Event details

Acorn Capital Advisers is partnering with PCD Club, a London based professional network of private client advisers, to host a panel discussion about the risks and challenges associated with implementing an impact strategy. Our intention is to discuss the trust related structural issues and trustee fiduciary duty risk mitigation. We will explore the challenges that family offices face when aligning a family’s values and purpose to an overall impact strategy. Finally, we will hear from a practitioner who has implemented a successful impact strategy and what insights they can share. We want to create a practical pathway for families and their advisers to travel and untangle some of the complexities.

We are delighted to be joined by panelists below:

Amy Blackwell - Partner, Acorn Capital Advisers, London.  Amy is a Partner and Philanthropy, Impact Strategy and multi-generational wealth expert. She works with families to design philanthropic strategies and incorporate impact investing in their portfolios. She worked for a number of years with Merrill Lynch Private Executive Services and has been engaged with impact strategies since the early 1990’s. Amy is a trustee of the children’s charity, Right to Play UK and sits on the Advisory Board of Open Briefing. She is a member of the Steering Board for the SESA community and the LSE Civic Ecosystem Initiative. She managed the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) American Donor Fund business development and strategy. 

Amy has a degree in History from Northwestern University, Illinois, and a Masters in International Development-Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Matthew Braithwaite - Partner, Wedlake Bell, London.  Matt advises UK and international individuals, families, trustees and beneficiaries of trusts and family offices on UK tax, estate planning and succession issues. He acts for high net worth individuals and families including business owners and entrepreneurs.

Matt advises on the establishment and use of trusts and other wealth holding structures and also on the succession of family trusts and businesses and governance issues. Matt also provides UK tax and structuring advice in relation to the ownership of UK property. Matt also advises on Wills and general trust law and acts as a trustee.

Matt is a full-time member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and Co-Chair of STEP’s Business Families Special Interest Group Steering Committee.

Catherine Grum - Partner and Head of Family Office Services - BDO, London.  Catherine advises families and family offices around family office establishment, family governance and philanthropy. She believes that when families understand their values and the purpose of their wealth, they can build on much stronger foundations and, by aligning their structures and activities with this, create sustainable long-term solutions.

She has worked with family offices for over 15 years, gaining a unique perspective from the combination of roles she has held. This has included heading a private office and sitting on the board of three international trust companies (Salamanca Group) and coordinating wealth structuring with investment management (Barclays Wealth). This all built on her training as a private client lawyer at Allen & Overy.

Recognised as a thought-leader in the family office industry, Catherine has previously been named as one of EPrivate Client’s 50 Most Influential and is one of Family Capital’s Top 100 Family Influencers 2020. She has written, spoken and been interviewed on topics ranging from next generation planning to impact and sustainable investing.

Catherine has an MA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, is a Trust & Estates Practitioner (STEP) and Certificated Family Business Adviser.

Sally Tennant OBE - Founder, Acorn Capital Advisers, London.  Sally is the Founder of Acorn Capital Advisers, an independent wealth adviser. She has many years of investment, banking and management experience. She is a Director of Waypoint Capital, a Director of Canaccord Genuity and a Director of Hargreaves Property Holdings Ltd. From 2011 to 2014 Sally was CEO of Kleinwort Benson. 

She was previously Chief Executive of Lombard Odier (UK) Ltd and Chief Executive of Schroders Private Banking. Sally is a patron of Tommy’s the Baby Charity and Vice Chair and Trustee of Guy’s & St Thomas’s Foundation. She holds a degree in Politics from the University of Durham.

Ethan Hall - Chief Investment Officer, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, London.  Ethan joined Guy’s earlier this year after a three year stint as CIO of Kinship Trust Company in Chicago, managing the investment assets of a prominent mid-western US family. Prior to that Ethan was CIO at Weybourne Limited in London, the family office of Sir James Dyson. 

As a newly launched family office, Ethan was responsible for designing, building and managing the family’s investment portfolios as well as building the investment team and operation. Previously Ethan was Director of Research at Partners Capital, a private investment office advising on multi-asset class portfolios for endowments, foundations and high net worth individuals. He built an equity and derivatives fund management company after starting his career with Bain & Company, the strategy consultants, in San Francisco.  

He holds a BSc Physics and an MBA both from Stanford University in California.

If you have any questions or have any trouble with bookings please contact tickets@pcd.club

(last minute registrations will need to be managed at tickets@pcd.club - bookings on the day of the webinar will be closed via website).