Adrian Docherty leads the Bank Advisory team, which provides key relationship bank clients with technical sector expertise and help on strategic financial issues relating to balance sheet management, resilience and performance.

In practice, this means advising on capital structures, risk management, regulatory developments (especially Basel IV), funding/liquidity/ALM strategies, credit portfolio management, risk transfer approaches, value management frameworks and innovative ways of financing growth.

Adrian has over 30 years’ experience in advising financial institutions, initially as a strategy consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. After a decade at Booz Allen, Adrian was hired by one of his clients, Barclays, to help run the rapidly growing investment banking business line. Adrian spent three years as COO of Investment Banking, before moving to run the balance sheet advisory team in Barclays Capital’s Financial Institutions Group. He moved to BNP Paribas to set up Bank Advisory in 2006.

Adrian has a Master’s from Cambridge University. His book "Better Banking: Understanding and Addressing the Failures in Risk Management, Governance and Regulation" was published by Wiley in 2014.

Creon Butler leads the Global Economy and Finance Programme at Chatham House. He joined the institute in 2019, since when he has written and published on a wide range of global economic policy issues, including the interaction between macroeconomic policy and climate change, sovereign debt distress, the challenge of funding global health priorities, and the long-term implications for the international economic system of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Before joining Chatham House, Creon served in the UK Cabinet Office as director for international economic affairs in the National Security Secretariat and G7/G20 ‘sous sherpa’, advising the UK Prime Minister on global economic policy issues.

Creon first joined the Cabinet Office in 2013 as director in the European and Global Issues Secretariat and designed the UK’s global Anti-Corruption Summit in May 2016.

He was also the British deputy high commissioner in New Delhi from 2006 to 2009 and has served in senior positions in HM Treasury and the Bank of England.

Chris Howland is a Managing Director and the Head of Group Portfolio Management and Climate Risk Management at Deutsche Bank.

Chris has been with Deutsche Bank for 17 years across a variety of roles in Risk Research, Credit Risk Management and Enterprise Risk Management. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Chris worked for 6 years at the Bank of England.

Chris holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Finance and Economics from the University of York.

Stephen is a Managing Director and Global Co-Head of banking. He is co-responsible for global bank ratings and is based in London where he primarily focuses on banks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

From 2022-2025 he was the Managing Director and Regional Head of EMEA, Stephen also served as the Country Manager for the United Kingdom for Moody’s Ratings. He was responsible for core business strategy, governance and oversight in the EMEA region.

Before relocating to London, Stephen held the position as Global Co-Head of Banking from 2010 to 2022, based in Hong Kong. In this role, he was responsible for global bank ratings with a primary focus on banks across the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to joining Moody’s, Stephen worked at J.P. Morgan in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong in various senior credit, research and rating advisory positions. From 1990-1996 he was a bank analyst at S&P Global in London and Paris.

Stephen began his career as a banking regulator at the Bank of England. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Colin Ellis is Moody’s first Global Credit Strategist, and a Managing Director in the Credit Strategy team. 

In his current role, Colin provides thought leadership for the rating agency that deepens the understanding of ratings and debt capital markets through rigorous and quantitative research. He leads Moody’s teams working on default and ratings analytics and on global financial analysis, including bank projections and stress testing. Colin is also a member of Moody’s Macroeconomic Board, which sets the global forecasts that underpin Moody’s universe of ratings.

Colin joined Moody’s in February 2012, initially leading the work of the Macroeconomic Board and authoring the quarterly Global Macro Outlook. He subsequently worked in the Financial Institutions Group, developing quantitative forward-looking analyses. For 8 years he was the Chief Credit Officer for EMEA, leading analysis and coordination of credit and ratings across all rating franchises in the region. He was also the ‘Head of UK’ for Moody's Ratings, responsible for the running of Moody’s UK operations, from 2019-2022 including the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to joining Moody’s, Colin held roles at the Bank of England, Daiwa Capital Markets, the BVCA and at Birmingham University. He has published papers on a range of topics including corporate investment and pricing, credit risk, private equity, data uncertainty, stress testing, financial contagion and monetary policy. Colin holds degrees from York University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Middlesex University. He is a Visiting Professor at Hult International Business School and LSBU, and is also a Fellow of the RSA.

Simon Ainsworth, who is based in London, is an Associate Managing Director responsible for the analytical teams maintaining ratings on Nordic and Baltic banks and on a range of European insurance companies.

Simon previously served as a Group Credit Officer. In that role he carried responsibility for monitoring ratings quality as well as assisting in the development and implementation of rating methodologies and practices applied to rated financial institutions within the EMEA region.

Simon joined Moody’s in March 2014 following sixteen years at the Bank of England.

At the Bank, he worked in a variety of roles primarily in its financial markets and banking operation divisions; as well as working on a variety of financial risk and crisis related issues. This included the resolution of failed banks, as well as responsibility for the risk management framework applied to collateral accepted in the Bank’s sterling market operations.Simon graduated from the University of Durham in 1998, having studied Economics and Politics. He is based in London.

Alessandro Roccati joined Moody’s in May 2012 as a Senior Vice President in the Financial Institutions Group, based in London. His portfolio includes large European banks. Prior to joining Moody’s, Alessandro spent fifteen years in equity research as a senior analyst covering European banks at global investment banks: Macquarie, Man Group, Credit Lyonnais and Nikko Securities. He started his career as a credit analyst covering European banks at UniCredito. Alessandro graduated in economics from Bocconi University in Milan. 

Anna Sherbakova is a Senior Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group, based in London, where she covers banks in the UK and Norway, as well as non-bank financial institutions. She joined Moody’s in 2011 in New York, where she held lead analytical responsibility for a portfolio of finance companies across multiple sectors, including business development companies (BDCs), consumer and commercial lenders, and leasing firms. Prior to joining Moody’s, Anna worked at a private equity firm focused on middle- market companies, as well as at a buy- side investment firm.

Anna holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BSBA from Boston University.