Board of directors
Ashley Paxton
Mr Paxton was appointed as a Director to the Company on 1 November 2021 becoming its Chair on 11 August 2023.
Ashley spent the majority of his career with KPMG having retired as partner and its Channel Islands Head of Advisory in 2019. He has developed a wide breadth of experience from working within practice, beginning in audit and then building a dedicated advisory team to provide a full taxonomy of advisory services across the Channel Islands. Ashley gave specific focus to developing value creation and preservation strategies for his clients, typically through mergers and acquisitions.
Ashley currently holds a number of non-executive directorships across the financial services sector including a number of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. He also plays an important role in the local third sector as Chairman of the Youth Commission for Guernsey & Alderney.
A resident of Guernsey, Ashley is a Fellow of the Institute for Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and holds an Economics degree from the University of Warwick.
Richard Class
Mr Class was appointed to the Board on 1 November 2023.
Mr Class’ career spans more than thirty years in the financial services sector. Over more than a decade at Morgan Stanley, he was Managing Director and Head of EMEA Business Development for Fixed Income, and also a portfolio manager for their fixed income portfolios with assets totalling €7 billion. Prior to that, he was a Board Director and trainer at BG Consulting, a financial products training and development company. He began his career as a fixed income derivatives trader in interest rates and FX products at Rabobank and Morgan Grenfell. He is currently a senior advisor to OptimX, which helps clients to reduce the costs of using financial markets, and is also a senior mentor.
Mr Class has a Mathematics degree from Oxford University, and is a resident of the United Kingdom.
Sharon Parr
Ms Parr was appointed to the Board on 1 November 2022 and was appointed Chair of the Audit Committee and Chair of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee on 11 August 2023.
Ms Parr has over 35 years in the finance industry and spent a significant portion of her professional career with Deloitte and Touche in a number of different countries. After a number of years in the audit department, on relocating to Guernsey in 1999 she transferred to their fiduciary and fund management business and, after completing a management buyout and subsequently selling to Barclays Wealth in 2007, she ultimately retired from her role there as Global Head of Wealth Structuring in 2011.
Ms Parr holds a number of Non-Executive Directorships across the financial services sector including in other listed funds.
Ms Parr is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, and is a resident of Guernsey.
Wendy Dorey
Ms Dorey was appointed to the Board on 1 February 2023 and is Chair of the Management Engagement Committee.
Ms Dorey has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry, working for a number of leading asset managers including Robert Fleming, Friends Ivory & Sime, M&G Asset Management and BNY Mellon. She started her career in investment marketing and distribution, winning a number of awards for her campaigns to direct investors and the intermediary market. She was latterly head of business strategy and planning for M&G, where she lead a number of corporate restructuring projects and product development initiatives.
Since becoming a resident of Guernsey, Ms Dorey has taken on a portfolio of executive and non-executive roles. This includes being a Director of an investment consulting firm and holding Non-Executive Directorships in a leading Wealth Management firm and an AIM-listed fund. She was also appointed as a Commissioner for the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) in 2015.
Ms Dorey is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and qualified as a Chartered Director in 2020. She was, until May 2023, the Chair of the Guernsey Branch of the Institute of Directors.