Women in the COO Community

WCOOC

Supporting, empowering & inspiring the female leadership of tomorrow

Armstrong Wolfe’s Women in the COO Community (WCOOC) initiative was established in 2016, and is now globally recognised across New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Singapore.  Its purpose is to champion the cause for advancement of women within financial services, focused on the leadership of tomorrow, those that will take the industry forward into the coming age.

Members of our global COO network come together to provide and present on subjects directly related to career management and advancement. We provide this through podcasts, articles, interviews, and events for which we recruit engaging speakers from within and outside the industry. We welcome people of any level of seniority to engage with our agenda.

WCOOC is led by industry professionals and regional steering groups working together to provide timely and forward-thinking content and thought leadership.

Our Mission:

To inspire tomorrow’s female leaders in Financial Services to have no limit to their ambitions.

To educate our peers on-business management and the COO role as career destinations.

To provide a platform for cross-industry debate seeking to address common challenges.

WCOOC Leadership Team

Emma Prophet

Emma Prophet

Global Co-Chair

Emma Prophet is Group Head of Operations at TP ICAP and their EMEA Business Sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion Network groups.  Emma joined TP ICAP following 15 years at Morgan Stanley, where she was a Managing Director and held various leadership roles across Clearing, Data and Securities Operations based in London, Glasgow, Singapore and New York.

Prior to her time at Morgan Stanley, Emma started as a consultant working with various Financial Services firms and then spent 5 years as Project Manager delivering cross-functional change at Barclays Capital.

Piers Murray

Piers Murray

Global Co-Chair

Piers Murray is a Partner at Armstrong Wolfe Advisory with 35 years of financial industry experience in derivatives trading, clearing services, credit risk management and large program change management. Piers is currently providing 1st line risk management consulting services to a leading European bank. Most recently, as COO of BNY Mellon Markets, he played a key role in identifying and implementing strategic initiatives such as platform industrialization and core business transformation in response to evolving regulatory requirements, including MiFID, IBOR replacement, and QFC rules.

Prior to BNY Mellon, Piers was Deutsche Bank’s global co-head of Listed Derivatives & Markets Clearing. He spent 26 years with JP Morgan Chase, where he held a variety of senior positions in FX options trading, credit portfolio & CVA trading, credit risk management, and OTC clearing.

Piers grew up in Puerto Rico and is parent to a special needs child, now adult, and this parenting experience has colored his management approach to working parents and remote work. Growing up in a multi-lingual environment in PR, and with extensive family ties toAsia, Europe and the Caribbean, Piers also recognizes the benefit that different personal experiences and styles bring to team dynamics and to business outcomes.

In Piers’ management roles in NY, London, and Singapore, he developed first-hand experience in the addressing compensation practices that were not directly linked to capabilities and performance. Being able to develop talent, and build globally diverse teams, in the US, LatAm, EMEA, UK and APAC has been one of the main rewards for Piers in his financial career.

WCOOC Steering Group

North America

Nicolae Hortopan
Regional IB Americas COO Team
Business Manager
UBS

Stephane Xhayet
COO Global Markets Americas
BNP Paribas

Kay Lazidis
SVP, COO, U.S. Global Banking & Markets
Scotiabank

Rhiannon Wakefield
COO, Americas
TP ICAP

Caitlin Behrens
COO, Americas
Standard Chartered Bank

Susie Roberts
Managing Director, Chief of Staff for Global Fixed Income & Currencies

EMEA

Yvonne Waldron
Director – Treasury Services Global Business Change Lead and EMEA CAO
BNY Mellon

Sophie Rutherford
MD, EMEA Head of FX Business Risk
State Street

Emma Prophet
Global Head of Operations
TP ICAP

Fahreen Kurji
Chief Customer Intelligence Officer
Behavox

Natalie Golding
COO
Payment Systems Regulator

Anna Chadderton
Head of International FICC Operations
Goldman Sachs

Thomas Snowden
Director, Strategic Projects
EMEA Executive Team
BlackRock

APAC

Fatema Bookwala
MD and COO Markets and Securities Services ASEAN
HSBC

Katy Matvey
Former APAC COO
Wells Fargo

Dawn Tan
APAC Head of Operations
TP ICAP

Stiofan De Burca
Chief Financial Officer
JP Morgan Asset Management

“I am excited to be a part of the WCOOC Steering Group as the work of the WCOOC is important to continue to connect and advance the women in the global COO Community.”

Katy Matvey Former APAC COO Wells Fargo

WCOOC Testimonials

Armstrong Wolfe Forums & Events 2024

In 2024 we will provide over 100 events for our membership.

These events will be on-line symposiums, forums, and cluster calls, with over 60% of our activities in-person.

We strongly believe that whilst the opportunity to meet on-line is now a very important part of any business activity and has enabled us to bring our worldwide community together in real-time for meaningful debate, that in-person events are the bedrock of our community’s ability to truly engage.

Email us direct or get in touch using our Contact Form for further information.

Recent WCOOC Content

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Armstrong Wolfe are proud signatories of the Women in Finance Charter.

Despite being called ‘Women in the COO Community’, our mission is to promote all talent regardless of gender, race or socioeconomic background to leadership positions, and we are appreciative of the fact that best practice and true change must be a holistic effort and involve all members of the community.

To improve D&I in the workplace, we have a strong board of ambassadors who contribute to our purpose of providing opportunities and the cause of leadership for all women and underrepresented groups across financial services.

WCOOC

Become a Member

Email us today or complete this form and join the only global membership committed to the advancement of the Financial Services COO.

Be engaged, connect with the industry and your peers, empower your people through knowledge transfer and learning.