodies. She became Chief Risk Officer at CCLA Fund Management, specialising in high-yield, low-risk portfolios subject to ethical and other restrictions. Since 2009, she has served as Director of Risk Consulting at R-Squared Risk Management in Paris and London as well as working independently.
She was a founding director, Treasurer and Company Secretary of the London Quant Group (www.lqg.org.uk), a not-for-profit that provides a forum for discussion of practical issues in quantitative investment techniques for the investment management industry.
Frances’ current work aims to promote risk management as a source of value added for long-term investors. She emphasises the distinctions between risk management, risk control and risk measurement, to help steer away from box-ticking.
The author of a number of published articles on investment risk management, her third monograph, co-authored with Matthew Levins, is Crisis Wasted? Leading Risk Managers on Risk Culture, published by Wiley in 2015.
Frances graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Statistics), holds a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management and the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).
Working languages: English (mother tongue), fluent in French.
